HOUSE MEMORIAL 95

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Georgene Louis

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO COMPILE EXISTING DATA ON THE HEALTH OF NEW MEXICO CITIZENS IMPACTED BY URANIUM MINING IN THE GRANTS MINERAL BELT, DEVELOP A HEALTH PROFILE BASELINE FOR THOSE CITIZENS AND PROPOSE MINING PERMIT CONDITIONS THAT CAN MITIGATE HEALTH PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH MINING AND ALLEVIATE THE CONTINUING NEGATIVE HEALTH-RELATED CONSEQUENCES OF HISTORICAL MINING ACTIVITY.

     WHEREAS, the Grants mineral belt produced more uranium than any other district in the world from the 1940s to the 1980s and more than one-half of all the uranium used by the United States for its weapons program; and

     WHEREAS, the mining and minerals division of the energy, minerals and natural resources department has identified two hundred fifty-nine uranium mining sites in New Mexico, of which one hundred thirty-seven show no record of reclamation; and

     WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation has over one thousand abandoned uranium mines; and

     WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Laguna was the site of the world's largest open-pit uranium mine, known as the Jackpile mine; and

     WHEREAS, uranium mining and milling has left a legacy of contaminated air, land and water; and

     WHEREAS, former miners and millers suffer health impacts as a result of working in these unsafe, contaminated conditions; and

     WHEREAS, in 1979, Church Rock, New Mexico, was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in the United States when more than ninety-four million gallons of radioactive waste emptied into the local water system, releasing three times more radiation than the Three Mile Island incident; and

     WHEREAS, communities next to the Homestake mill uranium tailings pile in Cibola county are exposed to radiation more than eighteen times the level accepted as safe for human exposure by the United States environmental protection agency; and

     WHEREAS, cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, kidney disease, hypertension and autoimmune diseases are more prevalent among people who live closer to mine waste sites; and

     WHEREAS, indigenous peoples have a significant and spiritual connection to the land in the Grants mineral belt; and

     WHEREAS, residents of the Grants mineral belt continue to be negatively impacted by past uranium mining and the continued legacy of contamination;  

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to compile health data from existing environmental sources such as state and federal agencies, university research institutions, advocacy organizations, nonprofit environmental health organizations and state and federal research institutes to develop a health profile of communities within the Grants mineral belt, which would establish a baseline of the current health of communities in which mining and milling activities have been and may be permitted by the mining commission; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the health profile indicate levels or rates of cancer, birth defects, mental health problems and other maladies that health experts have associated with mining and milling activities; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health propose to the mining commission and the department of environment conditions on mining permits that could mitigate the health consequences of mining and milling and help alleviate the continuing consequences of historical mining; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health, the secretary of environment; the secretary of energy, minerals and natural resources; the chair of the mining commission; the governor; the chair of the United States nuclear regulatory commission; the administrators for regions 6 and 9 of the environmental protection agency; the regional forester, southwest region, United States forest service; and the New Mexico congressional delegation.

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