Begaye, Bates blast EPA at hearing
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye testifies at the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Overshight Hearing on the EPA's Gold King Mine Disaster. (Photo courtesy of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs)
CHINLE
As Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for a criminal investigation into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s role in last summer’s Gold King Mine spill, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye and Speaker LoRenzo Bates blasted the federal agency at a field hearing in Phoenix Friday.
Over the eight months since the spill, Begaye told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, “the USEPA has avoided any real sense of accountability for its actions, even though it repeatedly and publicly claimed responsibility last fall.”
Among other things, Begaye charged that the EPA has yet to fully compensate the Navajo Nation or individual Navajo farmers; that it has yet to designate the Upper Animas Mining District as a Superfund site and that it has not given the Navajo Nation the tools it needs to conduct its own testing and mitigate future impacts.
Bates, who represents most of the chapters affected by the spill, said the EPA must provide “assurances and tangible evidence” to Navajo farmers that their livestock and agricultural products will be safe for sale and consumption.
He added that the different entities testing the water were providing inconsistent information, which confuses the public.
“I urge all of the entities involved in monitoring the Animas River and the San Juan River to coordinate and to speak with one consistent voice when informing the Navajo people,” he said.
Both leaders stressed that the river is important to Navajo spirituality.
“The spill has contaminated or destroyed many of the essential elements of our religious practice, and desecrated a river that we have treated with reverence since time immemorial,” Bates said.
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