By: Duane Craig
There is a long story of radioactive
contamination across New Mexico, especially in the northwestern portion of the
state, where recent estimates of cleaning up just one site will require the
removal of 1.4 million tons of soil, according to an article at E&E
Publishing, LLC.
Much of this story centers around the
U.S. Department of Energy and the United States’ race with the Soviet Union to
see who could create more nuclear weapons. The five-year cleanup plans in this
part of the country come and go like the winds, while more than 500 polluted
mine sites wait to be cleaned up. Meanwhile, the people live with contaminated
water and land, and there are even radioactive homes that were built with waste
from uranium mining.
The Environmental Protection Agency says
miners took about four million tons of uranium from Navajo lands between 1944
and 1986, and besides fueling the manufacture of nuclear bombs, it was also
pressed into service for nuclear power plants. Uranium mining activity left an
indelible mark on the land and even in the water. In a part of the country
where 30 percent of residents use untreated water, and water quality is often
unknown or too dangerous to drink, the long-term health implications become
even more staggering.
There is much more to the detailed story here.
