Senate approves expanding compensation for Navajo Nation uranium miners, downwinders

A measure to compensate more people exposed to radiation from uranium mining and nuclear weapons tests has passed the Senate and now awaits negotiations with the House, raising hopes that the aid will become available across a wider area of Arizona and the Southwest.

The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would authorize additional coverage for individuals exposed to radiation during the Cold War era while working in uranium mines or living downwind from atomic weapons tests.

The changes would expand the coverage area to allow more potential victims, such as people who lived downwind from above-ground atomic weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s, to file for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the defense spending bill with the amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, but must now resolve differences with the House, where the bill included a number of Republican-supported measures opposed by Democrats.

The original RECA program only covered people who lived in parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. The latest amendment would expand the geographic downwinder eligibility to include then-residents of Idaho, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Guam.

The amendment also extends the program for 19 years, expands it to include uranium mine workers employed through 1990 and expands the use of affidavits in determining eligibility claims.

“We are already in the game of helping our people on Navajo,” said Phil Harrison, who leads the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, about the post-1971 uranium mine workers who weren’t covered by RECA. With this new amendment, those uranium miners will be covered.

“Indian Health Service does not have expertise in providing anything for lung disease or lung cancer, or it costs too much, (miners) are referred out and it’s a long distance travel to have our miners treated,” he said.

Amendment would bring fairness to more workers

RECA was first enacted in 1990, then amended in 2000, to provide one-time compensation to the veterans of and communities impacted by America's uranium industry and nuclear development program.

This amendment has been long sought after by many Navajo miners who worked in uranium mines after 1971, and uranium miner families. In 2019, nearly 400 former Navajo uranium miners came to the Phil Thomas Performing Arts Center in Shiprock to testify in hopes their voices could be heard on why the government should expand provisions to include benefits for victims of nuclear fallout, known as “downwinders," and post-1971 uranium mine workers.

One of those miners at the 2019 event was LeRoy Becenti, who attended uranium mining school and became a utility miner for Kerr-McGee in Church Rock, New Mexico.

“I was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer,” Becenti said in 2019. “They are telling me it’s from the uranium.”

But because Becenti did not work in the mines until after 1971, he, as well as hundreds of other Navajo uranium miners, was not eligible for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

“It’s not fair for some of us that worked underground,” said Becenti, who started working for Kerr-McGee right after he graduated from high school. “The ones that were drilling, digging and taking out ore.”

Becenti’s older brother had died of cancer, which he got from working in the uranium mines.

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Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Crystalyne Curley, speaker of the 25th Navajo Nation Council, were both in Washington, D.C., this week to advocate for the RECA expansion.

Curley said the community she represents of Tachee/Blue Gap still has open uranium mine pits and her grandfather was a uranium miner. She was never able to meet him because of the illness he succumbed to from working in the uranium mines.

“Not only do we talk about the health impact of our people, there is also another story that goes along with this and that is the cultural impact,” Curley said. “When we talk about our nation, we really value our people, culture, language and our history. But when we don't have those great pillars like our grandfathers, our grandmothers, that aren’t there with us we lose that ability of carrying on our culture and traditions.”

She acknowledged that the miners and families who are dealing with the consequences of uranium mining have to use their own funds most of the time to travel long distances to get the medical care they need. Often, families ask for donations or fund-raise so they can pay for expenses.

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo championed the RECA amendment included in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed 86-11. The Senate passed the RECA amendment by a 61-37 bipartisan vote.

“Far too many innocent victims have been lost to cancer-related deaths from Cold War-era above-ground weapons testing,” said Crapo, R-Idaho. “The Senate’s passage of this amendment is an important step toward future enactment of this legislation, which will mean Idahoans and Americans who have suffered the health consequences of exposure to fallout from nuclear weapons testing will finally start to receive the compensation they rightfully deserve.”

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With attention on 'Oppenheimer,' lawmaker wants justice for miners

The Atomic Energy Commission announced in 1948 that it would guarantee a price for and purchase all uranium ore mined in the United States. Uranium was discovered in Cove, on the Navajo Nation, and then elsewhere on Navajo lands in the region. Four centers of mining and milling operated near Shiprock, New Mexico, in Monument Valley, Utah, at Church Rock, New Mexico, and near Kayenta in northern Arizona.

Decades later, open uranium mine pits still are scattered throughout the Navajo Nation. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 523 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation, and of these, 111 are in the western region of the Navajo Nation. Even with the mines identified by the EPA, there are an estimated 1,000 or more abandoned uranium mine shafts on Navajo Nation.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., noted the 78th anniversary of the explosion of the atomic bomb at Trinity, as well as the popularity of a movie about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. She said people should not forget about the sacrifice of downwinders and uranium miners.

“As we understand more about the brilliance of this man, we should also understand the sacrifice that has been made by the downwinders of New Mexico as well as the miners, and the majority were uranium miners of Navajo,” she said. “They were also miners who came from the Pueblo of Laguna, Pueblo of Acoma, Grants, Hispano families. It is not right we only bring light to Oppenheimer without actually bringing compensation and justice to the uranium miners and downwinders.”

In Washington this week, another advocate for RECA expansion was also on hand. Leslie Begay, a Vietnam veteran who in 2015 had to start using an oxygen tank, had worked in the uranium mines on the Navajo Nation for eight years after he got out of the Marines, causing him to develop lung cancer.

As he met with tribal leaders in 2019, to get ready to travel to Washington to meet with congressional leaders then and lobby for an expansion on RECA, he said his medication was out of stock at Tsehootsoi Medical Center in Fort Defiance. This was common for him because the medication was expensive, and he said he was told he was the only patient at the center who received that medicine. Better health care for veterans and miners has always been his priority.

"A lot of the post-'71 (miners) have lung disease. The mines that they worked at was the same condition like pre-1971," said Harrison, leader of the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee. "The toxic substance was there and I know people are hurting. When this thing passes, my brother here, Leslie, will have medical benefits. Their livelihood will improve."

Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Senate approves expanding help for Navajo uranium miners, downwinders