With a
proposal to mine uranium in eastern Oregon, it's important to understand the devastating impacts that the mining and milling uranium have had on communities. Here's another story of death and illness. This one about the members of the Wind River Reservation near Riverton Wyoming. It's by Tristan Ahtone and was published in the Indian Country Today Media Network on January 19, 2012.
Kenny Slattery has lived on the Wind River Reservation for 51 years, and just across the street from the old Susquehanna-Western uranium mill tailings pile for that entire period of time. “They say there’s a cancer cluster in this area,” says Slattery. “I don’t know, but my mother died of lung cancer, and my father died of prostate cancer. My cousin’s husband died of esophageal cancer just a half-mile from here, and other people have died from cancer around this area too. Dogs have died of cancer. It’s strange.”
The site is just a few miles southwest of Riverton, the ninth-most-populated city in Wyoming. It has a long history of contamination, as well as a cloud of rumors. “People say there’s a one-eyed fish over here,” says Slattery as he points to the pond in question...
Read the
full article at Indian Country Today Media Network.
