Native Americans press feds to clean op 15,000 water-poisoning uranium mines

Native Americans press feds to clean op 15,000 water-poisoning uranium mines http://bit.ly/1mFF8x4

Longtime Sanders, Arizona, resident Wayne Lynch was told in July that the water on his ranch contained dangerously high amounts of uranium, yet he is still using it.

“There’s no other water source we have,” Lynch said in late January. “There’s no other well that they could tap in to.”

Lynch said the problem extends to the Sanders community, including nearby schools, which have no choice but to use contaminated wells.

“People are always getting cancer,” he said, naming his mother, an aunt and a grandmother among those who have been diagnosed with the disease.

Lynch’s case was just one of the stories brought to Washington last week by Clean Up the Mines, a group that highlights the detrimental effects of abandoned uranium mines, especially those on and near reservations.

According to government data, there are about 15,000 uranium mines in the West, with 75 percent of those on federal or tribal lands.

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