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Six Million Drinking Uranium-Contaminated Water

August 21, 2015 Barbara Tasch, www.businessinsider.com , ,
By Barbara Tasch in Business Insider - Water from two aquifers in the US contains uranium levels that are significantly higher than the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL). What's more, these two aquifers provide drinking water to almost 6 million people, and almost 2 million of them live less than a mile from the contaminated groundwater, according to a study led by two researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. And according to the EPA: "Intakes of uranium exceeding EPA standards can lead to increased cancer risk, liver damage, or both." The researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln analyzed almost 275,000 groundwater samples collected from about 62,000 locations from two aquifers that provide millions of people in the US with drinking water: the High Plains and Central Valley.

Tucson Protests John McCain’s Oak Flat Mess, Border Security Bill

August 18, 2015 María Inés Taracena, www.tucsonweekly.com , , ,
By María Inés Taracena in Tuscon Weekly - About 30 people gathered outside the Tucson Electric Power headquarters this morning to protest U.S. Sen. John McCain's role in the Oak Flat giveaway to foreign mining company Resolution Copper. Some of the protesters also wanted to raise awareness on a bill McCain sponsors—SB 750—which would waive laws on all federal public land and all tribal land within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Simultaneously, the Republican senator was inside in a private meeting with TEP representatives. "He's having three private meetings this week, private town halls, while he refuses to meet with his constituents," says Cyndi Tuell, an attorney, conservation advocate and a volunteer with the Sierra Club's Borderlands campaign. "We are ashamed of him for that and ashamed of him for giving away the sacred Apache land of Oak Flat in a midnight deal in Congress."

Protesters Storm Open-Pit Coal Mine In Western Germany

August 17, 2015 CT Post, www.AP.org , , ,
By Associated Press - Environmental activists have stormed a lignite mine in western Germany to protest the use of coal, a major source of greenhouse gases. The German news agency dpa reports that several hundred people from a group calling itself EndeGelaende — which loosely translates as "it's finished now" — broke through a police line in Garzweiler, west of Cologne. Police spokesman Anton Hamacher says officers used pepper spray to stop the crowd and are removing protesters from the site. A spokesman for German energy company RWE says several huge bucket-wheel excavators used at the open-pit mine had to be shut down for safety reasons. Spokesman Lothar Lambertzsays RWE has canceled plans to bring employees onto the site to rally in favor of coal mining.

Navajo Nation Declares State Of Emergency Over ‘Tragic’ Spill

August 14, 2015 Tristan Ahtone, www.america.aljazeera..com , , , , ,
Farmers and ranchers on Navajo land in northwestern New Mexico are preparing to take heavy losses this season as a plume of wastewater laced with toxic chemicals flows south from an abandoned mine in Colorado. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency spilled around 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River. According to the EPA, the incident occurred when a crew hired to pump and treat wastewater inside the abandoned Gold King Mine outside of Durango, Colorado, accidently released a brew of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals from a mine tunnel. As a precautionary measure, the Navajo Nation has asked citizens to keep livestock away from the San Juan River and stop diverting water from the river for crops. That means farmers like Lorenzo Bates are beginning to plan for the worst. “What is in the water? To what extent are those heavy metals?” said Bates, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council and farmer from Upper Fruitland, New Mexico.

Breaking: Land Defenders Protest Mining Co. After River Poisoning

August 10, 2015 Jesse Fruhwith, www.peacefuluprising.org , , ,
By Jesse Fruhwith of Peaceful Uprising. PR SPRINGS, UT --Several dozen climate justice land defenders will enforce a shut down at the US Oil Sands tar sands mine today in the Book Cliffs of Utah. The action comes just days after a century-old mine poured millions of gallons of toxic sludge into waterways that sustain 40 million Americans. Calgary-based US Oil Sands is amidst an $80-million construction phase to assemble processing equipment, clear cut more land for more strip mine pits and ultimately to turn tar sands rocks into liquid fuels. The company operates on land traditionally inhabited by Ute people and is now managed and leased to private corporations by the state of Utah.

EPA’s Mine Disaster Plume Flows Toward Grand Canyon

August 9, 2015 Bruce Finley, www.denverpost.com , , ,
By Bruce Finley in The Denver Post. Silverton, CO — Three days after EPA workers triggered a huge blowout at a festering mine in southwestern Colorado, a mustard-colored plume — still fed by 548 gallons leaking per minute — stretched more than 100 miles, spreading contaminants including cadmium, arsenic, copper, lead and zinc. Environmental Protection Agency regional chief Shaun McGrath on Saturday conceded that federal officials know the levels of the heavy metals in Cement Creek and the Animas River but would not reveal early testing results. "Those data sheets have not been finalized by the scientists," McGrath said. "As soon as we are able to release them, we will."

European Mining Dispute Shows Risk Of Corporate Trade Deals

July 30, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org , , , , ,
By Deirdre Fulton in Common Dreams - Offering a stark warning of how corporate-friendly trade pacts like the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) put both democracy and the environment at risk, a Canadian company is seeking damages from Romania after being blocked from creating an open-pit gold mine over citizen concerns. Gabriel Resources Ltd. announced last week that it had filed a request for arbitration with the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a body not unlike the secret tribunals that critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have warned against. The corporation's Rosia Montana open-pit gold mine project stalled after a series of protests in cities across Romania in 2013 demanded Gabriel's plan be dropped.

Government Sells Native Sacred Land To Mining Company

July 28, 2015 Lee Camp, www.rt.com/redacted-tonight/ , , ,
By Lee Camp for Redacted Tonight. As if leaving Native Americans with nothing but miniscule plots of reservation land and systemic brokenness wasn’t enough, now the white man is at it again- robbing the Apache of a sacred ceremonial ground in Oak Flat, Arizona. The US government gave the Apache land to a foreign mining company, saying the native people could still use the grounds for traditional gatherings “after the land exchange has been completed, so long as it remains safe to do so.” The sacred land will unlikely be “safe” for ceremonies once it is functioning as a mine. John McCain and Jeff Flake, major proponents of the land theft, both received hefty contributions from the mining company, Rio Tinto.

San Carlos Apache Tribe Clashes With Rep. Gosar After Rally

July 24, 2015 Indianz, www.facebook.com , , , , , ,
By Indianz - Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe declared victory in their campaign to protect one of their most sacred places at a rally at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday even as some were threatened with arrest by a Republican member of Congress. With almost no financial backing, the Apache Stronghold left Arizona earlier this month on a 2,000-mile journey to educate the nation about the threats facing Oak Flat, a sacred gathering, ceremonial and burial site in Arizona. The trip culminated in a rousing rally in the Washington, D.C., heat with calls to support a bill that will protect the land from a controversial mining development. "Nothing is going to stop us," elder Sandra Rambler stated to cheers. "No surrender." As a spiritual leader within the tribe, Manuel Cooley said it's not common for him to take political stands. But Oak Flat is so important to his people that he drove to the nation's capital to explain why the proposed Resolution Copper mine will destroy the site.

Apaches Rally At Capitol, Fighting For Sacred Oak Flat

July 24, 2015 Dayana Morales Gomez and Julian Brave NoiseCat, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , ,
By Dayana Morales Gomez and Julian Brave NoiseCat in The Huffington Post - Apache protesters completed their cross-country journey from the San Carlos reservation in Arizona to Washington, D.C., with a Wednesday rally on the lawn of the Capitol building, protesting Congress’ sale of their sacred Oak Flat to foreign mining conglomerates. The area known as Oak Flat is part of Arizona's Tonto National Forest, and the Apache have used it for generations in young women’s coming-of-age ceremonies. In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower removed it from consideration for mining activities in recognition of its natural and cultural value. But in December 2014, during the final days of the previous Congress, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) added a rider to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act that opened the land to mining conglomerates Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Save Oak Flat Campaign Aided By Historic Preservation Label

July 22, 2015 Gale Courey Toensing, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com , , , , , ,
By Gale Courey Toensing in Indian Country Today Media Network - Legislation to save an Apache sacred site from destruction by an international mining company got a helping hand recently when the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the land on its 2015 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Almost all of the places that make it onto the list are preserved. Rep. Raúl Grijalva(D-AZ) introduced the bipartisan Save Oak Flat Act,H.R. 2811, on June 17. Grijalva’s bill would repeal a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (NDAA) that authorizes approximately 2,422 acres of land known as Oak Flat in the Tonto National Forest in Southeastern Arizona to be transferred to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the giant international mining company Rio Tinto.

The Apache Stronghold Comes To Washington, DC

July 22, 2015 Stephen Boyd, www.thehill.com , , ,
By Stephen Boyd in The Hill - The Apache are coming to Washington. They are coming to protect a public campground in Arizona known as Oak Flat, called in Apache, Chi’chil Bildagoteel. They come to repair the damage that was done back in December of the last Congress, when at the 11 ½ hour (literally, 11:30 at night before a vote the next day) a land exchange amendment was attached to a must pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which Congress enacted into law. This amendment (Section 3003 of the National Defense Authorization Act) would give Oak Flat to two huge multi-national mining companies (Rio Tinto of the UK and BHP Billiton of Australia). The law has devastating effects on the Apache and, by extension, on all other Native tribes and nations in the country.

Apache Tribe Brings Battle For Oak Flat To Times Square

July 20, 2015 Ellen Brait, www.theguardian.com , , , ,
By Ellen Brait in The Guardian - Members of the Apache tribe stood chanting in a circle with drums and posters in the center of New York’s Times Square on Friday, to protest against a bill that will hand over land they hold sacred to a foreign mining corporation. Times Square was the latest stop for activists from the Apache tribe who are travelling across the United States to battle for Oak Flat and to draw attention to a bill introduced by Arizona representative Raúl M Grijalva to repeal the decision to hand the land over to Resolution Copper. A fine-print rider was added to December’s National Defense Authorization Act that gave the title of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper Mining, co-owned by multinational mining conglomerates Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Apache Stronghold Visits Graves Of Children Who Never Came Home

July 19, 2015 Brenda Norrell, www.narcosphere.narconews.com , , , ,
By Brenda Norrell. Carlisle, PA - The Apache Stronghold Convoy visited the graves of the children who never came home at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, remembering the Chiricahua Apache children who were held as prisoners of war. "We need to know our history, where we have been will guide us to where we are going. " said Wendsler Nosie Sr., Apache. “The Apache Stronghold visited our relatives who never made it back home. It was a real emotional experience for all of us. The Chiricahua Apache children who were there did not arrive as students like other tribes, but arrived as Prisoners of War,” Nosie said after being present at the Carlisle Indian School cemetery.

Apache Stronghold’s Spiritual Journey To Nation’s Capital

July 16, 2015 Apache Stronghold, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Apache Stronghold. San Carlos, AZ – A group of spiritual runners who are members of the San Carlos Tribe, some from the Navajo Nation and others from other various Indigenous Peoples, began their journey from Dzil Ncha Si An (Mount Graham) on Sunday, July 5 and arrived on Monday, July 6, at Chi’Chil’Bilda’Goteel (Oak Flat) on ancestral Apache land deemed holy and sacred to the San Carlos Apaches and surrounding tribes. Earlier on February 5, a spiritual march also began from the San Carlos Apache tribal headquarters to Oak Flat where occupation continues today. The spiritual journey of the Apache Stronghold caravan led by Wendsler Nosie, Sr., former Tribal Chairman and now the Peridot District Council for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, first stopped at the Gila River and Salt River Indian communities for spiritual prayers.
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