SHAWL (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land) Society

Cleanup OK'd for uranium mine on tribal land

2012-02-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

October 1, 2011

The federal government has reached an agreement with one of the world's largest mining companies on a $193 million cleanup of a defunct uranium mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

By Becky Kramer

The Spokesman-Review

JEFF T. GREEN / AP, 2003

Superfund officials for the federal government and the Spokane Tribe check the water level of Pit 3 at the inactive Midnite Mine in this file photo from 2003. The mine opened in the 1950s to produce uranium for the U.S.-Soviet arms race and closed in 1981.

SPOKANE — The federal government has reached an agreement with one of the world's largest mining companies on a $193 million cleanup of a defunct uranium mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Newmont Mining Co. and its subsidiary, Dawn Mining, will pay for the majority of the restoration costs at the Midnite Mine. The U.S. Department of the Interior will contribute $42 million to future cleanup activities for failing to fulfill federal trust responsibilities to the Spokane Tribe through proper oversight of the open-pit mine.

The Midnite Mine opened in the 1950s to produce uranium for the U.S.-Soviet arms race. Although it closed 30 years ago, members of the tribe remain concerned about the Midnite Mine's ongoing effect on their health and the environment. About 33 million tons of radioactive waste rock and ore remain at the 350-acre site above the Spokane River.

"Today signals a huge milestone in addressing what really is a blight on the landscape in the heart of the Spokane Reservation — not just from a physical standpoint, but from the environmental consequences of the operations there," said Dan Opalski, the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund director in Seattle.

The proposed consent decree was filed in U.S. District Court on Friday. It's subject to a 30-day public-comment period. If the court approves the decree, the agreement would end years of litigation and kick off two to three years of design work for the Midnite Mine's cleanup. The restoration work itself would require about seven years of construction activity.

"To this day, we don't know all the negative impacts of what that mine did to the land, the animals and the people," Rudy Peone, a tribal council member, said in an interview last spring.

In court documents, the Spokane Tribe has emphasized the land is part of its traditional homeland. The Blue Creek drainage where the mine is located was once used for hunting, fishing and gathering traditional foods, including roots and berries. But two years ago, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry cautioned tribal members against eating wild game, fish or plants gathered from the drainage, which is a tributary to the Spokane River. The foods could be contaminated with heavy metals or radiation, the agency's report said.

The Spokane Tribe's offices were closed on Friday, and officials could not be reached for comment on the cleanup agreement. An official for Dawn Mining Co. also couldn't be reached.

The Midnite Mine dates to the Cold War era. In 1954, two members of the Spokane Tribe discovered uranium on the reservation. The federal government was offering lucrative contracts at the time to spur domestic uranium production.

Many members of the Spokane Tribe worked at the mine and a mill site in Ford, Stevens County. Mining ceased at the site in 1981, when uranium prices collapsed.

The mine cleanup will include filling two deep, open pits with waste rock and providing a cover that will prevent radon gas from escaping, said Elly Hale, an EPA project manager. The caps also will prevent rain and melted snow from filtering through the radioactive waste rock, reducing the water treatment needed at the site, she said.

Another focus of the cleanup will be lowering the volume of groundwater that flows through contaminated material and eventually ends up in the Spokane River, Hale said. However, some level of perpetual water treatment will be required at the mine, she said.

At the end of the cleanup, an 8-foot fence around the Midnite Mine site will be taken down. Hale said radiation exposure from being on the site should be no different from low, natural background levels found elsewhere on the reservation.

If the cleanup work exceeds the $193 million estimate, Newmont and Dawn will be required to pay the additional costs. The companies are required to post $151 million in performance bonds to ensure the cleanup would continue even if they defaulted on the work.

Deb Abrahamson, founder of the SHAWL Society, is a tribal activist who has spent years advocating for the Midnite Mine cleanup. Securing money for the cleanup is a major milestone, she said recently: "The company is owning their mess."

Ensuring the work is done properly, in a way that protects the cleanup workers' health and creates a site that's safe for people and wildlife, is the next priority, she said. Many of the tribal members who worked at the Midnite Mine and mill site in its early years didn't have proper safety equipment or training, which exposed them to heavy metals and radiation, she said.

With unemployment at 55 percent for tribal members living on the reservation, people are eager for the cleanup jobs. This time around, workers should know the risks and how to protect themselves, she said.

"How the cleanup will occur is important," Abrahamson said. Or, "we're going to have another generation facing occupational exposure to toxins."

Progress made toward cleaning up uranium mine

2012-02-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Progress made toward cleaning up uranium mine

Seattle Times - Nov 6, 2011

The Spokane Tribe of Indians has recently won big victories in its long fight against uranium contamination, including a deal reached this fall between the federal government and mining companies to clean up the long-closed Midnite Mine on the reservation.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

SPOKANE, Wash. —

The Spokane Tribe of Indians has recently won big victories in its long fight against uranium contamination, including a deal reached this fall between the federal government and mining companies to clean up the long-closed Midnite Mine on the reservation.

In addition, tribal members in September became eligible to receive federal compensation if they became sick while working at the mine.

"It is good news the mining company was finally forced to take responsibility for the mess they've left in poisoning our land and people," said tribal member Deb Abrahamson, founder of the SHAWL Society, which for a decade advocated to clean the mine site and compensate workers who developed cancer and other illnesses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a settlement with Newmont USA Limited and its subsidiary, Dawn Mining Co., to spend $193 million to clean up the 350-acre Superfund site where the uranium mine operated.

While Newmont will pay most of the costs, the U.S. Department of the Interior will contribute $42 million for failing to fulfill federal trust responsibilities to the Spokane Tribe through proper oversight of the open-pit mine.

In a statement, Newmont said it is "committed to ensuring a responsible cleanup that is protective of human health and the environment," and that "the remedy in the consent decree will create employment opportunities within the local community," including the Spokane Tribe of Indians.

"We're happy to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Jamie SiJohn, a spokeswoman for the tribe, whose reservation is just northwest of Spokane.

The Midnite Mine operated from 1954 to 1981, providing a key ingredient for nuclear weapons at the height of the Cold War. Up to 500 people worked at a time at the mine, blasting nearly 3 million tons of uranium ore out of the hillsides.

Among the cleanup actions over the next decade will be draining water from two open pits, which are up to 500 feet deep. Also, 33 million tons of radioactive waste rock scattered around the mine site will be moved into the pits, which will then be covered to keep surface water out. Ongoing maintenance will include removal of water that enters the pits.

"The cleanup will bring important environmental protections to residents of the Spokane Indian Reservation, including the control of radioactive mine waste," said Ignacia S. Moreno, an assistant attorney general with the U.S. Department of Justice, in a press release.

Meanwhile, a recently completed epidemiology study of the 2,700-member tribe conducted by the state Department of Health and the Northwest Indian Health Board concluded there were high rates of cancer among tribal members who worked at the mine. That qualified them for federal compensation of between $50,000 and $100,000 per person, Abrahamson said.

It's not clear how many tribal members will ultimately get compensation, as many miners have died and some are declining to file for payments, she said.

The SHAWL Society's task now is to set up a clinic to help people become eligible for compensation, she said. They need to be medically screened and then fill out applications, she said.

The complicated process has been a barrier to compensation for members of some tribes, and Abrahamson is trying to set up a team of attorneys to help Spokanes get qualified.

"That's how the Navajos met success, they had attorneys," she said.

The majority of the workers at the mine were Spokanes or members of other nearby tribes, Abrahamson said.

Women of the tribe have contracted cancer from cleaning the clothes of the men who worked in the mines, Abrahamson said.

Many members of Abrahamson's own family became sick.

"It has really varied on how radiation impacted people," she said. "Some died right after they worked out there in the 1970s. Others have gone 20 to 30 years and then cancer emerges."

Former miners have also suffered from renal failure, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, she said.

"I'm really hoping that former workers can benefit and that justice, or at least a piece of justice, can happen for them," Abrahamson said.

Another issue is that the federal government compensates workers who labored at uranium mines only through 1971, when it stopped buying uranium for nuclear weapons, she said. The Midnite Mine operated until 1981, selling uranium to commercial nuclear power plant customers. Abrahamson wants to get compensation for people who worked there between 1971 and 1981.

It's been known for some time that the mine site posed serious health risks.

Dawn Mining has long collected and treated water from the site before pumping it into Blue Creek, a tributary of the Spokane River. The treatment, ordered by the federal government, removed radioactive materials and heavy metals.

The federal government also recommends spending no more than one hour a day at the mine site to limit exposure to radiation and radon gas. People shouldn't eat berries or plants gathered from the Blue Creek drainage, where the mine is located, or fish from the creek, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Meat from deer and elk that forage in the drainage could also pose health risks from heavy metals and radiation, the agency has said.

Department of Justice Press Release - Settlement Agreement

2012-02-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, September 30, 2011

Cleanup Agreement Reached at Former Uranium Mine on Spokane Indian Reservation in Northeastern Washington

WASHINGTON – A settlement agreement has been reached for the cleanup of the Midnite Mine Superfund Site, located on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Northeastern Washington, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. The 350 acre site, which is centered around a former open pit uranium mine, poses a potential threat to people’s health and the environment due to the presence of heavy metals and elevated levels of radioactivity.

Under the agreement, filed today with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in Spokane, Wash., Newmont USA Limited, and Dawn Mining Company, LLC will design, construct and implement the cleanup plan for the site that EPA selected in 2006 and also will reimburse EPA’s costs for overseeing the work. Cleanup at the site is expected to cost $193 million. EPA also will be reimbursed for approximately $25 million in costs already incurred. The United States, on behalf of the Department of the Interior, will contribute approximately $54 million toward past and future cleanup activities. Finally, the mining companies have agreed to secure funding that will be available should EPA have to take over the work.

“Under today’s agreement, the mining companies will perform the cleanup of the Midnite Mine. The cleanup will bring important environmental protections to residents of the Spokane Indian Reservation, including the control of radioactive mine waste and the protection of nearby waters from acid mine drainage,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “This settlement means that the long-sought cleanup will be implemented, and gives the Spokane Tribe a role in working with EPA to ensure that the cleanup protects human health and the environment on the Reservation.”

“EPA is committed to ensuring the cleanup of environmental contamination at former mine sites,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlement will ensure that sufficient funds are available to complete the cleanup of the Midnite Mine site, strengthening environmental protection in Indian Country and protecting the families living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.”

The Midnite Mine operated from 1954 to 1964, and again from 1969 to 1981. As a result of the mining operations, approximately 350 acres of land were disturbed, and numerous waste rock piles and two open mine pits are still present at the site.

According to Dennis McLerran, EPA Regional Administrator in Seattle, today’s agreement means the long-anticipated cleanup work can move forward.

“ Today’s settlement is great news for the environment and finally gives the Spokane Tribe some certainty,” said Regional Administrator McLerran. “The Tribe has been living with this legacy for too long. EPA is eager to get moving on the cleanup and make the area safe for the families who live and work in the area.”

Actions at the site will include installing a drainage layer and sumps in the two pits left open after mining, consolidating existing waste rock in the pits, and covering the pits to keep surface water out. Ongoing maintenance will include removal and treatment of water that enters from the pit walls.

Officials expect the project’s design phase to last approximately three years, with an additional five to seven years needed to finish construction. Managing contaminated water at the site will continue to be a high priority during construction planning.

EPA will oversee the work to ensure that it follows the cleanup plan and complies with the agreement signed by the parties. The Spokane Tribe, though not a party to the agreement, will support EPA in overseeing the work.

The public now has 30 days to comment on the Consent Decree prior to entry in federal court. The consent decree will be available at www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html .

More information on the settlement agreement: www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/cleanup/cercla/midnitemine/index.html .

Midnite Mine Video by Jeff Ferguson

2012-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

Midnite Mine Community Involvement Meeting - Feb 2 , 2012 - Wellpinit Longhouse

2012-02-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

MEETING GOALS & OBJECTIVES

§ To review the timelines for the clean-up process

§ To identify opportunities for community engagement during clean-up design phase

§ To develop successful models and protocols for community involvement

§ To update the Community Involvement Plan

MEETING AGENDA

10:00 – 10:45 Invocation

Welcome & agenda review

Introductions & share expectations for the session

10:45 – 11:20 USEPA presentation on clean up process

§ Background and Project Timeline on work completed to-date

§ Community Involvement Timeline, what to expect next

11:20 – 12:15 Group brainstorm on key issues

§ Begin by offering reflections on what facilitator heard in the interviews

§ Identify overarching issues

12:15 – 1:00 LUNCH – Lunch is gratuitous and will be catered and served on-site by a local tribal member.

1:00 –2:15 Group discussion on Community Involvement

§ What are some possible improvements?

§ What are some options for implementation?

2:15 – 2:30 BREAK

2:30 – 3:15 Group discussion on Community Involvement – Cont’d

§ Develop successful model and protocol

§ Update Community Involvement Plan

§ Prioritize, as needed or necessary

3:15 – 4:00 Closing and final thoughts

Summary and next steps

4:00 ADJOURN

State Seeks Stricter Water Quality Standards

2012-02-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

November 5, 2011 - Seattle Times

Washington waters are supposed to be clean enough to protect people who eat fish from rivers, streams and lakes, but the state standard assumes people can safely eat less than 8 ounces of fish a month. State environmental regulators think that amount is too low.

By Phuong Le

The Associated Press

Randy Kinley, a Lummi tribal member, harvests salmon, clams and oysters in Northwest Washington, and eats what he catches about three or four times a week.

State environmental regulators think that amount is too low. Many Washington residents likely eat more than the current rate of 6.5 grams a day (0.23 ounces), they say, so they're recommending a fish-consumption rate that would protect people who eat at least 24 times that amount.

How much fish Washington residents consume is important because it helps drive water-quality standards and pollution control. Toxic pollutants such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can accumulate in the flesh of fish and shellfish, so people who frequently eat it can take in harmful toxins.

A higher fish-consumption rate means fewer toxic pollutants would be allowed in state waters — and likely tougher restrictions for polluters.

"Ensuring that the state's environmental standards accurately reflect our citizens' exposure is the next step needed to reduce toxics in our environment and protect public health for Washington's fish and shellfish consumers," Department of Ecology's director Ted Sturdevant said last month.

Washington's current fish rate was developed in the mid-1980s and doesn't reflect that residents likely eat much more, officials said.

Oregon recently adopted one of the nation's toughest water-quality standards, after determining Oregonians eat about 175 grams of fish a day, or about 23 8-ounce fish or shellfish meals a month. That rate, approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month, is the highest for a U.S. state.

Washington officials suggest a fish-consumption rate between 157 to 267 grams per day, based on the results of four previous surveys that looked at the fish diet of several tribes and Asian and Pacific Islanders. Ecology is seeking public comment through Dec. 30.

State officials say they want a fish-consumption rate that protects all Washington residents who eat fish, including the general population and individuals who eat a lot of fish, such as Native Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and some recreational fishers.

Many tribes already have much higher fish-consumption rates and water-quality standards that apply to tribal waters. The Spokane Tribe, for example, set its rate at 865 grams a day (30.5 ounces), one of the highest in the nation. The state's standard would apply to nontribal state waters.

Several tribes say the current state rate doesn't reflect the important role that fish and shellfish play in the diet and culture of tribal members.

Charles O'Hara, planning director for the Swinomish Tribe near La Conner, Skagit County, said most tribal ceremonies, funerals or important occasions focus around salmon and other seafood.

"If you look at the current rate of 6 grams, it's pretty ridiculous," he said. "To be setting standards on such an unrealistic number ignores reality." The rate "should account for the people who eat the most," he added.

Tribes, including the Lummi and Swinomish, are doing their own surveys to find out how much fish tribal members eat. The results will help ensure the state's criteria protect the health of tribal members, they say.

Washington officials have closely watched Oregon's process.

"We want to use all the information they gained through their process," said Cheryl Niemi, a water-quality specialist with Ecology. "We're not Oregon, so we'll have different stakeholders. Any new information we get here, that will be thrown in the mix."

The Northwest Pulp & Paper Association is waiting to see what happens in Washington and how it will impact jobs, said Chris McCabe, the group's executive director. "Our main goal is to seek reasonable and cost-effective solution to this issue."

Progress Made Toward Cleaning Up Uranium Mine

2012-02-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

The Spokane Tribe of Indians has recently won big victories in its long fight against uranium contamination, including a deal reached this fall between the federal government and mining companies to clean up the long-closed Midnite Mine on the reservation.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. —

In addition, tribal members in September became eligible to receive federal compensation if they became sick while working at the mine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a settlement with Newmont USA Limited and its subsidiary, Dawn Mining Co., to spend $193 million to clean up the 350-acre Superfund site where the uranium mine operated.

While Newmont will pay most of the costs, the U.S. Department of the Interior will contribute $42 million for failing to fulfill federal trust responsibilities to the Spokane Tribe through proper oversight.

Northwest Tribes See Changes in Sacred 'First' Foods

2011-08-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Rob Manning | July 28, 2011 | Portland, OR

Northwest tribal leaders say they're seeing climate change affect food sources that are vital to their culture.

"All we can do is try to help these plants and animals adapt. If we don't, the future of the tribes' First Foods could be at stake" says Paul Lumley of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

He’s worried about the future. Rob Manning reports on how climate change is affecting tribal culture.

Gerald Lewis is a member of the Yakama Tribal Council. He says a traditional story explains how native people are tied to salmon.

"The Creator in turn spoke to them, that 'man was coming.' And so, in this way, salmon stepped up and said 'I will provide for the people.' And so, the foods followed in order – the animals, the deer, the roots, and the berries."

Lewis and other tribal leaders say they're noticing changes in these sacred First Foods. He says almon are changing in two ways.

"We have seen that throughout these past few years, especially, that our salmon runs are coming in later. The size of the fish, also – they seem to be smaller."

Gerald Lewis says the late arrival is disrupting the traditional timing of important cultural events.

"A lot of our longhouses, they depend on a certain time of the year to have our First Foods ceremony, our salmon ceremony, our welcoming back of the salmon. And the run timing of it is going back a little farther, so that each and every longhouse church have to run accordingly to the fish runs, so our ceremonies are moved back."

Lewis says he's also hearing from tribal women that the roots they harvest for ceremonies are changing, too.

"They are very small, and their numbers are dwindling, as well. So, it affects a lot of our roots today, this climate change."

Tribal leaders worry that climate change might have a more powerful impact on plants than on salmon.

"A fish can move around. Plants can't," Paul Lumley says. "If we can do a good job at forecasting what climate change might be, we might have to step in and help the plants move. And make sure we have these roots and berries in perpetuity."

Lumley says tribes are working with scientists to study climate effects on plants.

All kinds of scientists are watching the complex environmental effects on salmon.

Government scientists agree that salmon returning from the ocean appear to be smaller than in the past. Hatcheries and fishing practices could be part of the reason. But Oregon Fish and Wildlife biologist, Kathryn Kostow says the way climate change is affecting the ocean could be responsible, too.

"It may be a change in ocean productivity, and it may be associated with climate change, but we still have a lot of work to do to decide that's true."

Scientists confirm that the spring Chinook runs have been late, recently. That's culturally a very significant run for the tribes. Scientists say a climate-affected ocean could be partly responsible, but the power and temperature of the spring Columbia might be more important.

Salmon are also economically important to the tribes. And leaders are working to maintain those benefits by keeping the price for salmon high.

Tribal fishermen, meantime, want to make the most of the shortened spring salmon runs. Yakama council member, Gerald Lewis, says fishermen want to get out on the water, even when the river is dangerously rough.

"You add the wind to that, and there becomes very big swells out there, and currents are very, very bad. And so the safety of our fishermen is a very big concern."

Lewis says he wants fishermen wearing lifejackets.

And the tribes asked the Coast Guard to demonstrate a river rescue, so that fishermen know what happens, if the rough water knocks them overboard.

Decades ago, tribal members fished off of scaffolds. Since the dams were built, they moved to boats.

Fish commission director, Paul Lumley: "We thought we were going to lose our First Foods when these dams were built and we were very lucky. We have a lot of fish coming back now. But with climate change, we might lose the fish because they are so adaptable, they stray. And if the climate is better for the fish up north, as the world warms up, the fish might decide to go live somewhere else."

Biologists don't expect salmon to head north. They say it's more likely they'd just slowly disappear from the Columbia. And the way climate change is going, that could put the tribes' precious spring Chinook, at the greatest risk.

Chico Corral blames uranium industry for failing health

2011-06-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

June 6, 2011

Chico Corral blames uranium industry for failing health

But as others before him have learned, compensation is elusive

Becky Kramer
The Spokesman-Review

Charlotte Corral breaks down in tears while speaking about her husband, Chico, in their home on the Spokane Reservation. Sandra Belvail, a volunteer advocate who is helping Chico make a radiation compensation claim, offers comfort.

Chico Corral couldn’t get away from the dust. After the daily blasting, yellow-brown grit hung in the air at the Midnite Mine, an open-pit uranium mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation where Corral worked without a mask or respirator. Later, he breathed in dust during the years he worked at a uranium mill.

“We sucked all that into our lungs,” he said.

His family couldn’t escape the dust, either. It coated his work boots and coveralls. His daughter, Rachael Corral Henry, remembers running to meet her dad when he came home from work. “It was like he’d been in a sandstorm,” she recalled.

In his living room, in the blue recliner where he spends most of his days, Corral pauses to cough, spitting phlegm into an empty milk carton.

Now 79, Corral’s lungs show signs of scarring. Minor exertion leaves him short of breath. He believes his lung problems resulted from the two decades he spent in the uranium industry.

For the past three years, Corral has tried to get compensation through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA. The federal legislation allows former uranium workers to collect up to $100,000 for health problems that arose from their work.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, the United States conducted nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. Domestically mined and milled uranium was essential for the effort.

The act covers uranium miners, millers and ore truck drivers who worked in the industry through 1971. People who lived downwind of Nevada’s atomic test site are also covered.

In a 2009 letter, the U.S. Department of Labor acknowledged that Corral had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but it said he didn’t provide evidence that linked the disease to his work history.

Efforts to document Corral’s work history and exposure levels have turned into endless rounds of paperwork for him and volunteer advocate Sandra Belvail. They’ve had to track down decades-old payroll records and medical reports.

Corral was never seen by a doctor specializing in industrial exposure, which makes his claim more difficult, said Belvail, a retired nurse practitioner.

As she’s worked on Corral’s claim, she’s been shuffled among 15 employees at the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Justice, which administer the program. When they tried to reschedule a hearing this spring, Corral received a letter telling him to call a nonworking phone number.

Former co-workers who started the claims process gave up.

“If they drag this process out, these guys will be gone,” Belvail said.

Several hundred former uranium workers on the Spokane Reservation could be eligible for compensation. Nontribal members, as well as Spokane Indians, worked in the industry. Corral isn’t enrolled in the tribe, though his late wife was.

A federal grant could help former tribal uranium workers navigate the complicated process. The Spokane Tribe of Indians recently applied for a $900,000, three-year grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.

If the grant is awarded, the tribe would hire caseworkers to help former uranium workers assemble their RECA applications, said Deb Abrahamson, executive director of the SHAWL Society, a nonprofit activist group that was a co-applicant on the grant along with Indian Health Services.

Former uranium workers also would get screening for occupation-related illnesses.

The Navajo Nation has used a similar approach to help its members secure more than $450 million in compensation. Eight full-time employees at the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers help people with the paperwork, said Lawrence Martinez, program director.

As his own medical condition deteriorates, Corral worries about his family’s health. He fears that by carrying dust home on his clothes, he also exposed them to radiation and heavy metals.

His wife, Eveleen, died of leukemia. One of Corral’s daughters also has the disease. During a recent checkup, Corral’s 39-year-old son, Gabriel, was told that he had spots on his lungs.

“They know what’s true,” Corral says of the federal government.

‘That dust was everywhere’

Corral grew up near Los Angeles and spent part of his military years at Fairchild Air Force Base. After his discharge, he married Eveleen. They raised seven children on the Spokane Indian Reservation, where natural beauty is abundant but jobs are scarce. Corral was glad to hire on at the Midnite Mine. “He always said, ‘Thank the Lord that I can work another day,’ ” recalled Gabriel Corral, Corral’s youngest son.

Initially, Corral worked as a truck driver for contractors that transported ore. Later, he worked as a handyman at the Midnite Mine and as a “powder monkey,” the employee who filled drill holes with explosives.

He was also a prober. When the dust cleared after explosives detonated, Corral went out with a Geiger counter to measure ore grades.

As a young man, Corral occasionally smoked a cigar or a pipe. But he believes his lung disease was caused by dust from uranium ore. When Corral worked in the open pit mine, he had regular bouts of pneumonia.

When Dawn Mining Co. opened a uranium processing plant near Ford, Wash., Corral took a job there.

Financially, those were good years. In the early 1980s, Corral earned nearly $21,000 annually – the equivalent of about $52,000 today.

Eveleen Corral waged housekeeping battles against the dust that came with the paychecks. Her husband hung up his work clothes in the entryway. For fun, Gabriel Corral punched his dad’s coat to see the dust explode from it.

“All that I remember is yellow, yellow, yellow,” said Corral’s daughter, Rachael. “That dust was everywhere.”

Eveleen Corral was fastidious about changing the bedsheets, her daughter said. But piles of dust still accumulated on the floor under her husband’s side of the mattress.

Eveleen Corral died at 54. At the time, no one in her family questioned if her leukemia was related to uranium exposure.

Dawn Mining’s management had repeatedly told employees that working with uranium ore carried little risk, Chico Corral said.

The year her mother died, Rachael Corral Henry was diagnosed with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, both autoimmune diseases. One of her sisters has leukemia.

“I believe it was part of what happened,” Rachael Corral Henry said.

Claim takes skills of Nancy Drew

Three years ago, the Department of Justice held a meeting for former uranium workers on the Spokane Reservation. Corral learned he could submit a 22-page RECA claim for compensation.

Corral’s first claim application was turned down, with the rejection letter acknowledging his lung disease but saying his claim didn’t substantiate his work history. That’s when Belvail got involved.

Belvail retired from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Spokane, where Corral was one of her patients. She volunteers her time to help veterans with government claims. Corral’s is the most difficult she’s worked on.

“I’m glad that I read a lot of Nancy Drew detective stories when I was a kid,” Belvail said, “because that’s what this is all about.”

First, she had to prove that Corral was exposed to radiation and heavy metals. Copies of his Social Security records weren’t good enough. They outlined the years Corral worked for Dawn Mining, which operated both the Midnite Mine and the ore processing plant. But they didn’t have job descriptions.

To prove that Corral’s work duties exposed him to chemicals and radiation, Belvail pored over pay ledgers at Dawn Mining’s office in Ford. Based on what she uncovered, Bob Nelson, a Dawn manager at the closed mill, signed an affidavit, confirming Corral’s job history.

Because Corral received most of his health care through a local clinic, linking his health history to his work has been difficult. “They didn’t make definitive statements that his illness was related to occupation,” Belvail said.

Corral has diabetes and heart and kidney disease in addition to lung problems, which further complicates his claim.

RECA administrators rejected Corral’s claim for compensation for kidney disease, even though kidney disease can be linked to uranium. “They said it’s from my diabetes,” Corral said.

Diabetes frequently leads to kidney and heart problems, Belvail acknowledged. And Corral’s heart problems probably contribute to his shortness of breath, she said.

Belvail wants Corral to be seen by an occupational health specialist before he has a final hearing on his claim.

Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said privacy laws bar the agency from commenting on individual cases. But Miller said the program has paid out $16 million for 247 claims in Washington state since 1992, an average of $65,000 a claim. Two of the claims were from the Spokane Reservation, he said.

Corral believes time is running out

While Corral has waited for a resolution, his health has deteriorated.

Walking down a flight of stairs leaves him short of breath. He can’t lift more than 5 pounds or stand for more than a few minutes. He’s given up fishing and hunting. Every four hours, he uses an inhaler to expand his bronchial tubes.

There’s no self-pity in Corral, a genial man. But Charlotte, whom he married after Eveleen’s death, cries on his behalf.

“It’s depressing,” she said. “There are so many things he can no longer do.”

Corral was an active man in his late 60s when they met. Her parents – members of Canada’s Okanagan Nation Alliance – came for traditional winter dances in the longhouse Corral had built next to his home. One year, Charlotte came, too.

The attraction was instant. When Corral proposed on their first date, Charlotte accepted. The next day, he asked her parents about her bride price. They suggested two plugs of chewing tobacco. It was a small sum for their daughter, they explained, but they knew Corral was a good man who would take care of her.

Charlotte, who’s in her 60s, quickly became the caretaker. While she worries about his health, Corral worries about the burden his illnesses place on her. In addition to taking care of him, Charlotte works full time as a housekeeper at Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. She earns $9 an hour, money quickly consumed by medical bills.

She works a swing shift, returning home after midnight. During the 120-mile round-trip commute, she’s hit a deer in the dark and skidded on ice into a ditch.

“I love you,” she tells him, leaning over the recliner to trade goodbye kisses before she leaves for work. The braid that falls down Charlotte’s back is still glossy and dark, but her face is tired and lined.

If Corral’s claim is successful, the couple plan to pay off medical bills and set aside money for future needs.

Corral believes his time is running out. “My lungs are getting worse. I can feel it.”

Three miles from Corral’s house, spring winds stir dust at the closed mill site.

“You can see that stuff,” he said. “It’s like fog coming off the old tailings pond.”

Timeline: Uranium mining and Midnite Mine

2011-06-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

June 5, 2011

Timeline: Uranium mining and Midnite Mine

Staff research
The Spokesman-Review

Tags:Midnite Mine Uranium mining

1946: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission is created. The commission offers contracts at generous prices to spur development of a domestic uranium industry.

1954: Brothers Jim and John LeBret discover uranium on the Spokane Reservation. They and their partners form Midnite Mines Inc.

1955: Newmont Mining Corp. joins with Midnite Mines to develop the deposit. Dawn Mining Co. is formed. Ownership is 51 percent Newmont and 49 percent Midnite Mines.

1955 to 1965: Dawn Mining Co. sells uranium to the Atomic Energy Commission, the only buyer at the time.

1958 to 1965: Dawn provides an average of $1 million a year in dividends to Newmont.

1969: After a four-year shut down, Midnite Mine reopens to sell uranium for nuclear power production.

1981: Operations cease at the Midnite Mine.

1988: One of the mine’s open pits has hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated water. Federal government raises concerns about water overtopping the pit.

1991: Dawn ordered to operate a water treatment plant to prevent Pit No. 3 from overflowing.

1997: Federal government starts negotiations with Dawn and Newmont for study and cleanup of the site in compliance with environmental laws.

1999: Spokane Tribe sues to prevent storage of radioactive wastes from other sites at the Midnite Mine.

1999: Midnite Mine proposed for Superfund listing.

2005: Federal government sues Newmont and Dawn for cleanup costs at the site.

2008: U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush rules that the U.S. government, Dawn and Newmont are each responsible for one-third of the Midnite Mine’s cleanup costs.

SOURCE: Staff research, federal court documents

Exposure risk limits food hunt

2011-06-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

June 5, 2011

Exposure risk limits food hunt

Becky Kramer
The Spokesman-Review

Many members of the Spokane Tribe heed the ATSDR warnings and do not dig roots, like this bitterroot, in the Blue Creek drainage. Instead they collect traditional foods in other locations including public and private land outside of the reservation. “We used to go to rockypoint (a root digging spot located between Midnite and Sherwood mines) but we have stopped doing all gatherings around Blue Creek,” said Deb Abrahamson.

White camas facts

White camas, known by the scientific name of Lomatium canbyi, is a member of the parsley family. Sometimes known as biscuit root or desert parsley, it’s different from brown camas, a blue- flowering plant that’s a member of the lily family.

After a prayer evoking “the Grandfather’s” blessing, four generations of the Spokane Tribe set off across a sagebrush-dotted pasture in search of white camas roots.

Elders wore woven baskets strapped to their sides. Teenagers moved in packs. Parents accompanied elementary school-age students who were out of school for the occasion.

“Found one! Found one!” crowed 7-year-old Gunner White, dancing with excitement near a short stalk with brown seed heads.

His older sister handed him the root digger, a long metal spike with a curved end. Gunner dug up a root the size of a small radish. It was crisp, like a turnip, with an aftertaste faintly reminiscent of solvents.

“Some people compare it to the smell of kerosene,” said Pat Moses, a tribal elder who attended the community root dig.

White camas roots are peeled, strung in chains and air-dried for winter consumption. The starchy roots are one of the traditional foods eaten by the Spokane Tribe.

Each May, community members gather for the annual root dig. It’s one example of why cleanup of uranium waste is so important on the Spokane Reservation, said Deb Abrahamson, executive director of the SHAWL Society, an environmental activist group there.

Gathering foods eaten by their ancestors is important to tribal members, she said. Yet eating native plants, wild game and fish can expose people to heavy metals and radiation.

The annual root dig takes place on U.S. Bureau of Land Management grazing land near Harrington, Wash. Areas around the defunct Midnite uranium mine are no longer used for harvesting food.

Abrahamson’s family has stopped gathering chokecherries in the Blue Creek drainage, which is downstream from the mine. It isn’t safe to eat plants from the drainage, according to a 2009 public health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The study cited polluted ground and surface water, which carries heavy metals and radioactive materials from the mine into the Blue Creek drainage. The creek flows for 3 1/2 miles before emptying into the Spokane River.

As a result of the warning, other members of the tribe no longer gather herbs for medicinal teas along Blue Creek. Eating fish from the creek isn’t safe either. Consuming meat from deer or elk that graze in the drainage may pose health risks as well, said the study, which recommended further testing of the meat.

Marsha Wynecoop has organized the annual community root gathering for 18 years. The harvest of white camas marks the beginning of gathering season, which includes dozens of edible wild plants.

The tribe’s members have an intricate relationship with the land, said Randy Abrahamson, a former uranium worker who’s a distant cousin of Deb Abrahamson. Preserving tribal culture includes preserving the ability to harvest traditional foods.

“We want answers,” he said. “Are the creeks full of contamination? Are the berries safe to eat? We’re hunters and fishermen and gatherers.”

Spokane Tribe members worked gladly in uranium mines

2011-06-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

June 5, 2011

Spokane Tribe members worked gladly in uranium mines

Now they fear radiation from the mines is killing them

Becky Kramer
The Spokesman-Review

Volunteer gravedigger Harold Campbell, a veteran of two uranium mines, has been treated for prostate cancer.

When there’s a funeral on the Spokane Indian Reservation, Harold Campbell puts on his grave-digging hat, collects his tools and heads to the cemetery.

Over the past 30 years, the volunteer gravedigger has helped prepare the final resting spots for hundreds of the tribe’s members. Death is a familiar presence to Campbell, who sits with grieving families and blesses burial plots with the fragrant smoke of sage and sweetgrass. Yet one aspect troubles him: Too many Spokane Indians die from cancer.

“I watch them die, young and old,” Campbell said. “I think it’s caused by the radiation.”

The radiation is from the Northwest’s only open-pit uranium mines – an all-but- forgotten chapter of Washington’s Cold War history. Uranium ore was blasted out of the Spokane Reservation’s arid hillsides and sold to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The truckloads of radioactive material that rumbled daily through the reservation helped build the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

The mines closed 30 years ago, but they’ve left a complex legacy of pride, patriotism and radioactive pollution on the 157,000-acre reservation west of Spokane.

After uranium deposits were discovered in the 1950s, entire families drew paychecks from the mines. The work seemed part of a greater cause, a strike against communism. And it brought a flash of prosperity to the impoverished reservation through steady paychecks and mining royalties.

But now there are troubling questions. Many workers labored without adequate safety gear. They brought home dust on their clothing, exposing their families to radiation and heavy metals. Uncovered ore trucks spilled radioactive rock, creating “hot spots” along the highway bisecting the reservation.

With each new cancer diagnosis, people wonder: Is it from the radiation?

It’s a haunting question. Bob Brisbois, the tribe’s executive director, lost five members of his extended family to cancer in a single year.

“Where did I get this cancer from? I never smoked,” Brisbois recalls his mother saying before she died of colon and bone cancer. “I would like to know where I got all this.”

Brisbois’ 40-year-old nephew had the same question. “He swam in the Spokane River below the mine,” Brisbois said. “He ate the roots and berries and wild game.” The nephew died last year of cancer that started in his bladder and spread throughout his body.

An epidemiology study might provide some answers. The Spokane Tribe teamed up with the Washington Department of Health and the Northwest Indian Health Board to track cancer rates among the tribe’s 2,700 members. Study results are pending. Meanwhile, 33 million tons of radioactive waste rock and ore remain at the Midnite Mine site, the largest of the two uranium mines on the reservation. The Midnite Mine, now a Superfund site, has been closed since the early 1980s, when uranium prices plunged.

Three years ago, a federal judge ordered one of the world’s largest mining conglomerates, Newmont Mining Corp., to pay its share of the $152 million in cleanup costs at the Midnite Mine. Yet little work has taken place on the ground.

The forgotten aspect of the Spokane Tribe’s role in the Cold War troubles Deb Abrahamson, a tribal activist who formed the SHAWL Society to advocate for cleanup of radioactive waste.

Billions of dollars have been spent on cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which regularly makes national news, she said. But Abrahamson said few people outside the Spokane Reservation know about the Midnite Mine, or that the radioactive legacy of the U.S.-Soviet arms race is still poisoning the tribe’s land and water.

Without the Atomic Energy Commission’s involvement, the uranium mines wouldn’t have been built.

“They needed that uranium. They needed it for the Cold War. We, the people, were expendable,” said Clyde Lynn, a former uranium worker. “That was the attitude of the U.S. government.”

It’s a tarnished end to a discovery that began with so much excitement.

‘Uranium fever’ began in 1954

One night in 1954, twin brothers Jim and John LeBret were prospecting on the Spokane Reservation with a Geiger counter and mineral light. Shortly after midnight, their Geiger counter roared to life. On Spokane Mountain, they had discovered rocks with a fluorescent green glow.

The brothers, members of the Spokane Tribe, staked the first uranium claim on the reservation. By the end of that year, the Midnite Mine shipped its first load of uranium ore to a Salt Lake City processing plant.

It was the beginning of “uranium fever” on the reservation.

Nationwide, thousands of prospectors hoped to strike it rich. The Atomic Energy Commission was offering lucrative contracts to jump-start a uranium industry in the United States. Domestic supplies were needed for the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The largest uranium deposits were discovered on the Colorado Plateau of the Southwest, including the Navajo Nation, where more than 1,000 mines were built. The Inland Northwest also got caught up in the excitement.

“An atomic age of opportunity has dawned for the Spokane Indians,” decreed a Spokane Chronicle article. By the next spring, “dozens of Spokane people had purchased Geiger counters and spent the weekends trotting over the hills hunting new finds,” according to The Spokesman-Review.

Uranium was worthless in the late 1800s when members of the tribe were moved from their homelands along the Spokane River to the reservation. By the 1950s, a 55-gallon barrel of uranium oxide was selling for $32,000.

The LeBret brothers and their partners formed Midnite Mines Inc. They brought in Newmont Mining Corp. to create Dawn Mining, the entity that operated the mine. Newmont had a controlling interest in Dawn, and at one point, Dawn’s uranium sales contributed $1 million annually to Newmont’s dividends.

Phelps Dodge opened a second uranium mine on the reservation, the Sherwood Mine, through its Western Nuclear subsidiary.

In the early days, the U.S. government bought all the uranium ore through the Atomic Energy Commission. Later, uranium from the Spokane Reservation was sold to the energy industry for use in nuclear power plants.

Uranium ore and radioactive autunite crystals became curiosity pieces and collector’s items. One Spokane stockbroker kept a large chunk of uranium ore in his display window, until the Atomic Energy Commission ordered it removed.

Some thought the yellow-green crystals had medicinal value. Clyde Lynn’s grandmother kept a 6-inch-long crystal in a suitcase under her bed. She died of cervical cancer.

Workers thought ore was benign

For nearly three decades, uranium was a booming industry on the reservation. At its height, about 500 people drew paychecks from the mines and their ore-processing facilities.

Connie LeBret was hired at the Midnite Mine in her 20s. After the dust settled from blasting in the open-pit mine, she’d head out on foot with a Geiger counter to measure the radioactivity of the pulverized rock. A front-end loader followed to scoop up the radioactive ore.

“The driver would wait for me to show him where to dig. … Sometimes the needle would go off the meter,” said LeBret, 56. “We would give them a hand signal that it was the good stuff.”

“At the time, we didn’t know it wasn’t ‘good stuff,’ ” interjected her husband, Tracy LeBret, a distant cousin of Jim and John LeBret who also worked at the mine. He thought the apple-green ore looked like kryptonite, the fictitious radioactive rock from Superman’s home planet.

Most workers considered the ore benign. Managers reinforced that message, the couple said. Neither of them wore protective gear beyond hard hats, safety glasses and steel-toed boots.

Aside from logging, uranium mining was the only steady work on the reservation, said Connie LeBret, whose father and brothers also worked in the industry.

“A lot of people worked at those mines,” she said. “It was really a good time, because everyone had a job and had money to do things.”

Some of the tribe’s elders have fond memories of the days of full employment, her husband said. Not him.

Several years after Connie LeBret left the Midnite Mine, a red spot appeared on her knuckle. It was the first symptom of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that several of her siblings also developed. Symptoms include swollen knuckles, painful joints and difficulty walking.

The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is unknown, but it is believed to have both hereditary and environmental contributors. Connie LeBret wonders if radiation or heavy metals played a role.

LeBret’s younger brother, Randy Abrahamson, worked at both the Midnite and Sherwood mines. (He and his sister are distantly related to Deb Abrahamson, the tribal activist.) His former wife shook out his dusty work clothes before putting them in the wash.

Abrahamson, 51, is healthy, but he lost a daughter, 8-year-old Rachel, to a brain tumor. Eighteen months ago, his youngest son, Dillon, was also diagnosed with a brain tumor. Dillon, now 9, had surgery to remove part of the tumor. He started treatment again this spring to shrink the remaining mass, which had begun growing again, said Rebecca Witty, Dillon’s mother and Abrahamson’s second wife.

“We pray every day,” said Abrahamson, who wonders if the tumors are related to his past work at the mines.

“I wish we’d had more knowledge and had taken preventive action,” he said. “We could have worn jumpsuits and protection. We could have showered before going home to our families.

“There’s too much illness in this little community,” Abrahamson added. “I know there’s something going on.”

Clyde Lynn, 81, spent most of his career as a teacher and a counselor. But in 1981, when he was out of work, Lynn took an employee benefits job with Western Nuclear, the Phelps Dodge subsidiary that ran the Sherwood Mine.

He was grateful for the paycheck. But the safety lapses he observed appall him now.

“I never saw people wearing masks,” Lynn said. “Our safety training was on how to put out fires, or the importance of wearing hard hats. It was never on radioactive exposure.”

The ore was crushed and concentrated into uranium oxide through chemical processing. Uranium oxide, also known as “yellowcake,” was stored in vats and funneled into 55-gallon barrels. When the uranium oxide stuck to the funnels, workers would scrape out the yellowcake by hand. The management’s attitude, Lynn said, was “Aw, there’s nothing wrong with this stuff.”

Uranium was part of daily life on the reservation. People in their 40s recall watching ore trucks rumble past as they waited for the school bus.

Campbell, the gravedigger, spent his early years in Uranium City, a collection of houses and trailers that sprung up down the road from Dawn Mining’s Ford mill site, where the ore was processed.

As a kid, he played in the dust under the haul trucks. His dad, a millwright, collected ore samples for Campbell and his older brother.

“Dad used to bring home some of those pretty green rocks,” said Campbell, 53. “We didn’t know there was a problem.”

Campbell later worked as a truck driver at the Midnite Mine and in the mill operation at the Sherwood Mine. Altogether, he spent about four years in the uranium industry.

“I was kind of concerned, but it was such good money,” said Campbell, who earned $13 an hour in the late 1970s. “We were told the government needed this stuff.”

At the time, “It looked high-tech and it looked safe to us.”

John Mudge, Dawn Mining’s vice president, disputes that working conditions were unsafe. Mudge worked on the Spokane Reservation from 1980 to 1982. He said Midnite Mine employees and millworkers wore dosimeter badges to track radiation exposure. Workers handling yellowcake in the mill wore respirators, Mudge said.

Once a month, the badges were sent away to a lab for analysis. “The radiation doses were very low,” he said.

Driveways built from ore

Taking a tour of the Midnite Mine requires entry through a locked gate surrounded by an 8-foot-high fence. The fence was installed in 2009 as a safety measure to keep people out of the 320-acre mine site, said Randy Connolly, the Spokane Tribe’s Superfund coordinator.

The federal government recommends spending no more than one hour a day at the mine site to limit exposure to radiation and radon gas. People shouldn’t eat berries or plants gathered from the Blue Creek drainage where the mine is located, or fish from the creek, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Meat from deer and elk that forage in the drainage could also pose health risks, the study said.

But for years after the Midnite Mine closed, the site remained accessible. People hauled truckloads of gravel out of the mine for driveways and construction projects. Unbeknownst to many, they were hauling away “proto-ore,” lower-grade radioactive ore that was stockpiled in the event that uranium prices rose, Connolly said.

Radioactive rocks embedded with crystals were also hauled away. They turned up in rustic rock fireplaces and decorative landscaping.

Lush grass and multiple water sources attracted elk, which established calving grounds at the Midnite Mine. Before the elk were fenced out, Connolly said, it was common to see dozens of cow elk and calves on the hillsides. The salts that leached out of piles of radioactive mine waste attracted other wildlife as well.

Nearly 3 million tons of uranium ore were blasted out of these hillsides. Visitors can stand at the top of Pit No. 3 and look down 500 feet to the bottom, which is covered with sparkling turquoise water.

The pit’s milky, blue-green coloring is reminiscent of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies or travel brochures for the Bahamas.

But the water is far from pristine. Sludge at the bottom is high in radioactivity and heavy metals.

“It’s basically as hot as any of the ore,” said Connolly, who worked for the U.S. Bureau of Mines before being hired by the tribe. “Now we’re trying to figure out what to do with it. The company suggested putting it on the ground. … That’s not a good idea.”

South of the Midnite Mine, a series of earthen terraces is visible on the horizon. That’s the reclaimed Sherwood Mine, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cites as a model for mine cleanup.

The Midnite Mine’s cleanup lags behind its neighbor as the result of long-running litigation over who will pay the $152 million bill, which includes at least 140 years of water treatment.

Dawn Mining is broke. Company officials are borrowing money from Newmont to pay the bills. During the lawsuit, Newmont tried to avoid responsibility for cleanup costs by saying it had little to do with the Midnite Mine’s day-to-day operations.

In 2008, U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush ruled that the cleanup costs should be split evenly among Dawn, Newmont and the U.S. government. If Dawn can’t pay, Newmont is responsible for its share, too.

In his ruling, Quackenbush said the government is partly responsible for the mess, because it didn’t fulfill federal trust responsibilities to the Spokane Tribe through proper oversight of the mine.

Settlement talks are under way, with a signed agreement possible later this year. That would kick off a two-year design phase for the cleanup.

“We’re a couple of years away,” said Connolly, “unless someone decides they want to go back to court.”

With unemployment at 55 percent for tribal members living on the reservation, people are eager for cleanup jobs. Connolly frequently gets asked, “When will we start moving dirt?”

The Midnite Mine site needs extensive remediation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which crafted the plan. Two open pits remain at the mine. Five other pits were filled in with “really nasty stuff” that’s polluting the groundwater, Connolly said.

Towering waste rock piles litter the mine site. The haul roads were built with radioactive gravel.

Under orders from the federal government, Dawn Mining collects and treats water from the site before pumping it into Blue Creek, a tributary of the Spokane River. The treatment removes radioactive materials and heavy metals. But the tribe’s monitoring indicates that pollution levels are still high enough to kill aquatic insects in Blue Creek, Connolly said.

The tribe wants the water pumped directly into the Spokane River, where the pollution would be diluted in the larger water body.

Tribal officials also want a small plane equipped with radiation-sensing equipment to fly over the reservation. It would help detect radioactive driveways, so they could be cleaned up, too.

‘Eye-popping’ cancer risk

Did people get sick from uranium mining on the Spokane Reservation? The answer is elusive.

“It’s not like getting hit with a bullet,” Connolly said. “You get exposed to radiation at 20. You get cancer at 50 or 60. You wonder: Where did it come from?”

Multiple factors contribute to cancer risks, including smoking, genetics, diet and lifestyle. Nationwide, cancer is the second-leading cause of death among American Indians and Alaska Natives over 45.

Yet the Midnite Mine site poses serious health risks. The EPA ran models, assessing how people’s cancer risk would increase if they lived at the Midnite Mine for 70 years, or gathered plants, hunted game and drank surface water from the site as part of a subsistence lifestyle.

Some numbers in the hypothetical examples are “eye-popping,” said Elly Hale, an EPA project manager working on the Midnite Mine cleanup.

An individual who lived off the land at the mine site, for example, would have a 1 in 5 probability of getting cancer, according to the modeling. The model was based on 70 years of exposure to pre-cleanup conditions. Some of the risk also came from background radiation in the highly mineralized area, Hale said.

However, the modeling only looks at current risk. It doesn’t try to approximate the risk former workers faced, or how much radiation or heavy metals their families were exposed to from dust that came home on their clothes.

Decades of studies done on the Navajo uranium workers in the Southwest show elevated rates of lung cancer and kidney disease.

Occupational health protections for workers didn’t take hold until the 1970s. Yet as early as 1950, the U.S. Public Health Service was studying illness rates in uranium miners. The results, published in 1962, showed the first statistical correlation between cancer and uranium mining.

Before the mines opened, Navajos had one of the lowest cancer rates in the nation, said Chris Shuey, an environmental health specialist with the nonprofit Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M. In addition to workers, cancer rates shot up in the general population, he said. Further studies have focused on gallbladder, stomach and kidney cancers, as well as breast and ovarian cancers.

“We’ve got pretty good evidence that the closer you live to mine sites, the sicker you are,” Shuey said.

A new study on the Navajo Reservation will track whether unborn babies are at risk from uranium exposure. Concrete used to build houses on the reservation contained radioactive sand and rock. In addition, people can be exposed by drinking water from contaminated sites or eating meat from animals that grazed there, said Steve Dearwent, chief of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s health investigations branch.

The study will follow expectant mothers to determine if uranium exposure correlates to low birth weights, premature births or more serious birth defects. Educating women so they can reduce their exposure is part of the study.

Safety of workers a focus

The Spokane Tribe occasionally gets inquiries about restarting the Midnite Mine, which has about 7 million pounds of ore left. Higher uranium prices are driving the interest. The U.S. imports 90 percent of the uranium used in its nuclear power plants.

But tribal Councilman Rudy Peone says it’s unlikely the mine will ever reopen. In the 1990s, Peone said the tribal council made a policy determination that human health and the environment were more important than mining royalties.

“To this day, we don’t know all the negative impacts of what that mine did to the land, the animals and the people,” he said.

Tribal activist Deb Abrahamson’s focus is gradually shifting. Instead of lobbying for cleanup, she’s starting to work on safety for future cleanup workers.

Through the lure of paychecks and steady employment, the cleanup will have parallels to the original uranium rush. “Those jobs are going to look very lucrative to this generation,” Abrahamson said.

This time around, she wants to ensure that workers have proper protective gear and know the risks. Otherwise, another generation could be exposed to radiation, Abrahamson said.

Last winter, Harold Campbell had to take a hiatus from digging graves. He was at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California getting treatment for prostate cancer.

One of Campbell’s desk drawers is stuffed full of funeral bulletins.

“I’ve buried hundreds of my people,” he said. “I just know that it wasn’t right for them not to tell us.”

HAZWOPER TRAINING

2007-11-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Free 40 Hour
HAZWOPER TRAINING

November 13-16, 2007
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
McCoy Administrative Bldg.
Wellpinit, WA

Contact:
Spokane Tribal College
258-9202 or SHAWL Society 258-8952

SHAWL SOCIETY
P.O. Box 61 Wellpinit, WA 99040
Phone: 509.258.8952 - 509.258.4313
shawlsociety@yahoo.com

HISTORY

2007-11-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Uranium mining began on native lands in the 1950’s and continued until the market dropped in the early l980’s. Tribal members worked in the mining industry for three decades with little or no information about the toxic conditions of the workplace.

Two open-pit mines were launched on the Spokane Reservation. Midnite Mine began in 1953 and became a Superfund Site in 2000. There are complex difficulties with the Midnite reclamation due to aquifer penetration during mining operations, creating perpetual seepage evolving into two lakes of standing contaminated water which flows into Blue Creek and the Spokane River after undergoing a dated water treatment process.

Sherwood Mine was operated by Western Nuclear from 1978 until 1984 and has since been reclaimed. However, an estimated 1200 workers at Sherwood Mine and Millsite were never provided sufficient information about the detrimental impacts of radiation and by-product toxins associated with the uranium mining.

The residents of this reservation suffer disproportionate health impacts as a result of radiation and heavy metal contaminant exposure. There has never been a baseline health study conducted to determine health impact. Risk exposure to the community is especially high due to the subsistence lifestyle and cultural/spiritual practices, including hunting, fishing, gathering roots and berries, logging, sweatlodge and medicinal plant use.

CURRENT PROJECTS

2007-11-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

CURRENT PROJECTS

Community Uranium Radiation Education (CURE) gatherings
Resource Centers at Spokane Tribal College and IHS Clinic
Community Training Events
Uranium Curriculum Development Project with Wellpinit/Laguna Pueblo Schools
Youth Video Training Project with TANF
Indigenous Plants/Hide Tanning Projects
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) information services
Radiation Exposure Screening Education Program with IHS
Protecting Sacred Sites and Ceremonial Practices
Spokane River Fish Consumption Outreach
Holds membership in regional/national networks Peace Development Funds, BASE INITIATIVE; Indigenous Environmental Network; Western Mining Action Network