Navajo leaders press EPA on abandoned uranium mine cleanup efforts

The unresolved danger is not abstract: abandoned uranium mines still threaten drinking water, grazing land and the health of families living near contaminated sites across the Navajo Nation. At a government-to-government meeting at Twin Arrows Casino and Resort on March 31, Navajo leaders pressed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for real progress, not another round of discussion, on a contamination problem that has lingered for decades in McKinley County and beyond.

Brenda Jesus, chair of the Navajo Nation Resources and Development Committee, said the effects of abandoned uranium mines on the land and people have been devastating, with residual contamination still affecting water tables, livestock and wildlife. The meeting brought together EPA representatives, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency staff and regional chapter officials, underscoring how central the issue remains for communities near Gallup, I-40 east of Gallup, Zuni Pueblo and other areas tied to the Navajo Nation’s water and land use.

EPA says the uranium legacy on Navajo lands stretches from 1944 to 1986, when nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo lands. The agency says more than 500 abandoned uranium mines remain on and near the Navajo Nation, with potential health effects that include lung cancer, bone cancer and impaired kidney function. EPA has worked with the Navajo Nation on Superfund technical assistance and funding since 1994, but tribal officials have continued to press for faster removal of waste and stronger long-term monitoring.

The cleanup program now has major federal money behind it, but the scale of the work remains daunting. EPA says settlements and enforcement agreements valued at more than $1.7 billion have made funds available to begin assessment and cleanup at 230 of the 523 abandoned uranium mines. Of those, 46 mines were prioritized based on gamma radiation, proximity to homes and potential water contamination, and 44 priority mines are now in the assessment phase, which includes biological and cultural surveys, radiation scanning and soil and water sampling.

The federal approach has also evolved through a series of plans. EPA says the 2008-2012 Five-Year Plan was the first coordinated federal effort on Navajo uranium contamination, followed by the 2014-2018 plan and then the 2020-2029 Ten-Year Plan. That latest plan covers contaminated structures, water and drinking water, the Tuba City dump site, health, community involvement and Navajo workforce development, with input from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Navajo Area Indian Health Service and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

For McKinley County residents, the test is whether those plans translate into visible cleanup. EPA finalized the Quivira Mines cleanup plan near Gallup on January 7, 2025, calling for removal of more than 1 million cubic yards of waste from the Red Water Pond Road and Pipeline Road communities and transport to a new repository at the Red Rocks Landfill property east of Thoreau. EPA estimated the site holds about 1,005,500 cubic yards of waste and said the work would take six to eight years. A separate $63 million cleanup agreement for the Northeast Church Rock Superfund Site, announced August 11, 2025, would excavate about one million cubic yards of contaminated waste and take more than a decade. The question now is how quickly those promises will reach the ground where Navajo families live, farm and haul water every day.