White Mesa Ute March Against Radioactive Dump on Homeland in Utah

Dumping on Indian Country: White Mesa Ute March Against International Radioactive Waste Dumping on Homeland

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

WHITE MESA, Utah -- Ute Mountain Ute Yolanda Badback welcomed all to the spiritual walk and rally to halt the uranium mill now poisoning the land, water and air in San Juan County in southeastern Utah, in the Four Corners region.

The White Mesa Mill, operated by Energy Fuels, is now bringing in radioactive waste from other countries, after already storing nuclear waste that was too dangerous to remain at the Nevada Test Site.

Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart said the uranium mill is not just a Ute problem and the resources must be protected for the future.

"The mountains are our homeland. We're put there by our Creator as stewards to take care of the mountains all the way down to this area," Chairman Heart said.

The rally and spiritual walk on Saturday to protect the White Mesa Ute community’s health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from the nearby White Mesa uranium mill and show community opposition to the mill operating as an international dumping ground for radioactive waste from around the world. The protest and walk are sponsored by the White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

Michael Badback, Ute, said, it's for our kids off the Mesa and all the kids that are commuted on the bus every day and every afternoon going home. These trucks come by. We're afraid that if they wreck, then who's going to be liable for that, when the kids go through and they get sick?"

"This is a big thing for us and we don't want them to expand, because we can smell that smell when winter comes. It settles in the mesa and we can smell that sulfur smell. During the winter or sometimes during the summer when we go by, you can smell it. It's not a good smell. And a lot of our people got sick and we don't know if it's due to that," Badback said.

Ute Mountain Ute Councilman Conrad Jacket said Ute are dying from cancer and the mill isn't just a local Ute problem.

"It's everybody's problem. You see that wind when it blows? It blows the powder across state lines into Colorado. And it's the same thing I said to the representatives and to the senator and to the governor, it's going to be our problem. It's going to go into our reservoir and go into our water."

"It's going to affect us the cattle. They're eating the hay, and we're eating those processed beef, too. So it's going to affect us, all of us, in the long run. The state of Utah does not give a care. I'm going to say that again. They do not give a care. They do not give a care. This is the place where they want to dump their waste. And not only the waste in America, but we take waste from China, from Japan, from Europe."

"All of the countries who helped us during World War II, they dumped their waste here, and that's not right. And like I said, it's not just our problem. It's everybody's. It's White Mesa, Blanding, Bluff, Montrose, Monticello, Cortez, Durango, Colorado, this whole area."

White Mesa Mill accepted an alternate feed from Estonia in Europe last summer, that is leftover uranium-bearing materials.

The radioactive waste disposals are leaking and poisoning the aquifer where Navajo, Hopi and the Four Corners region get their water.

Read more: Statements and photo courtesy Ashley Davidson
Communications Director. Grand Canyon Trust, at Censored News:

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/10/white-mesa-ute-march-against.html

Top photo credit: Ashley Davidson, Grand Canyon Trust