The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a plan to clean up radioactive waste at abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation near Gallup, New Mexico.
The agency will remove a million cubic yards of uranium waste rock from the Quivira Mines site and relocate it to a new off-reservation repository 30 miles away east of Thoreau.
“This solution is a compromise that will get radioactive waste in this area off of the Navajo Nation as soon as possible,” said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren. “It’s not everything the three affected communities would wish for but it’s action in the right direction now rather than in the future. Most importantly, this will protect our people from harmful exposure."
The uranium tailings are left over from mining by the Kerr-McGee Corporation from the late 1960s until 1986, and for decades have impacted three Navajo communities in the Coyote Canyon and Standing Rock chapters.
"This decision will remove over 1 million cubic yards of waste that has haunted the Red Water Pond Road and Pipeline Road communities for too long,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “These cleanup efforts will pave the way for these two Diné communities to fully—and safely—utilize this land.”
The waste rock hauling is set to begin in early 2025 and will take six to eight years to complete.
According to the EPA, the Quivira Mine sites accounted for 2–4% of all historic uranium mining in New Mexico, producing about 1.3 million tons of uranium ore from two of the primary mine shafts.
The sites are among the more than 500 Cold War-era abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo Nation.