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CRPE CLIENT COMMUNITIES
White Mesa , Utah
White Mesa Concerned Community
In the summer of 2004, the White Mesa Concerned Community, members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, filed official complaints with the federal Department of Energy. The White Mesa community is located less than three miles from the International Uranium Corporation’s White Mesa Uranium Mill. The Department of Energy (DOE) is looking to place a uranium tailings pipe at the White Mesa Uranium Mill that would carry waste from a uranium facility in Moab, Utah, over 80 miles away, to the White Mesa Uranium Mill. While other communities that are majority white and further away from their uranium mills have been taken out of consideration, White Mesa still remains on the DOE’s consideration list. The White Mesa community does not even appear on DOE maps or other materials used in the consideration process. It’s as if the White Mesa community does not exist. The proposed waste transfer will result in poisoning of soil, groundwater, and destroy many sacred sites. Tribal members have clearly and strenuously voiced their opposition to the project, yet their community is still on the consideration list.
Additionally, the White Mesa Concerned Community, assisted by CRPE, has filed an official complaint with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is responsible for the permitting of the White Mesa Uranium Mill. The community members want the uranium mill to cease operations. The operations of the uranium mill causes uranium waste to float over to the community, endangering the tribal members and contaminating their drinking water supply, vegetation and subsistence hunting. The White Mesa Concerned Community filed an official complaint alleging that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for violating the Executive Order on Environmental Justice, the Executive Order on Management of Federal Lands and the Proetction and Preservation of Traditional Religions of Native Americans Act.
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