Diné Coalition Opposes Navajo President's Push for Coal Mining and Uranium Transport

Diné Coalition Opposes Navajo President's Push for Coal Mining and Uranium Transport

DINÉ COALITION OF GRASSROOTS ORGANIZERS DEMAND TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM NAVAJO NATION TRIBAL GOVERNMENT ON ENERGY AND URANIUM DEVELOPMENT AND SACRIFICING SACRED SITES

Dine' Coalition Press Statement, Censored News, April 17, 2025

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- A coalition of grassroots groups released a statement in response to recent announcements and actions by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren regarding coal development, carbon market deals, and potential new mining projects.

The coalition will host a Press Conference from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (MDT) on Monday, April 21, 2025, outside the Navajo Nation Council Chambers during the first day of the Navajo Nation Council’s Spring Session. Please bring a folding chair, water, hats, and sunscreen, and dress appropriately for the weather to keep yourself safe and comfortable during the Press Conference.

Summary of full statement:

● We call on the Navajo Nation President to stop making deals that degrade our land,
water, and future.

● We urge tribal leaders not to repeat historical mistakes with respect to uranium
extraction: Leave this Nayee’, Łeetso, in the ground. The cleanup and remediation of
hundreds of abandoned mines must be completed, prioritizing public health safety and ecosystem health.

● We stand against the transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation because it is inconsistent with the intent of the Navajo Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Persons and Materials Transportation Act of 2012, regardless of jurisdictional limits on our highways and roads.

● We steadfastly OPPOSE coal development, which negatively impacts the lands, water, and health of the Navajo people and contributes to climate change.

● We stand in protection of our water, health, traditional lifeways, Earth bundles (Jish), and Mother Earth.

We call on all Diné land defenders, water protectors, healers, young leaders, matriarchs and warriors to stand together at WINDOW ROCK on APRIL 21, 2025. Together, we will make our voices heard and remind our Navajo Nation government that they are entrusted to make decisions that protect our People and protect our sacred homelands.

Statement from Diné Coalition of Grassroots Organizers in response to Navajo Nation

President Buu Nygren’s recent statements and actions regarding uranium, carbon markets, coal, and other harmful extractive processes.

We are a coalition of Diné organizers, land defenders, water protectors, traditional knowledge holders, matriarchs, and young leaders. We are calling on our Diné people to stand united in protecting Mother Earth and our sacred homelands and waterways. We invite you to a Press Conference on Monday, April 21, 2025, from 10 am to 1 pm to unite our voices across Dinetah and join our call for transparency and accountability.

The future of our Nation and our people is not for sale. We need to support our farmers and ranchers and our Diné business owners, while also protecting the health of our people and the preservation of our precious homeland. The Nygren Administration’s recent statements and actions do not reflect the will of the Diné People, and we call on our Navajo Nation Council to ensure that such actions are not taken in violation of our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

Summary:

● We call on the Navajo Nation President to stop making deals that degrade our land,

water, and future.

● We urge tribal leaders not to repeat historical mistakes with respect to uranium

extraction: Leave this Nayee’, Łeetso, in the ground. The cleanup and remediation of

hundreds of abandoned mines must be completed, prioritizing public health safety and

ecosystem health.

● We stand against the transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation because it is inconsistent with the intent of the Navajo Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Persons and Materials Transportation Act of 2012, regardless of jurisdictional limits on our highways and roads.

● We steadfastly OPPOSE coal development, which negatively impacts the lands, water, and health of the Navajo people and contributes to climate change.

● We stand in protection of our water, health, traditional lifeways, Earth bundles (Jish), and Mother Earth.

With the Trump administration’s announced intent to ramp up production of “mission-critical” uranium, the private energy offenders are again targeting Diné lands with no intention of ensuring public health, safety, or environmental health. Diné land and water protectors understand that energy offenders operate through systematic racism that does not adhere to

Diné fundamental law. We need revised tribal energy policies and support for a Just Transition away from harmful extraction activities, such as coal, oil and gas, and uranium, that have brought illness and water and soil contamination to Dinetah.

1) Memorandum of Understanding with Energy Fuels Resources Inc. The transport of uranium ore in semi-trucks along a Navajo two-lane highway from Arizona into Utah has raised concerns from communities along the route and tribal members impacted by radiation exposure.

The agreement with Energy Fuels Inc. (EFI) authorizes the transport of eight to ten trucks of uranium ore every day (except for holidays) for three to four years and at least 10,000 tons of uranium-bearing wastes from abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) to Energy Fuel’s White Mesa Mill. The Memorandum of Understanding has not been shared publicly; its terms were only disclosed at a February 13 Naabik’íyát’i meeting with Council Delegates. According to Navajo officials, the agreement provides that EFI will pay the Navajo Nation $1.2 million to establish a

Hazardous Substance Fund for uranium regulation. The President and CEO of Energy Fuels stated that the historical agreement restores trust with the Navajo people and ensures that all voices are heard and valued. This is far from the truth since the Navajo people were not consulted in advance of the signing of this agreement, and the full agreement has not been released to the public.

● We demand the release of the EFI Memorandum of Understanding; legally

confidential sections can be redacted; the Navajo public has a right to know

what’s in this agreement.

● We stand in solidarity with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Havasupai Tribe,

and we oppose the extraction or processing of uranium near tribal water

resources.

2) No New Mining. Energy Fuels also proposes transporting uranium ore from the proposed Roca Honda Mine to the White Mesa Mill. This underground mine, to be located on U.S. Forest Service land northwest of Tsoodził (Mt. Taylor), is in the planning and permitting stages. Still, it is expected to produce 4 million tons of uranium ore over ten years when fully operational. Laramide Resources, Ltd. proposes relaunching the La Jara Mesa Uranium Mine Project in the

Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Forest Service, north of Milan, NM. It would be an underground mine, and the extracted ore would be transported to the White Mesa Mill.

● We demand no uranium mining in and around the Mount Taylor Traditional

Cultural Properties area.

● We demand to know: Is the Navajo Nation proposing the transport of uranium on

Navajo highways in New Mexico from Mount Taylor to White Mesa Mill?

3) Diné Peoples retain the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent Navajo Nation

agencies, such as the Navajo Nation EPA, the Navajo Department of Justice, the Eastern

Navajo Land Commission (ENLC), the Diné Uranium Remediation Advisory Commission

(DURAC), and the Resource Development Committee (RDC) are not providing regular updates on uranium policy issues to the general public, not inviting grassroots groups, frontline communities and their NGO and academic allies to present or testify on critical policy issues, and are not proposing Navajo Nation policies to address the Uranium Legacy.

● ENLC and DURAC do not announce their meetings in a timely manner on various media outlets, websites, and social media.

● DURAC still does not have a viable website that stores the countless materials provided to the Commission by guest presenters since its first meeting in January 2018; as such, the public does not know what information DURAC has received or the policy issues, if any, it has addressed.

● DURAC should be reformed to give decision-making power to the grassroots-appointed Commissioners and to remove such power from the Executive Director.

● The public needs updates on meetings and quarterly reports from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for most of the AUM remediation proposed under the federal Superfund law. The tribal members must also hear about the

EPA’s waste cleanup on tribal lands and borders.

● Federal land agencies should be called to find lands suitable for permanent waste

disposal that protect communities and natural resources.

● EPA and NNEPA are not using the findings of numerous federally funded and

university-administered health studies—all approved by the Navajo Nation Human

Research Review Board—that show that living near mines is harmful to community

health; the results of these studies should inform waste remediation plans or describe

the existing health conditions in communities impacted by mine waste.

● Chapters should be empowered to make decisions about mining and waste removal in their communities.

4) No testing of “emerging technologies” on our People. The high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA) process uses water and energy. On tribal lands, water is an important and sacred element that must be protected, not contaminated or wasted. HPSA has technical shortcomings and has not been demonstrated to work at a scale that matters, considering the large amounts of waste that remain at 500+ AUM sites in the Navajo Nation. Claims that the HPSA “coarse fraction” is “clean” and can be left on site in perpetuity are not supported by HPSA’s own pilot-scale results. The NNEPA sees HPSA as a panacea for remediating uranium waste despite its technical and legal deficiencies. Many questions about the efficacy of HPSA remain and should be addressed, including

● How many industries use HPSA to produce uranium waste at mine or mill sites?

● What is the regulatory structure that authorizes the use of HPSA for remediation?

● What are HPSA’s water and energy demands?

● What water quality is needed for HPSA, and how much water is required?

● Has NNEPA developed its own staff expertise in HPSA?

● Who is profiting from HPSA?

● We demand to know why the Navajo Nation supported New Mexico Senate Bill

316, which would have stopped all uranium mine cleanups.

To address the broad issue of the need to remediate abandoned mines, we recommend

● Consultation with communities impacted by uranium mining wastes is needed to protect

public health and the environment and ensure that mine cleanup and remediation are

done safely, responsibly, and transparently.

● Public education sessions on the pros, cons, and limitations of all remediation strategies,

from cap-in-place and remote disposal in engineered disposal facilities to emerging

remediation technologies like HPSA, are needed at the grassroots level.

● Embracing all expertise, including that provided by NGOs and academic institutions,

which have been locked out of policy discussions among tribal and federal agencies for most of the last five years.

● Requiring that NN agencies disclose their support for the emerging remediation

technologies and to disclose their intent to enter into Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) before those partnerships are approved.

5) We OPPOSE the recent initiative of the Navajo Nation President to unilaterally open the door to more coal development in the Navajo Nation. A Trump Administration Executive

Order Supporting Coal Development across the United States was supported in a public statement issued by the Office of the President and Vice President on the same day Navajo

Nation Buu Nygren appeared in the White House to support the Trump Administration’s coal initiative. Coal does not make any economic sense and delays a just transition to renewable forms of energy that are being implemented worldwide. Burning coal to generate electricity is being phased out to address climate change: The San Juan Generating Station and the Navajo

Generating Station (NGS) have been closed and demolished, the Escalante Power Plant is being converted to hydrogen production, and the Four Corners Power Plant (FCPP) is due to close in 2031. Coal extraction from Navajo lands for over half a century sent electricity outside the Navajo Nation, leaving us with climate emergencies and health impacts among our most vulnerable populations. Coal’s track record is fraught with major environmental, public, and economic impacts, including

● NGS used approximately 11 billion gallons of water annually when it went online in the mid-1970s.

● From 1971 to 2005, the Peabody mining company used the Navajo Aquifer at a rate of 4,000-6,000 acre-feet a year, or 1.3 billion gallons, from communities that utilized this water source in the Black Mesa region.

● The FCPP uses approximately 14.3 million gallons daily from Morgan Lake, which has been drawn from the San Juan River since the mid-1960s.

● Air pollution and coal ash waste from coal plants damage the environment and health, with various pollutants such as arsenic, lead, mercury, sulfide, and selenium. The FCPP deposits more than 89 million tons of coal ash on site or near the mine and emits more than 11 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. NGS had generated 125 million tons of ash annually before it closed.

● As seen in satellite imagery between 2003 and 2009, the “Four Corners Methane

Hotspot” was the largest methane emission source in the United States. Methane is a

potent greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide, and sources include emissions

from fossil fuel extraction.

● A 2017 paper in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) found the highest mortality rates from silicosis and interstitial lung disease in the U.S. were in the Four Corners counties in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

● We believe the Navajo Nation can be a national leader in a regenerative economy that learns from this fossilized, extractive, greedy past and honors a non-carbon-based future.

This statement is supported by the following Diné organizers and supporters,

Sarah Adeky (Diné)

Cheyenne Antonio (Diné)

Wendy Atcitty

Diné Centered Research and Evaluation

Andrew Bennett (Diné)

Eric Descheenie (Diné)

Lydia FastHorse (Diné)

Jihan Gearon

Diné Artist, Managing Member of Jihan Gearon LLC, former Executive Director of the Black

Mesa Water Coalition

Tom Goldtooth (Diné)

Indigenous Environmental Network

Kiley Guy (Diné)

Tytianna Harris (Diné)

Bradley Henio

Red Water Pond Road Community Association

Edith Hood

Red Water Pond Road Community Association

Nicole Horseherder

Tó Nizhóní Ání

Hazel James-Tohe

Diné Centered Research and Evaluation

Demetrius Johnson (Diné)

Teracita Keyanna

Red Water Pond Road Community Association

Larry King

Eastern Navajo Against Uranium Mining

Cora Maxx Phillips (Diné)

Kellian Staggers (Diné)

Ira Vandever

Turquoise Indigo Fibers, Eastern Baca Chapter resident

Janene Yazzie

NDN Collective

Supporters:

Korina Barry

NDN Action Managing Director, NDN Collective

Petuuche Gilbert

Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

Susan Gordan

Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment

June Lorenzo

Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

Christine Lowery

Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

Manual Pino

Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

L. Watchempino

Pueblo of Acoma, NM