Church Rock Uranium Mining Disaster

From October 1987 thru June 1988 I worked as a temporary employee thru Upgrade Temp Service for TVA writing deposition summaries that allowed TVA to drop their contracts with United Nuclear Corporation among others who were responsible for this accident. I worked under the direction of employees of the Office of General Counsel (OGC)

Norman Zigrossi, TVA General Counsel 1987, was before the head of the FBI office in Rapid City, S.D. on June 26, 1975, the FBI stormed onto the Jumping Bull compound on the Pine Ridge Reservation under the pretext of merely serving a warrant on Jimmy Eagle, a Native teenager accused of stealing a used pair of boots. Zigrossi defended the bureau's use of illegal action against the Lakota people by stating that Native people were a "conquered nation", and that the FBI was merely acting as a "colonial police force". Zigrossi went on to say, "when you're conquered, the people you're conquered by dictate your future. This is a basic philosophy of mine. If I'm part of a conquered nation, then I've got to yield to authority". (January 2007 - If were going to use their Uranium We Have to Pay them For It. My wife Amy lived and worked near Rapid City with the Lakota Sioux for four years in the early 1990's and it would break her heart to see anything happen to them. - (Uranium Mines on Native Land The New Indian Wars - Uranium mine expansion threatens the Lakota - Uranium Mining Expert tours Pine Ridge - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - UN Rapporteur: Pine Ridge Housing Worst in US Special Rapporteur is a title given to individuals working on behalf of the United Nations who bear a specific mandate from the UN Human Rights Council (or the former UN Commission on Human Rights, UNCHR), to investigate, monitor and recommend solutions to human rights problems. They are also called "Special Procedures").

The 1987 case involved a suit by the Tennessee Valley Authority against United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) and its Church Rock, New Mexico mined and milled uranium. Now a CERCLA Superfund Cleanup Site.  TVA had contracted years before along with UNC the uranium for their then defunct nuclear power plants. (see The Gulliver UNC (United Nuclear Corporation) Dossier which states:

The dispute with TVA was settled in 1979 when UNC sold its interest in a number of its Wyoming uranium properties to TVA, namely Morton Ranch and Box Creek, containing just under 7 million pounds of uranium reserves, and agreed to purchase TVA's 50% interest in a JV near UNC's San Mateo mine, increasing the amount of its deliveries to TVA from 5 million to 6.25 million pounds between 1970 and 1984.
I disagree that this was the end of the UNC/TVA relationship because of the work I did as late as 1987 when TVA and UNC finally settled their relationship that involved the holdings at Church Rock, New Mexico.

I was assigned by Carol Smith, wife of TVA lawyer Lawrence Smith to a small room where for eight hours a day I wrote summaries for the TVA lawyers assigned the task of seeing that TVA be released from the contract to buy the mined and milled uranium located in Church Rock, New Mexico.
Before I continue I would like to give you a little bit about why this uranium had been purchased or at least contracted to be purchased by TVA. The following article explains what TVA's idea of getting a jump on the Energy Crisis failed because of the lack of concern for SAFETY.
NUCLEAR SCANDAL SHAKES THE TVA
By Brian Dumaine REPORTER ASSOCIATES Lorraine Carson and Brett Duval Fromson - October 27, 1986
(FORTUNE Magazine) � With $15 billion in nongenerating power plants, the Tennessee Valley Authority was in a jam. So it hired a hotshot admiral from the nuclear Navy and gave him an army of engineers to make the plants work. Result: TVA is worse off than it was before. THE MOST AMBITIOUS nuclear power program in the U.S. is in danger of becoming its most expensive scrap heap. Of the nine nuclear power reactors built by the Tennessee Valley Authority at a cost of $15 billion, not a single one is operating. Now a plan to fix them has careened wildly off course. A former admiral in the U.S. Navy, hired to get the nuclear program running, is charged by government officials with conflict of interest and violation of federal pay guidelines, while others raise questions of cronyism and bad judgment.
Founded in 1933 as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal, the TVA built hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants to supply electricity to Tennessee and six other states (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia). In 1966 it was ready to enter the nuclear age with a grandiose plan that eventually called for the construction of 17 nuclear reactors scattered throughout Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. But by the late 1970s the TVA discovered that demand for electricity was not growing as fast as it had anticipated. By 1984 it canceled plans for eight reactors on which the agency had already spent $4 billion. The TVA's nuclear plans now seem jinxed. All five of the reactors that were completed are shut down for safety reasons, including bad welding and wiring as well as faulty inspection procedures. Construction on the other four reactors has been slowed. Hundreds of TVA workers, polled in a confidential employee survey, identified 1,700 potential safety and operational problems at Watts Bar alone. Private utilities all over the country have stumbled over the immense complexities of building and operating nuclear power plants.

TVA was beginning to see that it had made huge mistakes in purchasing all the mined and milled uranium that had set for many years waiting to be shipped to it's nuclear plants, now shut down because of various reasons.
TVA, in its case against UNC had claimed several improprieties by UNC in their mining safety and environmental standards.  The Navajo, whose well water was contaminated were getting sick and dying because of the leaching of the mined uranium into the groundwater. (see On Poisoned Ground )   Of course TVA had purchased the uranium years before and had not their nuclear program all but collapsed this case would never have happened.  Also an issue was the inability of the Navajo miners to read and understand safety signs and proper methods of escape should there be a mining emergency.  The proper training had not been given the miners on either of these issues by UNC.  TVA had called in both the New Mexico mining inspectors and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to inspect and testify in their behalf against the large mining company (UNC).  This was all in Federal Court  New Mexico.  I read all the testimony given for three months and according to Mrs. Smith was the only person who had been brought in that seemed to understand what the case was all about and was proficient enough to get the summaries back to the lawyers before they returned to the trial in New Mexico.

TVA harassed the UNC lawyers with so many inspectors and fines, threats of fines and made such fools of them by using the miners and the miners' drinking water contamination as reason to close the mines, that the UNC lawyers conceeded the case in December 1986.  On the last day of the year the entire office, OGC, was called to an upstairs banquet room by then Chairman Chili Dean, TVA Board (1981-88) and a champaign toast was given in honor of everyone who had worked on the case.

I would like to apologize to the Navajo tribe for the audacious method in which their poverty and health has been used to benefit the American way of life of which I enjoy so much.  Following are some events that I have found on the Internet that give some idea of what transpired near Church Rock, New Mexico during the mining years there. (No there are no spaceships in Area 51 only poverty stricken people suffering to support my way of life.)
The Largest Nuclear Accident in the United States

Thanks to its location between the United States' media capital, New York City, and its political capital, Washington, D.C., as well as the coincident opening of the movie "The China Syndrome," Three Mile Island was America's best-publicized nuclear accident. It was not the largest such accident.
The biggest expulsion of radioactive material in the United States occurred July 16, 1979, at 5 a.m. on the Navajo Nation, less than 12 hours after President Carter had proposed plans to use more nuclear power and fossil fuels. On that morning, more than 1,100 tons of uranium mining wastes -- tailings -- gushed through a packed-mud dam near Church Rock, N.M. With the tailings, 100 million gallons of radioactive water gushed through the dam before the crack was repaired.
By 8 a.m., radioactivity was monitored in Gallup, N.M., nearly 50 miles away. The contaminated river, the Rio Puerco, showed 7,000 times the allowable standard of radioactivity for drinking water below the broken dam shortly after the breach was repaired, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The few newspaper stories about the spill outside of the immediate area noted that the area was "sparsely populated" and that the spill "poses no immediate health hazard."
  • Remembering the 30th Anniversary of the Largest Radioactive Spill in US History
  • Navajo president reaffirms tribal ban on uranium mining to mark 30th anniversary of spill
  • Chronology of major tailings dam failures


  • In 1922, oil was discovered on the Navajo Reservation. Standard Oil of California wanted access to the oil, but the U.S. government, as trustee, could not legally lease the Navajo land, without tribal consent, and there was not tribal entity that could legally sign. The Navajo Tribe had no governing body, and leadership was decentralized among many different local headmen. The U.S. government called a meeting of influential headmen to the San Juan Agency on May 1922 to lease the land, yet the headmen rejected all leasing applications. Therefore, the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall of New Mexico, invented a series of legal fictions to facilitate oil leasing. He created a Navajo "Business Council" of 3 Council members to sign and approve the oil leases on the Navajo Reservation. This was the beginning of the Navajo Tribal Council.

    In 1923, the Navajo Tribal Council was legally formed. The U.S. government made an effort to organize a more representative Navajo Tribal Council for purposes of mineral leasing. B.I.A. superintendents supervised the election of delegates from a larger geographical area on the Navajo Reservation to sit in what would be called the Navajo Tribal Council. The new council authorized the interior official (Hagerman) to negotiate all future oil and gas leases. The question of Indian rights to revenues from oil and gas leases raised issues of Indian title to the land itself, and formed the basis of a new round of land struggles.

    In the 1930s, the Navajo Tribal Council was organized with a membership of 12 delegates and 12 alternates. This body was also organized under rules written and authorized by the Secretary of Interior. These rules became the first governing laws of the Navajo Tribe.

    The present laws of the Navajo Nation are contained in the Navajo Tribal Code book containing more the 24 sections.

    On December 15, 1989, the Navajo Nation Council amended the Navajo Tribal Code to begin to gradually take back essential powers of self-government.

    Today, the Navajo Nation has the country's largest tribal government body. It is governed by 88 tribal council members, elected every four years by popular vote by the Navajo people on and off the reservation.

    Large-scale uranium mining began in the early 1950s (see Time Line E-2) with the opening of the Jackpile mine, an open-pit mine. By the late 1950s, a number of large mines were operating at Ambrosia Lake and the Church Rock mining district became active in the late 1970s. The industry continued operating into the early 1990s, longer than in other U.S. locations.

    Article by: Swaneagle Harijan
    Wednesday 13 Sep 2000

    Email: [email protected]

    Summary: Are Kevin Gover's words just that? 

     WHO WILL STOP THE MURDERS?

    The fate of those relocated will be seen in retrospect as a major human rights violation of the late 20th centurty within U.S. borders. Thousands of relocatees have died over the past l5 years. Thousands are homeless and then there are those forced to live on the \"New Lands\" where the suicide rate is among the highest in the nation. The water source has been tainted by the largest nuclear spill in U.S. history when United Nuclear\'s Church Rock dam broke in 1973 spilling 97 million gallons of highly redioactive contaminants into the Rio Puerco. The barren landscape is not conducive to the raising of corn or the herding of sheep. People live in misery awaiting death. The promised training and jobs never materialized. Assimilation is no success story.


    DISPOSAL OF URANIUM TAILINGS[ . . . original version ]

    Since 1978, when this CCNR report ("Nuclear Wastes: What, Me Worry?") was first written, much new information has become available on both the health risks from uranium tailings and the technical difficulties associated with their disposal. Indeed, the word "disposal" seems the wrong word to use. We do not really know how to dispose of any toxic materials, least of all uranium tailings. "Advanced dumping" might be a more suitable appellation.

    The largest single release of radiotoxic materials into the environment -- prior to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 -- occurred when a huge tailings dam in Church Rock, New Mexico, suddenly collapsed in 1979. Millions of tons of sandy tailings poured into the river, necessitating the wholesale slaughter of contaminated cattle downstream from the accident. The Church Rock dam was a brand new one, touted by those in the uranium industry as a "state of the art" structure. There have been over thirty less spectacular tailings dam failures in the Elliot Lake region.

    A Wall of Radioactive Water - Killing Our Own

    In the early morning hours of July 16, 1979--fourteen weeks after the accident at Three Mile Island--all of that changed. The dam at Church Rock burst sending eleven hundred tons of radioactive mill wastes and ninety million gallons of contaminated liquid pouring toward Arizona. The wall of water backed up sewers and lifted manhole covers in Gallup, twenty miles downstream, and caught people all along the river unawares. "There were no clouds, but all of a sudden the water came," remembered Herbert Morgan of Manuelito, New Mexico. "I was wondering where it came from. Not for a few days were we told."[1]

    No one was killed in the actual flood. But along the way it left residues of radioactive uranium, thorium, radium, and polonium, as well as traces of metals such as cadmium, aluminum, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, sodium, vanadium, zinc, iron, lead and high concentrations of sulfates.[2] The spill degraded the western Rio Puerco as a water source. It carried toxic metals already detectable at least seventy miles downstream.[3] And it raised the specter that uranium mining in the Colorado River Basin may be endangering Arizona's Lake Mead, and with it the drinking water of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and much of Arizona.

    Except for the bomb tests, Church Rock was probably the biggest single release of radioactive poisons on American soil. Ironically it occurred thirty-four years to the day after the first atomic test explosion at Trinity, New Mexico, not far away.

    NRC FINES UNITED NUCLEAR $100,000 FOR FAILING TO SET ASIDE FUNDS FOR DECOMMISSIONING CHURCH ROCK URANIUM MILL

    (Feb 14, 1997) "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a fine of $100,000 against United Nuclear Corporation, of Gallup, New Mexico, for failing to properly comply with a January 1992 order to set aside $16.4 million needed to decommission and decontaminate the Church Rock uranium mill site near Gallup." [NRC Region IV Press Relase 97/10]
    > View Notice of Violation EA 93-170

    In March 1997, NRC had issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the Crownpoint project as NUREG-1508 in March 1997. In this FEIS, NRC staff concluded that potential impacts of the project can be mitigated and the license should be issued. [NRC Press Release No.97-047 external link; Federal Register, March 21, 1997 (Vol.62, No.55), p.13725-13726 external link]. For an Errata to this FEIS, see Federal Register: Nov.18, 1997 (Vol.62, No.222), p.61556-61557 external link
    On December 5, 1997, NRC had issued its safety evaluation report for the Crownpoint project (NRC press release 97-179 external link). The safety evaluation report concluded that, if certain specified conditions are met, issuance of a license will not be inimical to public health and safety or to the common and defense and security, and will meet the requirements of NRC regulations and the Atomic Energy Act.
    > View Safety Evaluation Report (125k) external link, or Download (175k, PDF) external link

    In its comments on the Crownpoint Final EIS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated "EPA continuous to express concern regarding pressure control of groundwater in old mine workings, hydrogeologic monitoring and aquifer testing and analysis, baseline water quality, injection well design, aquifer restoration, wildlife and mitigation, waste management and emergency response, and indemnification to the federal government by the project proponent." [Federal Register, October 31, 1997 (Vol. 62, No. 211), p. 58969-58970 external link]

    > View details on the Crownpoint uranium ISL project and its impacts.

    Environmental Protection Agency Meeting with United Nuclear Corporation, April 22, 1998

    "On April 22, 1998, a representative from the Division of Waste Management participated in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Meeting with United Nuclear Corporation (UNC), New Mexico Environmental Department, and the Navajo Nation. The purpose of the Meeting was to discuss the EPA's draft five-year review of corrective action at UNC's Church Rock uranium mill site. UNC's Church Rock site is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed superfund site currently undergoing corrective action for a groundwater plume that developed from leachate generated by a uranium tailings impoundment. UNC provided its comments on the draft as well as its plans for site closure. The regulatory agencies provided comments on the tentative closure plans, and discussed options available to UNC for site closure including Alternate Concentration Limits and Technical Infeasiblity waivers." (NRC Weekly Information Report for the Week Ending May 1, 1998) On January 23, 1998, an administrative law judge with the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ordered a temporary stay of the HRI license awarded by the NRC staff on January 5. The judge's order was in response to a January 15 motion filed by Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) seeking a stay of the license until ASLB holds an evidentiary hearing and NRC completes historic and cultural site reviews pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act.

    On April 2, 1998, the Presiding Officer of the ASLB issued a Memorandum and Order denying the petitioners' motion for stay and request for prior Hearing, lifting the temporary stay, and denying motions to strike and for leave to reply in the ongoing Subpart L proceeding (10 CFR 2.1263) regarding the matter of HRI.

    On January 5, 1998, Hydro Resources Inc. received a license for its proposed uranium in-situ leaching facilities at Church Rock and Crownpoint, New Mexico. [NRC Press Release No.98-01]

    On October 19, 1999, the State of New Mexico approved the water rights application for HRI's Church Rock In-Situ Leach mining project in northwest New Mexico.

    <>On August 20, 1999, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) upheld the source materials license previously issued to HRI Inc. for its Crownpoint uranium in-situ leach project. In a decision denying the relief sought by intervenor groups seeking to invalidate HRI's license, the ASLB administrative law judge concluded, "the ISL mining project on Church Rock Section 8, with the license conditions imposed on it by the Staff of the Commission, does not pose a credible threat to the environment or to human health and safety." (URI Aug. 24, 1999)

    On Nov. 21, 2000, HRI submitted the requested Restoration Action Plan for the Church Rock Section 8 site of the proposed Crownpoint Uranium Project. On Feb. 27, 2004, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel found at the request of intervenors Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) that the associated financial assurance plan was inadequate. HRI thus still can't conduct any ISL mining.

    > Download LBP-04-03, LB MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (Ruling on Restoration Action Plan), Feb. 27, 2004 external link (PDF)

    On May 25, 2000, the NRC, at the request of The Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), the Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), and others, put Hydro Resources' license on hold:

    "Based on our review of LBP-99-13, the briefs filed in response to CLI-99-22, and other germane portions of the record, we conclude that HRI has failed thus far to submit an adequate financial assurance plan and that, until it does, it cannot use the license it has received from the NRC. We therefore add an additional condition to HRI's license prohibiting use of the license until an NRC-approved financial assurance plan is in place." (NRC Memorandum and Order CLI-00-08, available through ADAMS external link)
    On January 19, 2000 the Navajo Nation lifted its 1983 uranium mining moratorium for in-situ leaching (details).
    On August 22, 2002, HRI requested a license renewal for the Crownpoint project (SUA-1580) for a second term from January 6, 2003 through January 5, 2008.

    See also Federal Register: December 16, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 241), p. 77084-77085 (download full text external link)

    On July 24, 2001, HRI submitted the Restoration Action Plan for the Church Rock Section 17 site; it was approved by NRC approved on August 22, 2001.

    On November 21, 2001, HRI submitted the Restoration Action Plan for Crownpoint; it was approved by NRC on December 20, 2001.
    On September 17, 2001, HRI submitted the Restoration Action Plan for Crownpoint Unit One; it was approved by NRC on October 16, 2001.

    September 07, 2001

     

    Contacts: Lori Goodman (970) 259-0199
    Ed Brickey (970) 523-7460/216-1175
    Melton Martinez (505) 287-3848
    Congressman Rips High Pay Rates at Tennessee Valley Authority
    Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
    Publication Date: 02-MAR-01
    By Richard Powelson, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
    Mar. 2--The Tennessee Valley Authority reported that it paid $3.3 million in bonuses to 102 managers last year and also set aside $3.2 million in deferred compensation for 29 of those managers.
    Among the beneficiaries last year was the agency's chief administrative officer, Norman Zigrossi, who got $486,000 in bonuses and deferred compensation on top of $1 million in deferred pay for seven years through 1999. He retired in December.
    But U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, who long has questioned the federal corporation's need to provide large compensation packages, criticized the latest report showing deferred and instant compensation packages last year totaling as much as $480,000 to $551,000 for each of three top managers.

    BUSH Abandoning R.E.C.A.

    - While setting aside $30M to start new uranium mining!

    "Last year, Congress clearly mandated payments under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to former uranium miners, workers and Downwinders," said Melton Martinez, President of Eastern Navajo Uranium Workers. "But now, the government is denying and delaying justice by changing the rules, and have even stated clearly their priority constituents." Martinez was referring to a bill introduced by Rep Wilson (R-NM), House Energy Bill (HR4) that would give $30 million dollars to companies to start uranium mining, in the same area, where ill miners denied compensation live.

    Those who ignore mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. This seems to be what the Bush administration is doing in failing to recognize the injuries and injustices to the previous generation of uranium miners, by supporting new mining ventures without correcting old wrongs. Where is the compassion in even considering inflecting the same harm on the next generation without a thought for those presently suffering?

    Hazel Merritt, President of Utah Navajo Downwinders said, "Our compassionate conservative is delaying legislation to constituents least able to fight back, due to their illnesses and being elders. I guess this compassion is only reserved for the corporations." Merritt continued, "All we ask is for our elected leaders to obey the laws governing the RECA compensation program so that some of our people can still receive the benefits due them."

    JUSTICE, again being denied by changing the rules, by not issuing required regulations, and the continued manipulation of the RECA budget is a sad chapter documenting the ongoing legacy of uranium mining in the Four Corners states.. Justice delayed is Justice denied!

    Edward L. Brickey, President Colorado Uranium Workers Council and Western States R.E.C.A. Reform Coalition Co-Chair said, "The law said that the D.O.J. had 180 days to produce the rules and regulations for public law 106-245. That time was up January 10, 2001. It is 8 months overdue. So, does that not make our government in contempt of the law?" "Why do we allow them to make a mockery of our system of government? Is there any one held accountable for the job they should do for the citizens of this nation? Don't they understand the mental anguish and stress they are putting on our sick and elders? I hope and pray, as many do, Bush will guarantee that the law will be upheld, and justice finally served for the sick and dying radiation victims of our nation."

    The Western States RECA Reform Coalition consists of representatives of grassroots radiation victim's organizations from the states of NM, CO, AZ & UT working together in a force uniting people of different ethnic, geographic, religious and political backgrounds. Organizations includes: Colorado Plateau Uranium Workers, Colorado Uranium Workers Council, Navajo RECA Reform Working Group, Utah Navajo Downwinders, Northern Arizona Navajo Downwinders, Eastern Navajo Uranium Workers, Lukachukai Uranium Workers, Church Rock Uranium Workers and Dine' CARE.

    Dine' CARE
    10 A Town Plaza, PMB 138
    Durango, CO 81301
    (970) 259-0199 phone, (970) 259-3413 fax
    web: dinecare.indigenousnative.org

    Mon Mar 15, 2004
    Strathmore Acquires New Mexico Uranium Deposits
    STRATHMORE MINERALS CORP. ("the company") is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire two significant Uranium Deposits, both located within the Grants Uranium Belt of New Mexico, United States. The Grants Uranium District is one of the premier uranium districts in the world, and has produced over 340 million pounds of uranium.
    Based on over 150 drill holes, prior operators previously reported over 6 million pounds of contained U3O8, for the Church Rock Uranium Deposit. The deposit was previously explored by Kerr McGee of New Mexico. The Roco Honda uranium deposit has previously been reported to contain over 12 million pounds of U3O8, at an average grade of 0.31% U3O8. The project has been the subject of an extensive drill program conducted in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Additional work including feasibility studies and mining planning were completed; however, the collapse of uranium prices in 1980 prevented the planned mining operations.

    Subject to regulatory approval, the Company will pay $150,000 US and issue 300,000 shares over two years for the acquisition of both the Church Rock and Roco Honda uranium deposits.

    Rio Puerco Review Team, UNC-Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Dam Breach - GGI was retained by the Navajo Nation and DNA Peoples Legal Services to participate in review and analyses of 2 years of water quality and sedimentation data after the UNC-Church Rock uranium mill tailings dam broke. GGI personnel had designed the soil and water sampling program immediately after the spill to determine the extent and magnitude of radioactive and heavy metal contamination. GGI co-authored a report detailing analytical results and made recommendations for groundwater use and monitoring, and for surface water uses for livestock watering.


    Church Rock / Crownpoint project (ISL)

    On July 20, 2005, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued a decision (LBP-05-17), reducing the secondary groundwater restoration standard for uranium from 0.44 mg/L to 0.03 mg/L (equivalent to EPA's drinking water standard), and demanding changes to the Restoration Action Plan:

    "This decision resolves the issues embodied in the first category of challenges. For the reasons set forth below, I find – with the concurrence of Dr. Richard Cole and Dr. Robin Brett, who have been appointed Special Assistants – that HRI has demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that the intervenors' challenges relating to groundwater protection, groundwater restoration, and surety estimates do not provide a basis for invalidating HRI's license to perform ISL uranium mining at Section 17, Crownpoint, and Unit 1. However, I direct that
    (1) HRI's license be revised to reduce the secondary groundwater restoration standard for uranium from 0.44 mg/L to 0.03 mg/L, and
    (2) HRI's Restoration Action Plan be revised to include a cost estimate for expenses associated with disposal site unloading, surveying, and decontamination."

    Navajo Nation outlaws uranium mining

    Bakersfield Californian ^ | 4/21/05 | AP

    Posted on 04/21/2005 10:10:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

    WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - The Navajo Nation has outlawed uranium mining and processing on its reservation, which sprawls across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and contains one of the world's largest deposits of uranium ore.

    Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. must give the bill final approval. His spokesman said Thursday that Shirley "strongly" supports it.

    Mining companies began blasting holes on the reservation, which covers 27,000 square miles, in the 1940s and continued for nearly 40 years until decreased demand closed the operations.

    By then, the Navajos were left with radiation sickness, contaminated tailings and abandoned mines. To avoid repeating the past, Navajo leaders and grassroots organizations have been working for years to keep mining from starting again.

    The Navajo Nation Council voted 63-19 Tuesday in favor of the mining ban. Several council delegates predicted the legislation will be challenged in court - possibly as far as the Supreme Court.

    Members of Navajo grassroots organizations celebrated outside the council's chambers after the measure was approved.

    "This legislation just chopped the legs off the uranium monster," said Norman Brown, a member of one of the groups, Dine Bidzii. Dine is the Navajos' name for themselves.

    The legislation prohibits pit mining as well as "in-situ" processing, which involves using a solution to leach out uranium and pump it to the surface.

    Hydro Resources Inc. has been working with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for years to get approval for in-situ mining near the Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock. The company estimated nearly 100 million pounds of uranium exist at the sites.

    Hydro Resources has argued that in-situ mining is safer than older methods, but opponents note that 15,000 people rely on the area's underground aquifer and they fear contamination from the proposed operation.

    My one and probably the greatest advice that I could ever give anyone that truely is interested in beginning to solve the present energy crisis is (1) Throw the Oil Man that presently sits in the Oval Office Out. (2) Hold the Tennessee Valley Authority accountable for it's years and years of corruption and misuse and abuse of it's "authority" and so called wise use of not only southeastern coal but midwestern uranium. Disolve the TVA into seperate entities that are responsible for their own power sources that could be bid to such companies as Duke Power. Those two things would elevate much of what is wrong with the U.S. Energy Problem as it is today. Oh, and I am not the only one that might think that way.
    POGO says -
    The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government. For over five years, POGO has been investigating the systemic security failures at our nation�s nuclear power plants. One of the most recent security incidents was at Tennessee Valley Authority�s (TVA) Sequoyah nuclear power plant in Tennessee. One thing that I found when working with TVA back in 1978 that they do like to carry their guns around in their vehicles, assault rifles especially.

    A 2008 POGO article - Who the hell is regulating who?

    Waiting For Disaster
    During the 1970's and 1980's, the Three Mile Island (TMI) and the Chernobyl accidents failed to act as wake up calls to the hazards posed by the nuclear industry. Today, the American public is largely passive with regards to the industry's looming dangers. Currently, 76 high priority safety improvements that remain unimplemented exist at a minimum of 62 different nuclear power plants -- including one safety issue that brought a reactor within hours of a meltdown. The regulating body of the industry in the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has acquiesced to industry demands since its inception in 1975. Through the years, the nuclear industry effectively has controlled the NRC: regulations have been watered down or eliminated and licensees (or plant operators) have been given the power to regulate themselves. The relationship between the NRC and the industry has caused high priority safety issues to remain unresolved for more than ten years before changes are made or, more commonly, before issues are dismissed with no required changes. The impact of this cozy relationship has devastating potential. As incidents veer closer to meltdowns, the frequency of safety problems is likely to rise as power plants renew, up to an additional twenty years, their current forty-year licenses.

    The NRC's reliance on the nuclear industry has developed over the years into a blind trust of the nuclear industry that is neither justified nor warranted. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is a perfect example of why nuclear power plant operators cannot be trusted. In 1988, Ann Harris, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employee, reported 24 allegations to the NRC -- of which 23 were confirmed by the NRC. These allegations included falsification of documentation, tampering with documentation and covering-up improprieties. The NRC responded to one of the allegations with the following, "The completeness, accuracy, and adequacy of QA documentation is a long standing, documented problem at Watts Bar."5 If the NRC knew this to be a " . . . long standing, documented problem", then why didn't they impose severe fines against those who were involved and send out a message that the NRC will not tolerate improper behavior of any kind? Instead, the NRC has defaulted on its responsibility by giving the nuclear industry more power to regulate itself and, in some areas, is " . . . reducing the regulatory burden on licensees."6

    CASE 1. TVA: Disastrous Management Of Its Reactors
    The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was developed by the federal government in 1933 as a way to build up the economy of the Tennessee River Valley and to provide those in the surrounding area with a source of cheap electric power. Since then, TVA has expanded and now manages four nuclear power facilities: Watts Bar (TN), Sequoyah (TN), Browns Ferry (AL) and Bellefonte (AL). All of these reactors have had many problems that have caused the plants either to shut down or not be completed: Watts Bar 1 took more than twenty years to finally receive its operating license, while construction has discontinued on Unit 2; Sequoyah's reactors were shut down for three years in the mid-1980's; Browns Ferry has three units which were all shut down in the mid-1980's -- units 2 and 3 restarted in 1991 and 1995, respectively, while Unit 1 is not expected to restart; and construction on Bellefonte's two reactors has been halted due to financial constraints.
    "In September 1985, the NRC staff issued a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), discussing significant continuing weaknesses in TVA performance and stating that management of the TVA nuclear program was ineffective. . . . The number and complexity of relevant issues were not limited to the operating reactors, since questionable construction practices had also been identified at the TVA's Watts Bar (Tenn.) project."56
    TVA's weaknesses and ineffectiveness have yet to be corrected. It has been more than ten years since the NRC originally notified TVA of its problems. Currently, the NRC's "Watch List" includes Browns Ferry 3 in "Category 2" and Browns Ferry 1 in "Category 3".


    United States General Accounting Office
    Report to the Chairman
    Committee on Governmental Affairs
    U.S. Senate
    February 2000 TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
    Problems With Irrevocable Trust Raise Need for Additional Oversight

    The FBI/USAO investigation focused on whether Chairman Crowell's participation in the creation of CRS constituted a violation of 18 U.S.C. section 208. The investigation did not address CRS's questionable billing practices. The FBI conducted a number of interviews with TVA employees, including Mr. Zigrossi.

    Mr. Zigrossi told us that he had conversations with Virgil Young, at the time the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Knoxville, Tennessee, FBI office. Prior to becoming TVA's Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Zigrossi had been TVA's first IG and previously served as the SAC of the FBI Washington, DC, field office. ( Norman Zigrossi had also been Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) during the Pine Ridge incident against the OGLALA SIOUX 1972 - 1976) He asked SAC Young about the status of the FBI investigation of Chairman Crowell. However, SAC Young told us that while he did have conversations with Mr. Zigrossi during the FBI's investigation of Chairman Crowell, they did not discuss the investigation.

    On August 22 or 23, 1996, at the request of SAC Young, a meeting was held at the USAO with the AUSA, the Chief Assistant, the FBI supervisor, the FBI case agent, and SAC Young attending this meeting. At that time, SAC Young attempted to convince the USAO that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against Chairman Crowell. SAC Young told us that this was the first time he ever attempted to convince a U.S. Attorney not to pursue a prosecution. According to the FBI case agent, the arguments presented by SAC Young at the meeting were identical to those used by Mr. Zigrossi when the case agent interviewed Mr. Zigrossi. The FBI case agent stated that he believed that SAC Young presented Mr. Zigrossi's views as his own.

    The Chief Assistant stated that he had had many dealings with SAC Young and it was unusual for him to have a working knowledge of an ongoing investigation. A senior FBI official in the Knoxville FBI office told us that SAC Young did not involve himself in operational matters, including the details of ongoing investigations. The AUSA told us that it was highly unusual for any investigative agency to argue against proceeding with a prosecution, because the agency normally pushes for prosecution. The FBI case agent stated that the AUSA was so incensed about SAC Young's argument against prosecution that he provided the SAC a copy of the section of the U.S. Attorney's handbook that clearly states that the USAO will determine what warrants prosecution.

    Accordingly, on October 2, 1996, the USAO's First Assistant met with Justice's Public Integrity Section and the Associate Attorney General. During the meeting, the First Assistant discussed the status of the investigation and provided the following as reasons warranting the recusal of the U.S. Attorney and USAO: (1) the U.S. Attorney was a close personal friend of a former U.S. Senator and, as a result, has known Chairman Crowell for years; (2) the Eastern District of Tennessee had daily contact with individuals involved in the investigation; and (3) TVA's General Counsel's office worked closely with the Eastern District on civil and other TVA-related matters. The U.S. Attorney and members of his supervisory staff concluded that it would be difficult for the Eastern District to maintain an impartial posture in the investigation and prosecution of the allegations against Chairman Crowell.

    We attempted to interview Chairman Crowell and Mr. Zigrossi, but both declined our request. We also attempted to interview the Public Integrity Section trial attorney who was assigned to the investigation of Chairman Crowell; however, Justice declined our request. We previously interviewed the AUSA assigned to the investigation of Chairman Crowell during our 1999 investigation of TVA. We attempted to interview the AUSA during this investigation; however, Justice declined our request.

    As discussed with your office, unless you announce its contents earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days after the date of this letter. At that time, we will send letters to interested congressional committees and members and make copies available to others upon request. If you have questions about our investigation, please contact me or Deputy Director for Investigations Donald Fulwider at (202) 512-7455. Assistant Director John Ryan was a key contributor to this investigation.

    Sincerely yours,
    Robert H. Hast
    Acting Assistant Comptroller General
    for Special Investigations


    Remember the greatest victory that the Tazewell area ever saw and probably why there is a settlement named Tazewell at all? Well it was the very first. The Pioneers defeated the Indians - Nothing like the latest Panthers defeating the Bulldogs but notable -

    The settlement at Fort BUTLER was once attacked by a large squad of Indians. The whites succeeded in getting them surrounded on a high bluff near the mouth of SYCAMORE and pressed them until they jumped over the cliff and were either killed or drowned. They killed nearly all the enemy. This was a great victory for Fort BUTLER. They were not molested any more for a long time.

    For all you Rocky Top fans maybe this is what you should do. Dirve up on Cherokee Bluff, gather all your big orange memorbillia and jump off. If you can't CUT IT GO JUMP OFF A CLIFF, right?


    More profits, bonuses for utility Tennessee Valley Authority

    December 13, 2007 - In a separate report to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, TVA detailed incentive payments greater than $25,000 to 54 top executives.

    TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore earned total compensation of $1.84 million for the fiscal year, up from $1.59 million last year. Kilgore is eligible to make $2.7 million next year under a compensation plan approved last month by TVA's board.


    Both of my jobs with the Tennessee Valley Authority entailed taking a No. 2 lead pencil and legal pad and writing at length several pages of deposition. I enjoyed the heck out of both of them.
    I think that going forward into the new year that the spill that took place on the Emory River, sadly enough, is going to be the break that those who study environmental impact of the nations largest public utility needed. And in this instance for TVA, the quicker they can collect their samples the better. I worked on site at the Oak Ridge Reservation for a project known as the Environmental Restoration Division and particularly a group formed to test the effects of years of dumping and seepage of both fossil fuel refuge but primarily the waste generated from the processing of uranium into bomb grade material. This project tested groundwater, soil and water in the streams and rivers FIFTY YEARS after the major waste was deposited and found that most of the Waste Area Groupings contained limits of waste far above any guidelines, however lenient they were. It takes years for some of these contaminants to work their way into the pathways that can become harmful to human and animal ingestion. As with the Clinch River Remedial Investigation, the government is going to spend billions of dollars in both studying, remediation and covering up the damage to both the public, the wildlife and the environment. And in the end the local feeling will be that TVA and the other governmental agencies are doing enough to protect these environs. Bull Pookey, the government will be covering their hind end the entire time in order to survive. They know who to hire and who not to hire, who will eat the bull pookey that they dish out and sit back and grin through all the cancer, leukemia and health problems that it causes. I know this all for a fact. I wanted out and I got out, sorry for those who think that their suffering is worth paying those huge salary's. Had TVA been brought to bear the burden of years of neglect of environmental policies many years ago not only would there not have been a breach of the retention site, there would have been much less pollution to warrant air quality alerts and in a larger sense less worry about the future of the planet because of policies such as there's, TVA's. Now many would say my views of our energy policy and my belief that our fighting men, fighting terrorism and those that would destroy our American way of life conflict. Some do, and I don't care what you say, everything is not always either Black or White. I speak from my experience working within these agencies. Now, if you want to know what I think about the U.S. Department of State you'll have to wait until the new Administration takes office and give me about six months to digest their foreign policy.

    An update on Uranium Mining the New Mexico Area - Impending Environmental Disaster: Uranium Mining Begins Near Grand Canyon - by Klee Benally

    March 14, 2010 - According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.

    In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Dine families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.

    And on the opposing side the following comes from - Science versus Fiction: Have New Mexico Environmentalists Been Telling the Truth - By James Finch Platinum Quality Author

    Visit the outskirts of any reservation and you will find piles of beer, liquor and wine bottles. One littered stop near Crownpoint, New Mexico took on the personality of a landfill. Where are SRIC's mercy cries for the abused Navajo? More Navajos have died as a result of automobile accidents while intoxicated than from fifty years of uranium mining. But then again, that may be of little concern to an environmentalist group. Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley, Jr. might make better use of Mr. Shuey by asking him, "Can you help us out with the alcohol problem, instead?"


    UPDATE November 2013 - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - (NRC) has received a license amendment application from United Nuclear Corporation (UNC or the licensee), dated April 17, 2012, requesting an amendment to Source Materials License Number SUA–1475 for the UNC Church Rock Mill site located in New Mexico (the UNC license) [ADAMS Accession No. ML12150A146]. On October 12, 2012, UNC submitted a three-dimensional groundwater flow model for the UNC Church Rock Mill site and adjacent downgradient areas [ADAMS Accession Nos. ML12305A320 and ML12305A324]. In a letter dated November 16, 2012, UNC requested that the NRC consider the merits of this groundwater flow model in support of their April 2012 license amendment application [ADAMS Accession No. ML12334A292]. The requested amendment seeks to revise the NRCapproved background threshold values for groundwater constituents in point of compliance wells for all three hydrostratigraphic units as it pertains to license condition 30.B of Source Materials License Number SUA–1475 and Section 5(B)(5)(a) Part 40 Appendix A of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR).

    An NRC administrative review, documented in a letter to UNC dated January 10, 2013, (ADAMS Accession No. ML13007A069) determined that the application and supplemental information was acceptable to begin a technical review. Please note that the NRC technical review of the groundwater flow model will be narrowly focused on supplemental information pertinent to the amendment request to revise background concentration levels. If the NRC approves the requested amendment, the approval will be documented in an amendment to NRC Source Materials License Number SUA–1475. However, before approving the proposed amendment, the NRC will need to make the findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the NRC’s regulations. These findings will be documented in a Safety Evaluation Report and an Environmental Assessment.

    This is not a request for a renewal of license for the Chruch Rock Mine or Mill site. For more on what the EPA is still requesting UNC to do please see EPA, United Nuclear Corporation Mill Site, New Mexico

    For a complete background on the ongoing plight to clean up the Church Rock, New Mexico site please see WISE Uranium Project- Decommissioning Projects - United Nuclear Church Rock uranium mines and mill, McKinley County, New Mexico, USA