A Brief Note On The Mountains And Nuclear Waste

As the white settlers began building cities along the East Coast and Manifest Destiny dictated America’s entitlement to all lands West, Native Americans were pushed out of their homelands towards less inhabitable lands. The United States, mighty from their victory against Great Britain, increased their targeting of Native American lands. As Cochise described, “where an Indian has been killed, there has been none to come in his place, so that the great people that welcomed you with acts of kindness to this land are now but a feeble band that fly before your soldiers as the deer before the hunter” (p.579). Native American’s were forced to live in land deemed undesirable by settlers. Today, Native Americans living on tribal lands have compared it to living in a third world country. Jobs are scarce, acute housing crisis’s leave many homeless, and most residents live well below the poverty line. In addition to this, unfair legislature which forces the burden of proof onto victims have left many communities with little recourse to the corporations that build industrial sites nearby. For example, the inhabitants of Ponca City live well below the poverty line and have few to no options to relocate. Many depend on tribal housing to avoid homelessness. Ponca tribal members living in Ponca City, Oklahoma have struggled to prove that the increase in heart, lung and respiratory health issues in the community coincide with the operation of the Continental Carbon Company. The company produces carbon black, a fine, powdery substance used in tires and other rubber products. It also spreads easily through the air and has been identified by the CDC as a possible carcinogen. And although Continental Carbon Company has had almost a thousand formal complaints filed against to the Oklahoma Department of

Environmental Racism can be described as, the intentional or unintentional placement of hazardous waste sites, landfills, or industries that are polluting communities mainly those inhabited by African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and Asians, as well as the working poor. In the broadest sense, Environmental Racism, is a process where environmental decisions, actions, and policies results in racial discrimination. Environmental racism is important to know about because it effects almost every low-income or impoverished area across the world. Some notable areas that are dealing with environmental racism are: Flint Michigan-where thousands of residents have

Native people have been around the Americas since before the Europeans came. Then the natives land began to shrink. Now in today’s society they have the lowest population amongst groups. Most native people use the land for growing goods like fruits and vegetables to tobacco. With the possibility of nuclear waste site in Yucca Mountains, it could threaten the fertility of their land. Environmental racism is the inequality in the form of racism linked with environmental factors and practices that cause disproportionate distress on minority communities (Knowledge Encyclopedia). The Yucca mountain project is environmental racism to the surrounding natives. To get across my point, the following paragraphs will talk about the history of the project, what the article was about, which tribes it would affect, why it is environmental racism and why the previous paragraphs prove my opinion.

For years, the State of Nevada has found the Yucca Mountain project unacceptable because of the obvious logical and scientific issues that make the site itself unsafe. Additional support for their argument is that other than being far from the nuclear waste, the repository cannot really separate itself and its dangers from the environment and humans. Even though Nevada started with just being upset about the state having the political finger pointed at them to hold the whole nation’s nuclear waste but now their argument is stronger (Adams, 2010). Not only is Yucca Mountains’ size not big enough for the entire countries nuclear waste, but geologic factors could make the waste

Earlier this year the Havasupai Tribe and a coalition of conservation groups sued the United States Forest Service for allowing Energy Fuel Resources Inc. to operate a mine under a 1986 federal environmental review without tribal consultation. The Canyon mine was previously in non-operational status due to low uranium stock prices in 1992. Opponents of the uranium mining operation want the federal environmental review updated and

Doing so will help citizens to expand their conceptions of the land and begin to appreciate it’s many resources. Which is equally significant when one considers the recent climate changes and negative effects of human pollution of the earth. Some opponents argue that intrusions of sacred Native American land and that harnessing natural resources from said land is irrelevant in today’s day and age. But it must be argued that this assertion is false and that current events such as the recent standoff at Standing Rock Reservation over crude oil pipelines in North Dakota have proven that this issue is still alive and well in American society.

For many Native Americans like Chief Laduke say, “This is a place the creator gave us. This is the only place in the word that is ours.” Native Americans are the true lovers of nature and have an indefinite love for their land. Native Americans have announced that the Dakota Access Pipeline disrespects their culture and their lost loved ones. “The tribe has even sued Army Corps of Engineers for permitting a project that violated the National Historic Preservation Act(NHPA) and the National Environmental Preservation Act(NEPA)” says TIME. This event proves that the pipeline is unjustified and is legally against Native American rights when destroying sacred land. The “National Geographic Channel” also states, “Many tribes members are concerned about burial grounds being disturbed during construction because bulldozers have already removed topsoil on ground that members consider sacred.” The importance of sacred land to Native Americans is significant. Moreso, there is already damage being done before the actual construction. Therefore, it cannot be determined the damage that will be done during the installment of the pipeline. “Those echoes from the land have a power that draws people, allowing them to connect with their roots.” (CNN.com) The importance of land goes in hand with the importance to tradition. Areas that were once having tribal ceremonies in 1713 such as the sundance are currently still used

The Navajo have endured environmental injustice since 1944 when uranium, was mined on their land. Even though it brought them mining jobs there were negative effects on the Navajo Nation. Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal that may cause negative health effects. The radioactive materials caused lung cancer or various forms of fibrosis. These uranium mines affected not only the minors but

In Jan. 2011, the EPA decided to veto the dumping of waste from the Spruce No. 1 Mine. But the agency’s efforts have so far been rebuffed by the courts as an overreach: Under the weird legal regime that governs mining, it’s the Army Corps of Engineers, not the EPA, which has the ultimate say-so over those permits. In 2012, the D.C. district court ruled that EPA lacked authority to veto the permit after the Corps had issued it. However, in fact EPA's decision is based on evidence from scientific research on serious environmental harm from mining. In May 2013, a coalition of Appalachian and environmental groups petitioned the EPA to set a numeric water quality standard under the Clean Water Act to protect streams from pollution caused by mountaintop removal mining . They claimed that “State politics and industry pressure have so far failed to end this pollution without such a standard and more and more streams and communities who rely on those waters are left vulnerable. We need EPA to act now.” The EPA’s authority over the Clean Water Act in respect to Spruce Mine No. 1 was finally affirmed by the Supreme Court in March 2014.

Army Corps of Engineers during its environmental assessment” (1). The claim is made that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were never able to assess the new plan and so this can’t be called environmentally racist. However, after the fact that thousands of people are protesting this new plan and saying that this plan will contaminate drinking water and destroy ancient burial grounds, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are still going through with the plan. Coming up with an excuse of “they didn’t have permits at the time to assess the environment” is invalid since they are operating on the land that they said they had no permits too. The Standing Rock area is not to be touched as per treaties signed with the United States, but once again we see that the United States is not honoring their treaties just like they didn’t honor their treaties hundreds of years

While the mainstream media has its attention focused on North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux tribe in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, there are many other tribes also struggling to protect their native ancestral sites and cultural resources throughout the United States that are going unnoticed. One such tribe is the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. This tribe is attempting to stop Aquila Resources’ Back Forty Project which would create a mine alongside and under the treasured Menominee River. This open pit gold, zinc, and copper mine would destroy burial grounds, former raised garden beds, ancient village sites, dance rings, and more. Thus, it is clear that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is not the only tribe fighting to protect its culture and environment. In fact, the only unique thing about the Dakota Access Pipeline is the national coverage it has received (Thompson). Therefore, in this paper, I aim to do justice to the Menominee Tribe who has not been so fortunate to find its plights in the public’s view. The Menominee Tribe’s concerns have not been fully taken into account and valued in the mining permit approval process and news coverage of their fight has been severely lacking. This paper will support this claim by utilizing data and information from numerous sources to include data from Aquila Resources about the Project, testimony and stories from the Menominee Tribe, and

The article on “NAACP Report Reveals Disparate Impact of Coal-Fired Power Plants” talks about how coal pollution from the coal-fired power plants will negatively impact the environment surrounding it, including the population in the surroundings, and the harm it will bring upon them. It suggests that Americans that reside near a coal power plant has a lower average income than most of the Americans in the nation. Furthermore, it also pointed out that 39% of Americans that live near a coal power plant are “people of color”. This article claim that coal pollution from the coal power plant is killing population that has a low income and people of certain races. According to the article, climate change is also a negative impact brought on by coal

When one discusses acts of racism, slander or the stereotyping of a group of people may come to mind. However, the concept of environmental racism is rarely considered. This form of racism positions dominant environmental framing as racially driven, in which people of color (i.e. minorities) are affected disproportionately by poor environmental practices. Communities of color throughout the United States have become the dumping grounds for our nation’s waste disposal, as well as home to agricultural and/or manufacturing industries that pollute the land. Government regulations and cultural practices have all contributed to environmental racism. The government’s policies have also negatively impacted low income groups as well as people of

Uranium mining on the Navajo Nation has had a negative impact on the land, the

Yucca Mountains purpose is a housing storage for radioactive waste, the problem being it isn't running yet. In the early 90's scientist believed they could store cans buried deep in the Earth surrounded by dense rock.1 While Yucca mountain was picked over nine other sites it's has run into problems physically and through the community. One of the first problems the site ran into was water could be found traveling through the rocks to a well 15 miles away. I feel this issue could've been solved with careful monitoring. If the water did become contaminated, a device could alert someone to handle the situation. Or a barrier could be put in the ground that wouldn't allow the water to go anywhere. Though the barrier would have to go deep in ground further than the holding tunnels, it would give scientist time to extract the contaminated water and handle it