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Feds Reach $5.15B Settlement Over Mining Cleanup

danarhea

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For decades, uranium ore was mined from the Lukachukai Mountains of northeastern Arizona, providing Navajos with much-needed employment but leaving behind a legacy of death and disease on the reservation.

Uranium waste was thrown over the mountainside and carried by rain across the remote but scenic land used by hikers, anglers, medicine men and Navajo shepherds. The roughly 50 mine sites were eventually abandoned without cleaning up the contaminated waste.

The Navajo Nation now has its best chance yet to address what has been a source of heartache for families. The federal government announced Thursday that it reached a $5.15 billion settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for the cleanup of thousands of long-contaminated sites nationwide. About $1 billion will go to the 50 sites on the country's largest American Indian reservation.

The settlement that resolves a legal battle over Tronox Inc., a spinoff of Kerr-McGee Corp., is the largest ever for environmental contamination. The bulk of the money — $4.4 billion — will pay for environmental cleanup and be used to settle claims stemming from the legacy contamination. Anadarko acquired Tronox in 2006.

And this case clearly demonstrates why we need government regulation...... Because the dark side of human nature says "It's OK to kill people in the pursuit of money".

Article is here.
 
And this case clearly demonstrates why we need government regulation...... Because the dark side of human nature says "It's OK to kill people in the pursuit of money".

Article is here.

Uranium mining was all part of the war effort from the 40s through the cold war era. When you are at war things like worker safety and the environment get short shrift.
 
Uranium mining was all part of the war effort from the 40s through the cold war era. When you are at war things like worker safety and the environment get short shrift.

Cool, then I guess you won't mind doing the patriotic thing, and let them use your back yard for a uranium dumping ground.
 
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Cool, then I guess you won't mind doing the patriotic thing, and let them use your back yard for a uranium dumping ground.

Just explaining to you how and why this happened. In war winning comes first, worker safety and the environment are at the bottom of the list. Dropping nukes on Japan wasn't that great for the environment either and did alot more damage to people than mining the uranium for the bomb did.
 
While I agree that the federal government should help clean up any contamination that was spread, it needs to be remembered that our understanding of the effects of radiation was not really understood during WWII. Or for many years after.

At the time, we didn't even understand how the radioactive decay of tobacco tar in the lungs affected people, for example.

edit: Of course I am only saying that for the uranium that was mined in the 1940s and 50s. By the time Tronox was contaminating the country it was a different matter entirely.
 
Uranium mining was all part of the war effort from the 40s through the cold war era. When you are at war things like worker safety and the environment get short shrift.

Ok, so that "justifies" their activities up until 1945. Whatcha got for the other seven decades?
 
And this case clearly demonstrates why we need government regulation...... Because the dark side of human nature says "It's OK to kill people in the pursuit of money".

Article is here.

If you don't know the difference between proper government regulation and overbearing government regulation then i guess the discussion is over with.
 
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