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Native Americans, Environmentalists presssure Congress to clean up uranium mines

Enviros push Congress on abandoned uranium mine cleanup, Tucson Sentinel Aug 11, 2014,  Matthew Seeman Cronkite News Service The people behind Clean Up the Mines understand that others have been trying for years to clean up abandoned uranium mines and have mostly met with limited success.

But they say that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t keep trying.

The grass-roots advocacy group launched in April with the goal of getting Congress to mandate cleanup of the more than 10,000 abandoned mines in the country, at least 500 of which are on the Navajo Nation.

“This needs to be a federal standard,” said Klee Benally, a Navajo who is a member of Clean Up the Mines. “It needs to be the highest that we can possibly have to address these toxic abandoned uranium mines.”

Key to that effort is a proposed piece of legislation, the Uranium Exploration and Mining Accountability Act, that would require a complete inventory of the thousands of abandoned mines in the U.S. It would be the first bill specifically addressing uranium mining, said Charmaine White Face, who drafted the proposal and is coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills.

She said Clean Up the Mines formed after several native communities in South Dakota shared concerns that abandoned mines had contaminated their water supply……..http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/081114_uranium_clean_up/enviros-push-congress-abandoned-uranium-mine-cleanup/

August 12, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA