Growing up in Cameron, Candis Yazzie said that conversations surrounding uranium have always been evident within her community on the western edge of the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon.
She remembers first learning about the dangers of uranium from the superhero characters “Gamma Goat” and “Rad Rabbit” when her grade school teachers handed out comic books published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency as educational material.
Yazzie, 39, said everyone had to learn from Gamma Goat and Rad Rabbit because they shared tips on what to do if they came across an abandoned uranium mine.
“Uranium is a natural element that occurs in the earth’s crust. While uranium is natural, exposure to uranium can make you sick,” the opening sentences of the comic book states. “This comic book is designed to teach you about the dangers of abandoned uranium mines. Old abandoned mines are scattered across the Navajo Nation.”
Yazzie said preschool and kindergarten-aged children are being taught how to pronounce uranium — and how to be aware of the radioactive material in their environment.
“How many kids have to go through this type of education?” she said, adding that her 16-year-old child got the same comic when they started grade school.
The comic book starts with a sheep wandering into an area with an open pit on the Navajo Nation before Gamma Goat appears and stops the sheep, telling them it’s an abandoned uranium mine.
Yazzie said that growing up on the rez, playing outside on the land was their usual pastime, and the coloring books taught them about the dangers of uranium in their environment.
“I grew up less than half a mile from one of the abandoned mines,” she said, but it wasn’t until she got one of those coloring books that she knew she needed to stay away from it.
The safety lessons provided by Rad Rabbit included how to avoid harmful radiation from abandoned mines by decreasing time exposed to radiation, increasing distance from radioactive materials and increasing shielding.
The lessons feel a bit contradictory now, Yazzie said because uranium ore is being allowed to be transported through their community from Pinyon Plain Mine, even though it has been proven how harmful uranium has been to the Navajo people and their land.
“Transportation brings new hazards,” she said.
The entire uranium haul route is about 320 miles, and it passes through several communities in Arizona — many of which are within the Navajo Nation — before crossing the Utah border for the final stretch to reach its destination, the White Mesa Mill near Blanding, Utah.
The Navajo Nation stretch of the Pinyon Plain Mines’ approved uranium ore transportation route is more than half of the roughly 320-mile journey, with a total of 174 miles traveled on major state routes through Navajo land.
Uranium ore from Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon will be transported by over-the-road 24-ton haul trucks and end dump trailers, according to Energy Fuels, Inc., and up to 10 trucks will make the trip daily.
Energy Fuels, Inc. owns and operates the Pinyon Plain uranium mine on U.S. Forest Service land in the Kaibab National Forest near the Grand Canyon. Numerous tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and the Havasupai Tribe, have ancestral lands there.
“Cameron and many communities along the route have a really tainted history with uranium,” Yazzie said. The legacy of uranium mining has harmed the Navajo Nation for decades, from abandoned mines to contaminated waste disposal.
A billboard located along State Route 89 just outside the boundaries of the Navajo Nation reads: “Radioactive pollution kills. It’s time to clean up the mines.” The Navajo Nation has more than 500 abandoned uranium mines, and communities are still waiting for them to be cleaned up. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror
From 1944 to 1986, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo lands, and hundreds of Navajo people worked in the mines, often living and raising families near the mines and mills.
There are more than 500 abandoned uranium mines across the Navajo Nation, according to the EPA. The mines located within Cameron are part of the Western Abandoned Mine Region, which includes 111 mines in total.
Cameron is the first Navajo community the transportation route passes through as it enters the Navajo Nation. Yazzie said she did not know the route passed through her community until news about it spread after the first haul happened at the end of July.
Even though Yazzie was the vice president of Cameron Chapter House, she said any information related to the transportation of uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain mine across the Navajo Nation has been provided to her by HaulNo!, a volunteer Indigenous-led group that spreads awareness and stimulates action on “nuclear colonialism,” which includes uranium mining and transportation.
Yazzie said her community has never heard from the mining company or the Navajo Nation government about the details of the uranium transportation route and its implications for the people living there.
“There’s never been a direct ask to the community on what our concerns are about this route,” she said.
It doesn’t surprise Yazzie that there hasn’t been any outreach from her tribe or the mining company, even as negotiations between the Navajo government and Energy Fuels near their sixth month. She said it is “business as usual” because she believes they will never see what comes of that negotiation at the community level.
Uranium ore transportation from Pinyon Plain Mine is on hold while the Navajo Nation Department of Justice and Energy Fuels, Inc. representatives have been in “good faith” negotiations since August. The mining company legally does not need the tribes’ permission to transport uranium ore through their tribal lands because it is transported along state routes.
The Arizona Mirror has contacted the Navajo Nation Office of the President and the Navajo Nation Attorney General multiple times for comment but has not received a response.
The lack of public education, concerns about potential contamination, the need for more community involvement in negotiations and demands for more up-to-date information on the uranium haul transportation route are some of the many concerns voiced by people from communities along the haul route passing through Navajo land.
Toward the end of the route on the Navajo Nation sits Mexican Water, a community that straddles the Arizona and Utah border. The community is the last Navajo community the 24-ton haul trucks will pass through before leaving the Navajo Nation.
“We were scared,” Martha Saggboy said when they heard about the transportation officially passing through their community.
Mexican Water Chapter Officials (from left to right) Clifford Sagg, Phoebe Begay, Lucinda Tomchee and Martha Saggboy stand in front of the entrance to the chapter house on Nov. 19, 2024. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror
Saggboy is the president of the Mexican Water Chapter House. She said she saw the photos of the truck and felt the uranium ore was not adequately contained. The tarp covering the open-air container was flapping in the wind, potentially exposing the community to hazardous materials as it drove down the road, to say nothing of the fact that a tarp wouldn’t contain any of the ore in the event of an accident.
After the community learned of the first haul, Saggboy said that the Mexican Water Chapter House passed a resolution opposing the transportation of uranium through their community.
She said they did that because the community does not have a medical center or even an EMT service, so any type of emergency caused by the hauling would be concerning.
More than 300 homes are within the Mexican Water Chapter community, with about 140 homes in Utah and 160 in Arizona, many of which are multi-generational.
“They’re in harm’s way,” she said.
Saggboy said one of their community’s biggest criticisms is that neither the Navajo Nation government nor the mining company has ever tried to work with the communities directly along the route.
Saggboy said both have failed to visit the community to educate the public about the situation, inform chapter officials about the transportation of uranium or even tell them what the route looks like.
Due to that lack of information, concern for potential contamination, and the overall history of what uranium has done to the Navajo Nation, Mexican Water Chapter officials are wondering what the best move forward for their community is.
Lucinda Tomchee, Mexican Chapter House manager, said that the Navajo Nation government and the mining company are leaving communities like hers in the dark.
“We should at least have some sort of guidance as to how to approach this issue within our community,” she said, adding that they should not have to rely on social media posts or local news updates to find out what will happen on their own with the uranium haul route.
Tomchee said the first step the mining company and the Navajo Nation government should take is to reach out to the chapters. If chapter officials are not provided with information, she said, how are they supposed to educate their communities?
“If we’re not given that information, we’re shortchanging our community,” Tomchee said, adding that it takes a simple phone call to tell them the transportation schedule and what to expect from the transportation. That way, they can alert people in their community.
Mexican Water Chapter House offices voiced their concerns about safety along State Route 191 because it is a rough road to travel on in certain areas, especially near the Utah and Arizona border. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror
Many road condition concerns surrounding the transportation of uranium ore through the Mexican Water community focus on how the roads are not adequately maintained, the high level of traffic, the lack of road signs, livestock, weather and jurisdictional issues.
“They’re not up to par,” Saggboy said of the roads, adding that there are sections of the road where erosion can be seen and cracks in the asphalt and potholes.
Given the current road conditions, Saggboy stressed the critical need for an emergency mitigation plan. This plan, she emphasized, must be in place to address any potential accidents, especially when large trucks are hauling heavy loads of hazardous materials like uranium ore.
The closest hazmat team to the Mexican Water Chapter is in San Juan County Emergency Management, which is based in Monticello, Utah, more than 70 miles away from their community.
“We don’t have the resources readily available nearby to mitigate,” Saggboy added, noting that jurisdictional issues arise because their community straddles the Utah and Arizona border.
Saggboy said the agency that responds will depend on which side of Mexican Water the emergency occurs, Arizona or Utah. They either get help from San Juan County in Utah or the Navajo Nation Police Department in Shiprock, New Mexico.
For example, she said that during one winter, a family’s car broke down a few feet across the Utah border into Arizona, and the responding Highway Patrol came from San Juan County in Utah but stopped right at the state line because they were not allowed to go any further.
Saggboy said the temperatures were below freezing, and the responding patrol could not provide the family any aid because they were on the Arizona side.
“No other resources came, so the family spent the night there,” she said. Luckily, a community member drove past and took the family to the trading post.
She said those are the types of jurisdictional issues their community regularly encounters, and they should be factored into the conversation surrounding the uranium haul route.
Tomchee said the road gets rough in many parts, and there is a pressing need for more speed limit signs, fencing to control the open range for livestock and an overall improvement in the road’s surface.
Mexican Water is located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, so weather factors into driving conditions along the route, including rain, snow and wind. Tomchee said the wind can be extremely hazardous in the area, and it causes sand to build up on the road.
She said the sandbars create speed bumps in the middle of the road, and winds can get strong enough to blow over vehicles.
A semi-truck pulls up to the intersection at State Route 160 and 191, which the Grand Canyon Trust’s analysis of fatal accident data identified as the most dangerous section of the uranium haul route. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror
The biggest concern is the intersection at State Route 160 and 191, which the Grand Canyon Trust’s analysis of fatal accident data identified as the most dangerous section of the uranium haul route.
“The condition of that road is horrible,” Tomchee said, and the intersection is a concern because it has no significant marking to indicate the intersection is there. “With the amount of traffic at the intersection, there should be more lighting and caution signs.”
Tomchee said the lack of lights and caution signs has resulted in drivers speeding through the intersection as they come down State Route 191 into the hills alongside State Route 160.
Eli Leslie, senior public information officer for the Navajo Nation Department of Transportation, said the Arizona Department of Transportation maintains and improves State Routes 89 and 160, while Apache County maintains State Route 191.
The Arizona Department of Transportation confirmed that it maintains State Routes 89 and 160 that pass through the Navajo Nation, which routinely sees commercial traffic, including large trucks hauling loads.
“ADOT designs, builds and maintains state highways to strict federal standards for safety,” ADOT Spokesmen Steve Elliott said, adding that many large trucks use State Routes 89 and 160 daily.
“State highways are designed, built and maintained to accommodate large vehicles, with a weight limit of 80,000 pounds,” he said. “There is normal wear and tear from any traffic.”
Elliott said ADOT holds regular partnering meetings with Navajo Nation officials to exchange updates and discuss concerns about the route.
He said that concerns about the shipment of uranium ore have been raised within these meetings, but broad concerns about road conditions in relation to the shipments have not.
In 2012, the Navajo Nation prohibited the transport of radioactive materials across their tribal lands. However, after Energy Fuels transported uranium ore through Navajo land in July, the tribe amended the Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Vehicles, Persons, and Materials Transportation Act of 2012.
The amendment enhanced the Navajo Nation’s regulatory authority over the transportation of uranium and other radioactive materials across its territory. The law now mandates that companies provide advance notice of transportation at least seven days before the event.
Any entity intending to transport uranium ore, yellowcake, radioactive waste, or other radioactive materials onto or across Navajo lands must first enter into an agreement with the Navajo Nation.
In the agreement, the entity must provide the Navajo Nation with the terms and conditions for such transport, including routes, emergency plans, financial assurances, curfews and other travel restrictions, containment requirements and fees.
This accident is going to happen.
– Navajo Nation Council Delegate Curtis Yanito
Although transporting uranium across the Navajo Nation is illegal, Leslie said the Navajo DOT does not have a response team to regulate or enforce the law prohibiting transportation.
“That is referred to the Navajo Nation Police Department and Emergency Services,” he said.
Elliott said ADOT and other state agencies work closely with the Navajo Nation on various critical issues, including the transportation of uranium ore.
“The state of Arizona recognizes the devastating impact that uranium mining has historically had on Indigenous peoples and is working to ensure businesses operating in Arizona are safely transporting materials across communities,” Elliott said.
He added that Gov. Katie Hobbs has instructed the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to partner with the Navajo Nation’s emergency management team to develop an emergency response plan in the event of a road incident.
The Arizona Mirror contacted the Navajo Nation Police Department and Department of Emergency Services multiple times and did not receive a response.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Curtis Yanito said that the Navajo Nation does not have “a comprehensive emergency plan for any kind of incident,” especially one involving hazardous material like uranium.
Yanito represents five chapters on the Navajo Nation: Mexican Water, Montezuma Creek, Aneth, Red Mesa and Teec Nos Pos. He said that a robust emergency plan is crucial to ensure the safety of our communities in the event of any incident.
Yanito said the Navajo Nation does not have the proper resources to address a potentially hazardous incident, which is why he believes the tribe needs to start implementing citations and fines for liability purposes and the safety of communities.
“This accident is going to happen,” Yanito said, adding that it is time for the tribe to pass legislation that focuses on fines for unregulated transportation and ensuring the safety of their communities.
Yanito said chapter houses across the Navajo Nation must have emergency plans for their communities. However, he said the tribe needs to develop an emergency plan for the nation, including language about issues citations for transporting hazardous materials.
“A lot of these companies are taking advantage of us” because the Navajo Nation does not have many transportation regulations, Yanito said.
For example, he said the Navajo Nation does not have weigh stations or inspection stops for trucks, which means they cannot monitor how heavy or secure semi trucks are as they pass through or even what they carry.
“It’s easy to contaminate highways,” he added, which is why it’s essential to monitor and guarantee that those truckloads are secure.