FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - The federal government plans to spend as much as $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild structures in the Navajo Nation that are contaminated with uranium.
Cold War-era mining of the radioactive substance has left a legacy of disease and death across the 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The Environmental Protection Agency and its Navajo counterpart are focusing on homes, sheds, and other buildings within a half-mile to a mile from a significant mine or waste pile. They plan to assess 500 structures over five years and rebuild those that are too badly contaminated.
Between the 1940s and the '80s, millions of tons of uranium ore were mined on the reservation and many Navajos built their homes with chunks of uranium ore and mill tailings. They were
unaware of the dangers.
