Navajo man tells of health impacts from coal mine, NGS

But one Navajo Nation man believes there is more at stake other than jobs and revenue. In fact, he is awaiting the day when NGS permanently closes its doors.

Percy Deal, a former member of the Navajo County Board of Supervisors who now serves on two Navajo Nation grassroots organizations — Diné CARE and Tó Nizhóní Ání — told the current board of supervisors May 23 that the livelihood and health of 20,000 people living in the surrounding area on the Navajo Nation is more important and deserves more attention than it’s received.

Deal said NGS and the coal mine have changed the landscape, vegetation used for food, medicine and ceremonial herbs began disappearing, and the mining and pollution from NGS’s smokestacks have affected people, livestock and wildlife, including elk, deer, antelope and turkey — all considered important species to the Navajo people.

“Our communities began to notice people getting sick more often,” he said. “Many people were having a hard time breathing. Doctors kept saying it was asthma, and people were issued an apparatus to help them breathe. Some families even talked about losing loved one who had worked at the mine.”

In terms of water, Deal said 40,500 acre-feet of water have been used by NGS and the Kayenta mine each year. Over 50 years, he said that total is more than 2 million acre-feet.

“That’s one of the impacts that not many people know about,” he said. “Our historical springs have all dried up.”

Adella Begaye, also a member of Diné CARE and a registered nurse, said new health issues are cropping up all the time.

“People don’t pay enough attention to the health impacts of this extracted energy,” she said, “especially coal mining that has been on our reservation for more than 50 years. With two power plants on our reservation, and five that surround it, we feel the impact from all of that.”

Begay said the health impacts don’t show up right away, but are there nevertheless.

“We are beginning to see a lot of these issues coming up,” she said. “In surface mining, when they start scraping the land to get to the coal, the people near there breathe in all that coal dust. Now they are being contaminated with water containing uranium. We’re beginning to see a lot of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).”

Begaye also cited chemicals used to wash the coal for transportation, as well as the gases generated from large trucks used in that transportation across Navajo Nation land, as being problem issues for the Navajo people.

She said health impacts include heart and lung disease, kidney and liver problems, and other issues brought on by the suspected use of mercury and chromium. She also mentioned mental health issues and numerous other physical health effects.

“I am impacted by these things, so I have the right to speak about them,” Deal said.

Last week, the Salt River Project struck an agreement with the Navajo Nation that allows the utilities to operate NGS through the expiration of its current lease at the end of 2019, then complete the decommissioning of the plant and cleanup activities for another several years beyond that.

“With this new extension, now is the time to plan a transition that supports the Navajo Nation long-term, investing in renewable energy and job creation, cleaning up and remediating the pollution the plant and mine have left behind,” said Nicole Horseherder, of Tó Nizhóní Ání, “as well as taking care of our water and environment, and addressing the health impacts our families have suffered as a result of using coal.”

“Let’s not fool ourselves — coal has zero future,” Deal said. “The utilities rushing to get out of NGS know it, energy experts across the country know it and we know it. Any extension of operations on NGS beyond the deal reached will delay the Navajo Nation’s transition to a sustainable economy.”Navajo.