Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment is one of 39 environmental and peace organizations that won a landmark lawsuit against the U.S Department of Energy for failure to follow-through on adequate environmental cleanup during its 50+ years of nuclear weapons research, testing, and production. Part of this settlement was the establishment of the MTA Fund (Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund), which provided $6.25 million for tribes and non-profit organizations to assess and conduct independent technical and scientific studies regarding the multitude of technical, ecological, and health issues surrounding the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.
Clark University was chosen by the non-profit peace and environmental groups as the conservator of these reports to ensure they remain available to the public in perpetuity. The unconventional election of university as conservator is an innovative example, particularly within the era of Web 1.0, of higher education as protector and provider of information through wide dissemination.
The research and reports available in this series were conducted by Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment with their allocated portion of the MTA fund.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu.
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A Short History of the Moab Project and the White Mesa Mill Alternative
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment
Bullet point summary of the Moab Project and the White Mesa Mill Alternative. The context of this summary is that in 2001, the Moab site, in Grand County, Utah, fell under the control of the Department of Energy. A plan was then formed to relocate the uranium mill tailings pile on the Moab site to the White Mesa Mill (located approximately six miles south of Blanding, Utah), a fully licensed and active uranium mill site.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 5 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu.
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Literature Survey
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and John Redhouse
Literature survey relating to the record of decision approving the license for the White Mesa Mill, the only fully-licensed and operating conventional uranium mill in the United States. Besides inadequate environmental impact statements and even more inadequate environmental assessments leading up to this decision, there exists a dearth of independent technical and scientific information related to the radiological effects of the White Mesa Mill. Also sadly lacking in the mill licensing and license amendment process was and is the existence of sound ethnographic data documenting the significance of the uranium mill's impacts on Navajo cultural resources. However in the absence of adequate or independent environmental information and the paucity of sound cultural data, we were still able to survey and review the broad sweep of available literature appertaining to the unique history and geography of the uranium-rich Paradox Basin and Colorado Plateau.
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Policy Impacts of Native Citizen Activists
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and John Redhouse
Case illustration by American Indian activist John Redhouse about the deaths of Norman and Shirley Begay, who were active in the fight to stop radioactive wastes from being shipped and stored at the controversial White Mesa Hill.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 5 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu
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Final Report
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment
The basic need that provoked the idea of doing a comprehensive community based health survey began with several questions that are normally asked by the Navajo people and uranium workers. 1) Is there a relationship between radioactive contamination and the increased health problems facing Navajo people living in the Eastern Navajo Agency? 2) Are these increased health problems due to the fact that they live in close proximity to 166 uranium mines and 5 mills located in this area? 3) Why are the sheep herders dying from cancer much the same as uranium workers – could it be because they drank rain water, ate wild berries and roots, lived off their cornfields, ate mutton and rabbits 30 to 40 years ago? 4) Health officials tell us that cancer is the number three (3) killer of our Navajo people – some of the causes of deaths are not recorded, because our people would rather go to the medicine man for healing. Why is death from cancer on the rise among our Navajo people? 5) We ask why the prevalent kidney disease Ig A nephrophty has not been investigated for possible relationship to radiation contamination. This disease, said to affect only Navajos, has been found in 27% of all biopsies performed on deceased Navajo people.
The questions asked are derived from our experience with and from the history of radiation contamination on the Navajo Nation for the past seven long decades.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 2 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu
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Research on Health
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and Norma Nager
The report presented here is a description of activities for the first year of an investigation of the health and environmental effects of radioactive contamination caused by working in and/or living near the now abandoned uranium mining and milling operations. Its focus is on McKinley County, New Mexico and its surrounding area, the location of the Eastern Navajo Agency (ENA). Whether environmental and health problems experienced by people living in the ENA are the result of their having worked in uranium mills, lived near and still living close to sources of radiation contamination is the question. Uranium mines in the ENA have been inoperative for decades, however, many abandoned and un-reclaimed open pit and underground mines, mill tailings piles remain. Hundreds of uranium drillings remain uncapped as well, and continue to pose threats to the health and the environment of people living in the area.
Contains supplementary file of references, also available for download.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 2 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu
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Geographic Information System Work on Eastern Navajo Agency
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and Xavier Morales
This report summarizes to date, the planning and collection of data elements to assist in the development of a geographic information system for Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment. This project seeks to identify and link historical exposures to radiation sources and contemporary illnesses that may be attributed to radiation exposure. The main component of the project is based on a health survey whose data elements will be geocoded and displayed in a map format using GIS software.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 2 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu
