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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                             
Monday, Oct. 24, 2011

N.M. ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS DEMAND US GOVERNMENT TO HOLD NRC ACCOUNTABLE
PRESS CONFERENCE 3 p.m. TODAY

Albuquerque, N.M. —To call attention to suffering from the health and environmental effects from 60 years of uranium mining in N.M., the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment has called a press conference today at the Albuquerque Marriott, 3 p.m., before the U.S. Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice conference.  The speakers at the press conference will address why permits for uranium mining in and around the Grants mineral belt should not be granted. 

“We’re sick of environmental injustice,” says Petuuche Gilbert, Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment.

 “Our land and water is being used as a national sacrifice area,” adds Laura Watchempino Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment.

The press conference is set immediately before the U.S. Federal Interagency Working Group (IWG) in Albuquerque, NM. The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) was established in 1994 under Executive Order.

Items addressed at the conference include:

1. MASE demands clean up of uranium mining and milling sites to pre-mining and pre-milling conditions.
2. MASE is against all uranium mining and milling projects due to the long lasting uranium legacy in the Grants Mineral Belt.
3. MASE demands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to conduct a siting study and exploration for a permanent repository for legacy waste.
4. MASE demands Council on Environmental Quality and U.S. Government Accountability Office hold oversight hearings on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s purpose and accountability. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not address environmental justice concerns and public health. MASE demands communities take the lead with technical support from other agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environmental Department in efforts regarding uranium legacy issues.
5. MASE demands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sign the Environmental Justice Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).  An Aug. 4, 2011 MOA recommits the 17 agencies and departments that signed the deal to implementing the Clinton-era Executive Order (EO) 12898, which generally required agencies to make environmental justice part of their missions and established a federal Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Environmental Justice.
6. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is disguised as an independent regulatory agency when in fact they use taxpayer money to promote and shield the nuclear industry.WHAT: Press Conference held by the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) immediately before the U.S. Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice.
   The National Public Meeting for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) meets Oct.25-26 at the same location.
   http://www.epa.gov/compliance/ej/interagency
   http://www.epa.gov/compliance/ej/nejac/meetings.html
   WHERE: Entrance to the Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM
   WHEN: Monday, October 24, 2011, 3 p.m.
   SPEAKERS INCLUDE: 
   Nadine Padilla, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE)505-486-3499, mz.nadine@gmail.com
   Candace Head-Dylla, Milan, NM resident, 505-401-4349, cheaddylla@gmail.com

The Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) is rooted in the experiences of uranium-impacted communities of the southwestern U.S. We are communities working to restore and protect the natural and cultural environment through respectfully promoting intercultural engagement among communities and institutions for the benefit of all life and future generations.

MASE Core Group of Alliances
Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance, Dineh Bidziil Coalition, Eastern Navajo Diné  Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment,  Post-71 Uranium Workers Committee  

MASE Affiliated Groups and Allies
Amigos Bravos, Moquino Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association, New Mexico Environmental Justice Working Group, McKinley Community Health Alliance, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Office of Peace, Justice and Creation Stewardship, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, Ramah Navajo Community, Red Water Pond Road Community Association, Sierra Club Environmental Justice Office, Southwest Research and Information Center, Stewards of Creation, NukeWatch, Think Outside the Bomb, Western Mining Action Network, Wise Uranium

 www.masecoalition.org

Contact:
Jennifer Marshall
505-231-1776
jennifer@jmarshallplan.com
www.jmarshallplan.com

The New York Times covered the fight for Mt. Taylor in their Thursday, August 18, 2011 paper and interviewed MASE’s very own Nadine Padilla. Padilla represented MASE saying:

Nadine Padilla of the Multi-Cultural Alliance for a Safe Environment urged regulators to deny the permit on both environmental and cultural grounds. “We’re not only concerned about the quality of the environment and possible contamination of the site; we’re also concerned because it’s a sacred place, a place that tribes regard as holy,” said Padilla, who is of Navajo and Pueblo ancestry and grew up nearby.

To read the entire article, click on the jump or follow this link directly to The New York Times article.

(more…)

Crowd divided on mining issue

By Wren Abbott

Santa Fe Reporter | sfreporter.com

The New Mexico Mining and Minerals Department will issue a decision Thursday, Sept. 1 regarding the Mt Taylor Mine operator’s application to keep the site open.

At a four-hour hearing last night at Cibola Convention Center in Grants, the state MMD listened to testimony from mine operator Rio Grande Resources as well as environmental groups and the public regarding the status of the mine. The site, which is located about 12 miles northeast of Grants outside the tiny town of San Mateo, has the US’s largest store of high-grade uranium, but has not been actively mined since 1990. Partly because the profitability of mining for any substance fluctuates over time based on various factors, RGR has sought to keep the site on “standby” for the next five years, with the option to begin mining again within that period.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center represented two environmental groups at the hearing—Taos-based Amigos Bravos and Albuquerque-based Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment. The latter group sought to protect not only environmental but also cultural interests, based on the significance of the Mt Taylor area to many native American groups.

The public in attendance at the hearing was polarized on the issue, with members of the public aggressively cross-examining other public speakers. At one point a man tried to shoot down arguments made by Juan Juanico of Acoma Pueblo, who expressed concerns about the mine’s effects on water quality and noted that several of his family members died of cancer. Acoma is about 20 miles southeast of the mine site.

“We have yet to identify the causes of cancer in the majority of people who passed on here,” Juanico said.

The other man stood up and began questioning Juanico regarding whether smoking is allowed in casinos at Acoma, suggesting an alternative source of carcinogens.

Walter Leach was among the mine’s cheerleaders, asking mine manager Joe Lister how many jobs the mine could bring to Grants if it goes back into operation.

“If we operate at full capacity, in historical terms it would be somewhere around 1,000 men,” Lister replied.

Leach pointed out that the mine could potentially bring a boost to the area’s tax base if it went into operation.

“If we’re going to re-start America it starts locally,” Lister said in agreement. “It starts in rooms like this across the country.”

But Candace Head-Dylla scored a point for the anti-mining contingency, getting Lister to admit that RGR contributed to environmental contamination at the site in the past, though at first he said RGR hadn’t, to his knowledge. When Head-Dylla then asked whether he could promise that RGR wouldn’t cause contamination again, Lister replied, “I can’t make that statement.”

For more of SFR’s coverage of Mt Taylor Mine, see the print edition that comes out Wednesday, Aug. 24.

Updates on the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and a nuclear reactor plant threatened by flood waters in Nebraska.

An open letter to President Obama is running in The New York Times today. The letter is a request to extend the mining claim moratorium in the Grand Canyon National Park and reads:

Dear President Obama:

Since the Grand Canyon received its first national protection under President Theodore Roosevelt, tens of millions of visitors have gazed in awe at its unspoiled beauty. But today this natural treasure it threatened. Thousands of uranium mining claims have been staked on national forest and other federal lands immediately surrounding the park, many within view of the canyon’s rim.

In 2009, your administration wisely called a two-year halt to these claims. But now you must decide whether to extend the moratorium for 20 years and, if so, how much of the land to set off limits. What hangs in the balance is not just the Grand Canyon’s splendor for future generations, but important wildlife habitat and the health of the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to millions.

Mr. President, please extend the mining claim moratorium and protect all 1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

The ad is sponsored by the PEW Environment Group and signed by many public figures and environmental groups including actors Robert Redford and Edward Norton, filmmaker Ken Burns, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. The letter also includes signatures from Jacqueline Johnson Pata, the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and Richard Walema, Sr., vice-chairman for the Hualapi Tribal Council.

To see the ad in full, pick up a copy of today’s (Tuesday, June 7, 2011) New York Times or open the .pdf here:  060711 NYT Grand Canyon ad