environment
ENERGY PRODUCTION ON NAVAJO LAND:
The Four Corners power plant is the most polluting coal fired power plant in the country, emitting 44,658 tons of C02 into the atmosphere. Selenium, mercury, nuclear isotopes and heavy metals emitted from the plant bring sulphur dioxide and acid rain, polluting rivers and using millions of tons of water in the arid climate. Natural gas wells, oil pumps and refineries dot the landscape in an area where 60 percent of the population still lives without the use of electricity and running water. The energy produced here doesn’t stay on Navajo land, however. These power plants, in addition to a new, third coal fired power within 25 miles of two others, will keep Las Vegas and Phoenix lit up, while Navajo elders that live next door still live by candle light. ‘Yellow Fever’ touches on this subject in order to bring perspective on the amount of energy exploitation that is still occurring on Navajo land today.
RECLAIMATION:
Some areas in the region have been to be ‘Superfund Sites’ where clean up is so critical, that the EPA has put millions of dollars into clean up strategies, many of which seem merely cosmetic. In the Bush years, funding and staff was cut significantly. There are around a thousand uranium mines on Navajo land, half of those are “reclaimed” and thus returned to a visibly restored natural state. Reclamation efforts cover, reduce and dilute radioactivity, but it will be millions of years before the waste decays.