MintPress)— The Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming faces alarming rates of cancer and possible health issues related to hazardous material deposits resulting from severe environmental injustices in two separate cities due to both natural gas “fracking” and mismanaged uranium mill tailings near groundwater.
In some areas of the Wind River Indian Reservation, which spans 2.2 million acres and is home to 2,500 Eastern Shoshone and 5,000 Northern Arapaho Indians, groundwater contamination is so bad that the Department of Energy (DOE) estimates drinking water from contaminated aquifers could make residents up to 10X more likely to develop cancer than the general population.
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Uranium Mill Contamination
A few miles southwest of the town of Riverton lay the remains of the old Susquehanna-Western uranium mill, which is still used today as a sulfuric acid plant. Residents here have suffered from a significant number of cancer deaths, which are believed to be linked to the massive pile of hazardous material, known as tailings, that was left in the town when the uranium mill closed in 1963.
Wyoming Public Radio interviewed Kenny Slattery, who has lived across the street from the old uranium mill for over 51 years.
“They say there’s a cancer cluster in this area,” says Slattery. “I don’t know, but my mother died of lung cancer, and my father died of prostate cancer. My cousin’s husband died of esophageal cancer just a half-mile from here, and other people have died from cancer around this area too. Dogs have died of cancer. It’s strange.”
Around 1.8 million cubic yards of contaminated material were removed from the area between 1988-1989, according to Jolene Catron, Executive Director of the Wind River Alliance, an organization dedicated to the health and protection of the Wind River watershed. Although some of the hazardous waste was removed, a large plume of cancer-causing radioactive materials remains in the watershed.
The Wind River Environmental Quality Commission reported that the DOE removed only the first seven feet of contaminated soil, leaving at least ten feet of contaminated soil under the surface. The DOE claims that the remaining radioactive material will attenuate naturally in 100 years.
However, water samples taken after a 2010 flood showed contamination levels 100 times the maximum levels set by law. April Gil of the DOE told Wyoming Public Radio that the flood actually increased the flushing rate by loosening up some of the contaminants.
Catron is concerned that while the people of Riverton wait for the radioactive materials to attenuate, continued contamination of the watershed will harm the animals who live and drink from the water and the children who play in the river.
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