Above photo: Alan English CPA/Flickr, CC BY-NC
Note: People who believe that nuclear energy is clean often fail to look at the entire uranium chain from excavation to waste storage. In the United States, there are more than 10,000 abandoned uranium mines which continue to contaminate the land, water and air. That contamination is invisible – you can’t see, taste or smell it. There is no safe dose of radiation, so this contamination is likely contributing to cancer and other diseases. This is a hidden health emergency that is not being addressed. The story below is happening across the US, but mostly in the Great Plains and the West. Learn more and take action to stop it at Clean Up The Mines.
Up uranium creek without a paddle
Sanders Unified School District feels abandoned dealing with water contamination
SANDERS, AZ — The Sanders Unified School District is trying to figure out how to ensure the safety and cleanliness of water that serves nearly 16,000 people who teach, study or work inside the Sanders middle and elementary schools and administration office.
In July, a test determined that the community of Sanders had water contaminated with a high rate of uranium. Although the Arizona Windsong Company gives water to the community of Sanders, it does not provide any to parts of the Sanders Unified School District.
However, the district still found that it also has dangerous levels of uranium contamination within its water system.
As the new school year was about to begin, Interim Superintendent Dan Hute said a round of their own testing found that their elementary school, middle school and district office had 37 parts per billion of uranium contamination, higher than the allowable maximum level of 30 parts per billion.
After notifying parents, guardians and teachers and shutting off all the water in those facilities, Hute said the district used emergency funds to purchase at least $20,000 worth of bottled water to supply the students and cooking staff.
Darlene Martinez, who has a daughter in first grade at the elementary school, said she’s grateful for everything the school is doing to keep her child and others from drinking the water.
“I think the school is doing all they can,” Martinez said. “I appreciate everything the school is doing for the kids here, they do a lot.”
The district has also used Valley High School’s water supply because it receives water through Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. Hute said they distributed water dispensers to teacher housing.
“We will set up in our housing units and our classrooms the water dispensers,” Hute said. “We are hoping this is a short-term basis, obviously.”
Cost
The district recently finished a $2.5 million project for wastewater sanitation water disposal. The project included the purchase and drilling of a new well, which cost $200,000. The wastewater treatment cost $1.2 million.
The news of the contaminated water, however, halted plans to use the new well.
“With this water coming out, the options we have is the bottled water program that cost us up to $20,000, plus the water that we purchased is another $2,000,” Hute said. “The district has expended an extra $22,000, which is money that needs to be in the classroom and not going to take care of water.”
During an Oct. 6 Apache County Board of Supervisors meeting, Hute gave a presentation explaining what their plans are to get clean water. These options will be expensive and using money the school hardly has.
As a long-term solution, the district could filter the system, but an analysis would have to be done because the cost to dispose of the cartridges that could collect contaminate of possible radioactive materials will be expensive.
Other options include contract negotiations with NTUA to determine the amount of water needed to accurately blend the water with the school’s system or drilling down until reaching an aquifer, which would possibly still need filtering.
“These costs could be $50,000 to who knows,” Hute said. “The problem with that is, we have emergency funds but a lot of that was used to do the wastewater plan and the new well. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only district in Arizona that has its own wastewater treatment plant.”
Where’s the help?
When St. Mary’s Food Drive donated pallets filled with cases of water to the community of Sanders Sept. 26, the Nahata Dziil Chapter House distributed it. The two pallets given to Sanders Unified School District were the only form of donations or assistance they have received from outside entities.
Although community meetings have been happening, Hute said there has been little or no assistance given to the district’s plight. Parents, on the other hand, have asked how they could help.
“I have a lot of people calling with what the district has to do, but my question is what are the state agency going to do for us?” Hute said. “We received the water pallets and that was a godsend, but bottom line is that’s the only assistance the school has received. Where’s FEMA, where’s any emergency response team, where’s state aid coming from to bring water trucks up here?”