I was in Grants recently and attended a public meeting on Homestake-Barrick Gold’s request for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant “alternate concentration levels” at their tailings pile north of Milan. I was hoping to just listen, but the doublespeak was overwhelming. All the same concerns by community members, all the same side-stepping and obfuscation by regulators. Same old question: “Should a multibillion-dollar company be allowed to make money off a community, then walk away from its contamination?”
No one is claiming here that the company reps and regulators are conspiring, not at all, rather they are more like actors in a play that is supposed to make citizens feel like something is being done. Never mind that, for years, people living near the large tailings pile were exposed to 18 times what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considered an acceptable risk for cancer. Never mind that people unknowingly showered in and used contaminated water even after drinking water was provided— a fact which EPA was not even aware of until community members explained it to them at a meeting designed to tell those same people how safe things were now that they had a municipal water supply.
The regulators—EPA, NRC, and the New Mexico Environment Department—never really knew exactly where the contamination was or how far it had spread, even though it was their job to know. Never mind that the community’s property values plummeted. Never mind about the cancer clusters close to the tailings pile or the thyroid disease or the lack of any methodologically rigorous epidemiology study. Never mind, because both company and regulators knew the game and they played their parts knowing how that play would eventually end.
The only honest actor in this farce has been the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE). They were there again that night, trying to save the San Mateo Basin as they have tried to do for all these years now. Those families that got out of the affected community as soon as they could to protect their health can thank MASE. Others in this community should do the same because, while simultaneously trying to protect our water, MASE was also the primary driver behind the Downwinders and Post ’71 benefits that people in our area are now, or will soon be, enjoying. Everyone who gets a check should donate part of that money as a thank you to MASE, and Linda Evers in particular, because they did the work behind the scenes at hearings in Washington and Santa Fe for years. Our community has been blessed by this group with members from Acoma, Laguna, Navajo Nation, and Grants, yet the group has been cursed for hindering new development when all they are really trying to do is protect our community’s health and water supply.
One thing that was not explained at the meeting, that will not be explained unless MASE pushes it: the EPA has identified a “slug” of contamination making its way slowly from Ambrosia Lake down the San Mateo Basin towards Milan. Where it may end up is anyone’s guess. A little ticking time bomb from any number of rich mining companies who got in, made their money, and got out of Ambrosia Lake, including names like Kerr-McGee, Chevron—many people in this community can easily remember the rest of the big names.
The difference between our country and dictatorships, like for instance Russia or China, is supposed to be that we have laws and rights that protect individuals and their property. But some companies are too big and too rich. They can walk away from the messes they make. My advice to anyone left in the “area of concern” is to hold out as long as you can. The last ones out will get the best prices because they really need you out of there. What was once a thriving farming community will be gone, and the area will be left with the remnants of a Superfund site—just enough to say we don’t let rich powerful people run roughshod over Americans. Except we do.
As much as I think the young people today are insane for moving toward greater socialism and communism, maybe they figure at least with dictators we will be under no false illusions of freedom and democracy. It has been said that America is the “land of the free” because of “the brave.” MASE has been at every meeting, has faced community backlash and still they continue to work for the benefit of all. If our regulators and multibilliondollar companies would show that same moral fortitude, we might be able to defend the things that have made America great and continue to protect the greatest country ever against attacks from both the far right and the far left.
Sincerely,
Candace Head-Dylla Formerly of Ridgerunner Rd., Murray Acres NM