ALBUQUERQUE — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleaned up contaminated soil on properties near an abandoned uranium mine in Church Rock last year after Navajo officials spent years trying to persuade it to do so.

Navajo EPA officials hope cleaning up such sites won't take as long in the future. To expedite this, the Tribal Council is to vote next week on a bill — similar to the federal Superfund law — that would let Navajo officials monitor and remove all hazardous substances, pollutants and contaminants that could endanger the health and safety of reservation residents.

"This is our approach to provide us with some authority similar to what the state and federal government have in response to dealing with hazardous waste," said Navajo EPA executive director Stephen Etsitty.

U.S. EPA officials say the federal government still would work to clean up sites on the reservation but that the tribal law would let the Navajo EPA identify and act on sites that are not always of federal interest.

"There's so many sites and issues to be dealt with that obviously, the more people you have tackling it, bringing tools to bear, the better," said Michael Hingerty, deputy branch chief in the EPA's Office of Regional Counsel in San Francisco. "The EPA is only ever going to be able to get to a fraction of the problems. Every bit helps."

The law would serve the same purposes as the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known as the Superfund law. The Navajo Nation has adopted a list of chemicals the federal government uses to determine whether a site is hazardous, and has added petroleum to the list.

"This added flexibility should help avoid disputes over the application of the act to various environmental public health threats," the proposed tribal law states.

Like the Superfund law, the tribal legislation places responsibility for cleanup on current and past owners of sites or those who arrange for hazardous substances to be brought onto the reservation.

If those responsible cannot be identified, the tribe would use funding generated by a tariff on transporters of hazardous wastes to clean up the site and seek reimbursement when possible, said Freida White, senior environmental specialist for the Navajo EPA. The amount of the tariff hasn't been decided. It's also not known when the tribe would begin cleaning up sites.

Of particular interest to tribal officials is the cleanup of more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mining sites that have left a legacy of disease on the reservation, which extends over parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. "A lot of people have been affected in respect to their health," White said.

The U.S. EPA is working with the Navajo Nation and a number of other federal agencies to develop a 5-year plan to address the environmental effects of uranium mining on the reservation.

A spokeswoman for the agency, Wendy Chavez, said the EPA will test 75 water sources and 100 structures this spring, and those found to be contaminated will be considered for cleanup under the federal Superfund program.

Chavez said the agency also is working with tribal officials to clean up the mining sites ranked highest for environmental risk, starting with the Northeast Church Rock Mine near Gallup.

The tribal Superfund measure is on the council's agenda for its winter session, which begins Monday in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz. The council's Judiciary, Resources and Ethics and Rules committees have passed the measure, although committee approval is not required for the bill to reach the full council.

The tribe has been working on drafting the legislation for more than a decade, and White said she expects it to pass. "Oh, I know it will," she said. "There's a need for it."




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