Roundtable Presentation for the Western Social Science Association
April 14-17, 2010
Dr. Linda Robyn
Northern Arizona University
Corporate crimes are different than some of the crimes we think of withwhite-collar crime in that corporate crimes are not committed for personalgain, even though certain individuals directly benefit from them.State-corporate crime is a hybrid of white-collar crime because it hasattributes of corporate and government crime. Many of the crimes committed bythe government are closely tied to corporations in the private sector. Thereare many links between corporate “power elites” and the governmenton all levels.
State-corporate crime refers to “…illegal or socially injuriousactions that occur when one or more institutions of political governance pursuea goal in direct cooperation with one or more institutions of economicproduction and distribution (Kramer and Michalowski 1990:3). Applyingstate-corporate crime in the case of this paper is demonstrated by examiningthe United States interest in energy and mineral resources found on AmericanIndian reservations. These reservations are of strategic importance tocorporations and the government because they constitute one of the largest andleast known mineral repositories on the continent – nearly 5% of U.S. oiland gas, one-third of its strippable low sulfur coal, and one-half of itsprivately owned uranium (Gedicks 1993:40).
Exploitation of indigenous people is often the unfortunate result ofstate-corporate crime. One common thread that runs through many of the 562federally recognized American Indian nations is that they are poor.Unemployment rates of 70% are not uncommon, along with substandard health care,education, substance abuse, high rates of violence, and the basic necessitiesof subsistence. Because these sets of circumstances exist among many Indiannations, large corporations, sometimes in cooperation with public agencies, arewell positioned to exploit indigenous peoples who are on the frontline ofcontemporary struggles. Even though people on the reservation may receive somemonetary compensation, many believe the trade-off of intrusion on their lands,devastation of the environment, and catastrophic harms to people are too high aprice to pay for corporate jobs.
With that said, I now turn to an issue of particular importance in thesouthwest on the Navajo Nation, roughly the size of West Virginia encompassingportions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Very briefly, the 1872 Mining Lawallowed speculators to file claims, mine for various minerals almost anywherethey wanted, while remaining unaccountable for their actions in dealing withany sort of clean up. Those who created this law so long ago could scarcelyimagine the lethality of uranium and the legacy this type of mining would leavebehind.
With economic conditions being what they are today, it is no surprise thaturanium speculators are again targeting the Colorado Plateau for uraniummining. The price of uranium has risen sharply in the past few years, leadingto requests to reopen expired claims and closed mines. Many people, includingthe Governor of Arizona, are in favor of reopening these mines without athorough understanding of past legacies.
True, there would be new jobs created in very depressed areas of the region.However, we’ve here before, and uranium mining did not leave anyone,other than the mining companies, in a better place. Uranium mining in the 1950sbrought substandard wages, radioactive dust, or “yellowcake” whichpoisoned people, livestock, and hopelessly contaminated drinking water andsoil. Lung cancer among Navajo miners ran rampant, and today that legacyremains. Because of this past history, leaders on the Navajo Nation have bannedany future uranium mining.
Outside the reservation, the 1872 mining law remains in effect making itdifficult for local and state officials to stop the process, and unfortunately,we all live downwind. For well over a century, mining companies have left toxicmine tailings in piles that continue to pollute streams and undergroundaquifers. Because of the 1872 law, mining companies were simply allowed to walkaway without attempting any sort of clean up. In an effort to make significantchanges to this mining act, the 110th Congress, 2007-2008, H.R. 2262: HardrockMining and Reclamation Act of 2007 was introduced. This bill would modify therequirements applicable to locatable minerals on public domain lands,consistent with the principles of self-initiation of mining claims, and forother purposes. This bill never became law. The bill was received in the Senateon November 5, 2007, read twice and then referred to the Committee on Energyand Natural Resources (GovTrack.us).
Companies who wish to mine today have taken measures for better oversightregarding the health and environmental impacts. Safety standards have improvedfor miners who now have better protection from radiation exposure. Even withthese improvements, as stated in the previous paragraph, no significant changeshave been made to modify how and where mining can take place. And given thestate of the economy at this time, would there be sufficient resources forfederal government oversight?
If past mining practices mirror what future mining has in store, we need toexamine the past legacy of uranium mining. Uranium mining was in full swing inthe 1950s. When the bottom fell out of the market for this ore, thousands ofcontaminated sites were left behind. Death rates due to lung diseases tripledamong miners, and the largest radioactive spill in United States historyoccurred when a tailings dam broke at Church Rock, New Mexico spilling millionsof gallons of radioactive waste into the Rio Puerco River. What we need to keepin mind is that Uranium-238, the most prevalent isotope in uranium ore, has ahalf-life of about 4.5 billion years, meaning that half the atoms in any givensample with decay in that amount of time. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 704million years, and Uranium-234 has a half life of 245,000 years (Institute forEnergy and Environmental Research. IEER Factsheet/Uranium.>http://www.leer.org/fctsheet/uranium/html). This means the water is hopelesslycontaminated.
Many Navajo men working in the mines were unaware of the dangers inherent inuranium. Mining peaked from the early 1950s through the 1980s withapproximately 400 million pounds being extracted from the region. Profitsdwindled and uranium mining ceased until 2007 when prices soared to $136.00/lb.Stories abound of people living on the reservation using sand and crushed rockfrom old uranium mines to make concrete slabs for floors in hogans and otheruses. People had no idea these “free” materials were radioactive.If we look back to the 1950s, cancer rates on the reservation “were solow that a medical journal published an article titled ‘Cancer immunityin the Navajo’ (Pasternak. LA Times. 2006, A9). However from 1944-1986mining companies removed tons of ore from the ground. Multinationalcorporations, as well as smaller operations, provided uranium with their solecustomer, the United States government. When the Cold War ended in the early1960s, one-thousand mines and processing plants on the Navajo Nation wereclosed (Pasternak LA Times. 2006, A9).
Over this period of time, people on the reservation lived in radioactivedust from the waste piles. The radioactive dust blew around in the wind.Abandoned pit mines filled with rain and the people and livestock drank fromthe water. Children played in radioactive puddles and dug caves in piles ofmill tailings. Many homes were built with radioactive debris. Chunks of ore,squared off nicely by the blasting process, were left at old mines and wereused to make bread ovens, cisterns, foundations, fireplaces, floors and walls.Today one can drive through the Cameron area and see these foundations, andpiles of uranium tailings left behind. Even though the Navajo Nation producesmost of the energy for the southwest, there are about 8,000 people with noelectricity, gas lines for heat, no running water for homes, plumbing or anytype of sanitation. People in this area have been forced to haul water fit forhuman consumption because their wells are contaminated by companies that havemined and processed uranium ore, leaving toxic mine tailings in piles pollutingstreams and underground aquifers with no obligation to clean up the devastationleft behind. Today we can still drive past huge tailing piles near Cameron,Arizona and see other piles beside the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. We canalso see uranium contaminated home foundations that were abandoned due toradioactivity.
People who were believed to have a “special immunity” to cancersaw death rates double from the early 1970s to the late 1990s according toIndian Health Services data. During this same time, the overall cancer rate inthe general population of the United States declined. In 1981 the tribe’shealth department reported sharp increases in breast, ovarian and relatedcancers among teenage girls.
Pasternak (L.A. Times, 2006, A9) reports that Navajo Neuropathy and othersevere health issues are associated with drinking uranium contaminated water.In spite of high rates of cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, kidney failureand birth defects, there has been no comprehensive study of public health inuranium and coal mine communities. Both the citing of mines in a minoritycommunity and the failure of the government to take remedial action follow thepatterns of discrimination which gave rise to the environmental justicemovement.
Because of the lethality of uranium, new evidence shows gastric cancer ratesup 50% during the 1990s among Navajo people in two New Mexico counties withuranium sites. Uranium has been linked to reproductive cancers, and a sharpincrease in breast, ovarian, and other cancers among teenage girls. Today,cancer rates 17 times the national average have been found (Cole. Arizona DailySun, 3-29-08, A1 and A8).
On Friday, February 19, 2010 the Arizona Daily Sun reported on the frontpage that a study conducted by the Southwest Biological Sciences Center at U.S.Geological Survey in Flagstaff have “slightly elevated levels of uraniumin the water, but that the majority of wells, springs and streams would be fitto drink under EPA standards” (Cole. Arizona Daily Sun, 2-19-10, A1 andA7). The study reports that there were “a few” samples that weregreater than the drinking water standard. How many is a few? And given thehalf-life of uranium, wouldn’t a few be too many?
I spoke with the author of the article, and she informed me this type ofmining would be different because uranium would come from breccia pipes ratherthan open pit mines. Breccia pipes are long vertical tubes of broken rock.“The uranium mineralization occurs in the breccia zone within the core ofthe pipe, as well as in the annular ring faults surrounding the brecciapipe” (Yount. The NAU Project: Uranium Exploration in NorthernArizona).
A schematic cross section of a typical breccia pipe follows.
Looking at the schematic cross section of a typical breccia pipe, on theprevious page it is easy to see that the ore still needs to be taken from deepin the earth. Whether open pit, or breccia pipe, the moment uranium is takenout of the ground radioactive waste is generated. When uranium is removed fromthe ore, “85% of the radioactivity is left behind in the tailings. Thewind can easily blow the tailings away and contaminate soil and water”(Duda. 1980:1).
Ironically, and in direct contrast to the study reported on February 19 bythe Arizona Daily Sun, President Joe Shirley of the Navajo Nation signed aPublic Health State of Emergency for Navajo residents living in areas exposedto unsafe uranium contaminated drinking water which has resulted in chronichealth problems and who need access to safe drinking water in their homes. TheNavajo Commission on Emergency Management drafted this document on January 15,2010, and it was signed on the same day the Arizona Daily Sun reported uraniumcontamination is minimal.
In this paper, I have demonstrated the legacy of mining beginning in the1950s as well as the violence of mining for corporate and government benefit atthe expense of the environment and people. As long as economic and politicalpowers continue to pursue these types of ventures without the strictest ofenvironmental regulation, the harms to all of us will continue.
Bibliography
(n.d.). Retrieved 2009, March 02 from Gov/Track.us.:http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2262@page-command=prin
Cole, C. (2010, February 19). Daily Sun Staff and Capitol Media Services.Study: Uranium contamination minimal , p. A1 and A7.
Gedicks, A. (1993:40). The New Resource Wars: Native and EnvironmentalStruggles Against Multinational Corporations. South End Press.
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. (2005 July). Uranium: Its Uses and Hazards. Retrieved 2010, February 19 from http://www.ieer.org/fctsheet/uranium.html
Kramer, R. C. and R. J. Michalowski (1990:). "Toward an Integrated Theory of State-Corporate Crime." Paper presented at American Society of Criminology. Baltimore, MD, November.
Pasternak, J. (2006, November 22). Times Staff Writer. Mining firms again eyeing Navajo land , p. A1.
Pasternak, J. (2006, November 22). Times Staff Writer. Mining firms again eyeing Navajo land , p. A1 and A9.
Duda, T. (1980, August). Americans for Indian Opportunity Researcher. Radiation and its health effects , p. 1.
Yount, G. (n.d.). The NAU Project -- Uranium Exploration in Northern Arizona. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://northern-arizona-uranium-project.com/breccia_pipe_anatomy
Linda Robyn - State Corporate Crime on the Navajo Nation.pdf (798.02 kb)