White Mesa, Utah – On October 17, the White Mesa community protested a harmful uranium mill, alongside other Native communities and activist groups. Protesters, many who traveled hundreds of miles in solidarity with the rural community, rallied at the White Mesa Community Center where indigenous rights activists spoke about the harms from uranium mining. After rallying, the hundreds of protesters marched five miles along the highway from the community center to the uranium mill.

White Mesa is a rural community where the majority of people are Ute Mountain Ute Tribe members who have been living with adverse health effects, high cancer rates and unsafe drinking water for decades. Just north of the community center is the White Mesa Mill, the only operating commercial uranium mill in the United States. The White Mesa Mill is owned by Energy Fuels Resource USA, a private company that is a subsidiary of Toronto-based Energy Fuels International. Radioactive ore mined from all over the world is sent to this mill for processing, with little accountability for spills and dumping during the transport of these hazardous materials.

Anferny Cly, a member of White Mesa Concerned Community, told the crowd, “The water under the mill is becoming more and more polluted and is moving toward our community. The acidity of the water is increasing, and heavy metals are rising. We used to drink the spring water for ceremonial purposes. We don’t do that anymore. We used to hunt for animals near our homes; we used to gather plants for baskets, and to eat. We don’t do that anymore as well.”

Energy Fuels has received hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Defense, and the facility is linked to the production of nuclear weapons. Northrop Grumman's Roy, Utah location, just a few hours’ drive north from the White Mesa community, is involved in the U.S.’s nuclear program.

The White Mesa Mill is expected to see a sharp expansion of activity as the recent de-protection of the nearby Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments has opened up the way for nearly a hundred new mining claims to be filed. These mining claims largely benefit private interests and are destructive to lands which hold sites of historically-rooted and religious importance to the many indigenous peoples living in the area.

Navajo Nation communities downwind of the mining and refinement operations have also faced adverse health effects, with one study showing 27% of participants having high levels of uranium in their urine, compared to 5% in the overall U.S. population. Many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination. One protester's sign read “Bring cancer screening to Navajo Nation.”

The mill ties together the sovereignty and environmental struggles of many indigenous communities, such as the Havasupai, who have been fighting the Energy Fuels-owned Pinyon Plain Mine, which ships uranium to the mill directly from the Havasupai Tribe's Grand Canyon homelands.

One speaker said she spotted Pinyon Plain Mine trucks passing along the highway during her trip to the community center. American Indian Movement members who have been fighting against lithium mining in the Duck Valley Indian Reservation were also present in solidarity. Teracita Keyanna from Diné Redwater Pond Road Community spoke on her community's fight to clean up contamination and prevent in-situ recovery waste from her community being dumped at the mill.

Keyanna stated, “I was charged by our grandmother to help our community. It is one of the things that she had said to us before she passed away. She passed away from pulmonary fibrosis. We have had to watch my grandmother suffocate to death. And now we're still here, we're still fighting, and now we have allies with Yolanda, and she's got our back, and we've got her back. So thank you guys all for being here and really bring all your good vibes and everything on this mountain. We can fight this guy, thank you.”

The Utah Anti-War Committee was among the organizations attending this event.

To learn more about the campaign against White Meas Mill, you can visit White Mesa Concerned Community’s website at protectwhitemesa.org.

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