This is not a uranium processing plant

I remember first learning about the cause of our genocide in 1994, we were working on the SRST IRMP at SRST Water & Natural Resources during the good old days. 

The US Forest Service (USFS) was holding a Custer National Forest Environmental Impact Statement public and tribal hearing conference on oil and gas leasing, inviting all regional tribes (about 200 natives showed up, camping out near the abandoned uranium mine); oddly, the USFS only wanted tribal comment on the petroglyphs, and didn't mention the abandoned uranium mines although I asked about them--I showed up on my own funds. All the tribal governments should have seen them, and perhaps the Grand River would be 15 years free from that source of radioactive contamination.

Unfortunately such was not the case, years passed, people downstream and downwind, getting cancer, dying from sickness, wondering why? Of course, the obvious keeps getting pointed out to them and yet they are blind. I say this is revenge for defeating Custer and the 7th Cavalry, they torment with Hunkpapa with this sickening ignorance and does give reason to why Sitting Bull was murdered for less than this, (he wanted our own Hunkpapa reservation on the Grand River so we would not be getting the leftovers from the government annuities, rotting meat and wormy grain and being just left out from all the millions in federal government grants the tribal government wastes on idiocy...

We walk slow like a turtle and let the spirit lead. And kindness has always been our preferred method of community involvement: despite the tragic implications of this hostile genocide committed against my family, the Hunkpapa, the most feared tribe in the Great Indian Wars, we forgive you, give us justice. And listen to us, don't go out there unless you have proper radiation hazard protective clothing or are at least aware of keeping up upwind of the extreme radon danger. (I am already seeing signs of the workers forgetting the danger, oh well, such is life, they'll learn the hard way.)
Below is a map showing the location of the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine showing Bluff B (I felt that this is good enough), this place recorded 200,000 cps, corresponding to some very dangerous levels (https://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/radiation/rrmcroentgen.html?u=rrmcroentgen&v=133).

Figure 2. As the Crow Flies, the water flows

You can see how the radioactive runoff permeates the Grand River valley, you can see where it collects itself like gold collects itself in riffles in the sluice box...I have to hand it to the smug eggheads, their racism was so thick that they couldn't see what they did for us; we thank you. Especially you, Mr. Stone, I can imagine your shock after that first meeting, talk about putting the bioremedial foot in the mouth, wanting to spray uranium eating bacteria all over the place, not realizing we are all contaminated with uranium, that your germ might just eat us up, too. Of course, we must consider the chemical reaction the uraniferous lignite has with water especially rainwater, the interstitial disseminated amorphous organic uranium complex completely dissolves into liquid, only precipitating to natural background level after distance and entering the stilling basins. I really worry about both Shadehill and Bowman-Haley ,having radioactive sediments built up from the mining days.
Check this out, their radiation measurements indicate very hot radiation zones within the Riley Pass uranium mine-Bluff B "Final Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment for the Riley Pass Uranium Mines in Harding County, South Dakota" Portage, 2006 excerpt from Hell:
"Gamma rate ranges in Bluff B were determined to be 10,000 to 35,000 counts per minute (cpm) (15.8 to 38.6 µRem/h), averaging 15,000 cpm (21.1 µRem/h). Weathered ore piles ranged from 30,000 to 200,000 cpm (34.6 to 133.1 µRem/h) averaging 60,000 cpm (56.6 µRem/h). The lignite piles exhibited gamma rate ranges of 100,000 to 200,000 cpm (81.4 to 133.1 µRem/h), with an average of 150,000 cpm (08.5 µRem/h). The mine floor, with exposed sandstone, ranged from 20,000 to 50,000 cpm (25.9 to 49.7 µRem/h), and averaged 40,000 cpm (42.4 µRem/h). The majority of undisturbed areas with possible overburden interfaces ranged from 4,000 to 6,000 cpm (8.3 to 11.0 µRem/h), averaging 5,000 cpm (9.7 µRem/h)."

This is not a uranium processing plant, according to the US Forest Service, this is a uranium mine. A uranium mine is under a totally different set of regulations than is an ordinary mine, with specifications most in terms of in situ containment of mining surface runoff of contaminants. The US Forest Service went to great lengths to characterize the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine as just that, a mine; this means that it has full jurisdiction and authority over the mine. Except this is NOT a uranium mine.

This is a uranium processing plant, subject to the authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Miners and workers were supposed to received Radiation Exposure Control and Compensation Act (RECA) funds for being poisoned; Senator Daschle was trying to get the surviving miners their RECA funds but the offending mining company didn't keep records. And continuing on, with this type of malicious ignorance. The US Forest Service, willfully and knowingly and most deceitfully, used its authority to conceal this fact maliciously and malevolently as then the entire list of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP) would be held liable for health damages (this meant some of the local community could be held responsible, this is how the US Forest Service frightened compliance from this affected community as well). Unfortunately for the US Forest Service, in capital murder investigations, there is no statute of limitations. And of course, we are aware that all the principals in this are likely dead; we just want the justice of RECA for all affected by this toxic legacy of the nuclear era and health services for the cancer and the illnesses, controlled by us to protect our privacy (we will not subject ourselves to poverty porn and their pimps, or crybullies and their flying monkeys).

But what do I know, I am just a victim of radioactive genocide with a vested interest in seeing the fullest prosecution applied to all agencies attempting to avoid litigation through delays and outright misdirection, this was my experience with US Forest Service.
And they denied my friend, Mr. Calvin Hoisington, a former uranium miner, that told me enough about this deadly toxic uranium processing rotary kiln to know that the smoke was radon laced and this killed most of them. Mr. Hoisington told me they could tell when a miner was not coming back to work, his nose would be pouring snot and they'd cough and cough...he said after seeing that during his three months out there, he took his check and headed out to safer work.
People asked why couldn't we force the US Forest Service to hear about our increasing sickness and deaths downstream in the Grand River valley, now you know; we feel that the health crises and deaths deserve respect, and should not be mentioned as such in order to keep such privacy and respect this deserves. We will have justice.

This Rapid City Journal "For some, mining clean up at Cave Hills comes too late" says it all.

US Forest Service document links on the Riley Pass Uranium Mine Documents

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprd3833603

Let's face it, gone are the days when we could rely on Smokey Bear to provide calm reassurance that he is keeping us safe from forest fires and such:
Case Summary: Settlement Agreement in Anadarko Fraud Case Results in Billions for Environmental Cleanups Across the Country http://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-settlement-agreement-anadarko-fraud-case-results-billions-environmental

I said that we need to be put on RECA (Radiation Exposure And Compensation Act), the whole community has lost somebody and is sick as well. We do need some swimming pools and water slides out of that Anadarko Settlement as well as other recreational activities harmed by the poisoning...
As for the history from the obfuscating lead federal agency, spending over $20 million to try to prove that the downstream communities have not been because at that point the water wasn't flowing, the rains weren't sampled and no comments were taken from downstream communities who would say that the mine is killing us as do the local Harding county citizens will lament as well...the mine is killing us, the Forest Service needs its attic dusted out for idiocy, I am so glad that certain USFS staff retired, while one that retired is going to say some very bad things, litigable, about how the USFS tried to cover up the human health effects especially made it a point to ignore the downstream communities screaming at the USFS that we are dying...
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/custergallatin/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprd3833603

7 years and counting, minutes or millirems???

The following slideshow I made seven years ago. When I look at it, I keep thinking of the people I've met since I started this journey in 1994.

Over the years I've discovered that when I bring up uranium mining with people, especially the environmentalists, and more specifically, several of the major anti-nuclear groups, the usual reply is "Aren't they taking care of that issue in Navajo country? What? You're saying that this is happening in South Dakota? What? Committing acts of genocide against your family, the Hunkpapa? Doesn't the government know? Reclaiming the mine? How come we never heard of this issue?" Then to add insult to injury, many of these "environmental/anti-nuclear" groupies say they care but when I bring up that we don't want to be your "poor, pitiful Indian" campaign fund raising, they back away. I guess having absolutely no respect at all gives them that right to go their own way. Good riddance, I think afterwards, feeling that we are better off without that paternalistic, internalized racist mentality, you know the kind, like to shake their fists at whatever they feel they can control, not realizing that hostility only brings more hostility and usually just makes things worse.

A little while ago, I attended many meetings with the US Forest Service over the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine. They spent millions of dollars trying to prove that downstream communities are not at risk from the mine. They even have a very informative website showing their arguments. But don't fall for their cherry picking. They tried their hardest to cover up the mine as well as the blindingly obvious: they never examined the mine's uraniferous lignite's reaction to rainwater. Unfortunately, knowing that the US Forest Service would rather pay more attention to trees and not to mining impacts, I read much of the materials from US EPA on TENORM (Technologically-Enhanced, Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials) which say that low pH water mixes very well with uraniferous lignite and means that the solution can travel very far until it reaches less acidic water where it separates from solution and solidifies. Several millions of dollars of cherry picking, all to protect itself from any liability and from its own ignorance.

That doesn't mean a thing, that doesn't matter. I stand up for my relatives, I am not scared, I don't lie, I don't make light of this tragedy, I know the truth. Over the years several people tried to get me to lie for them, to say that they've been working on this issue with me for years, I tell them I can't do that, sorry. I've had groups say they'll help, and I ask, doing what? We'll give you publicity? No thanks, we are already oppressed and we'd rather have something more substantive than your pity. I have had groups say we'll help but you have to sign secrecy agreements, no thanks, I don't involve myself in secret failures where backstabbing and infighting always result.

7 years and counting...and twenty years of my life

Riley Pass Abandoned Uranium Mine

For those needing to see what 14 Sieverts looks like, especially when reading that radiation measurements at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophic failure are 1.8 Sieverts. This abandoned mine is called the Riley Pass, dug and left to poison the environment by Kerr-McGee under the front mining company KERMAC during the 60's. The uranium from the abandoned mine because of its relative purity was used mainly for nuclear weapons testing.

Irony has been given another tragic meaning.

General Custer has always had it in for the Hunkpapa as this was the camp he attacked and infuriated to his honorable death. I've always felt that this mine is Custer's revenge against the downstream Hunkpapa.

Kerr-McGee, Still Alive And Kicking, ZOMBIFIED!

Just read that the Tronox lawsuit against Anadarko (a mega-dirty oil corp that ate Kerr-McGee) is finally over for this round, up next are the expected appeals by Anadarko. Anadarko is going to be penalized between $5 billion to $14 billion for the toxic sites they sought to avoid by leaving their mess with Tronox.
Anadarko Should Embrace Settlement in Tronox Lawsuit
Now what this means for the toxic Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine in the Custer National Forest, upstream Grand River, a sewer stream flowing through the Native communities of Rock Creek and Running Antelope, is this; they might start reclaiming the mine after years of stalling. They, meaning the US Forest Service, should be posting their "great" news shortly.
And now the ball is in our court and moving once again.

Getting gear again

Over the past few years, I’ve kept up this blog, then slowed down to wait for new information to emerge in terms of environmental restoration and regulations. Alas, the restoration takes time, regulations are becoming more like licensing your bike at your local city government.

But now let’s get our roll on…

Collective Continuity of Dissonance

As I look back over the last 20 years of my "environmentalism," I cannot help but think that at least those years were not wasted in vain. Every now and then, I feel like I am wasting my time, advocating our very delicate, and sensitive issue to certain major environmental groups that seem to turn off the moment we tell them we are not going to allow ourselves to be part of a fund raising campaign. This is so as this stance respect both the dead and the dying. But that doesn't matter, at least they know; that since this has happened to us, it will happen to them (whether this motivates them to introspection is not our concern nor is seeking their pity).
Several years ago I described to my elders the experiences I enjoyed, sharing our tragedy with several environmental groups and that relief soothing my anguished soul, knowing their ears are mine for that moment. The elders ask, "How come they don't do anything? There is more than one group fighting for the environment? They don't seem to be working together, joining forces with other groups? There must be more than one environment for them to be fighting alone." That always amazes me, when they say that, it reminds me of traffic jams, honking horns, yelling drivers.
I tell them, "That is the way they were raised, they seek individuality before they seek community; when they seek community, that search always leads to others just as lost, not knowing that community always means more than just a group of people coming together at a point in time, it means blood stretched through time---the essence of spirit also known as the soul. They are scared of being forgotten, so they clamber over each other, screaming, deriding each other until one comes out on top, then they too get stepped upon back into the mud."
And now again, I'll be going back to the simpler things on the reservation, breathing relatively clean air for a few days, and pausing my rat race to enjoy life and our ceremonies. And again, I'll share with my elders what I've seen, heard and also what I read happening on the Internet. The Internet fascinates them as it resembles smoke signals, but in bytes and bits; millions of people talking all at once, like a strong breeze blowing through autumn cottonwood trees.
I'll have to tell them about the BP oil disaster, the flooding, the exploding nuclear stations and how it created this buzzing sound of bees, then fades out to silence until the next catastrophe happens. As long as everyone is in it for themselves, singing their our swan song; the catastrophes are sure to come to listen.

Criticizing the Work of Others Doesn’t Make You Green

The other day I read “The End of Magical Thinking”, an article hosted on Foreign Policy and authored by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger.

Overall the article was totally a waste of my time, I found it boring from the moment the authors started playing the same blame game over the cap and trade baloney.  The moment I lost complete interest is the point in the article where they state we need federal subsidies in clean coal, and nuclear power (I share their support of a solar credit tax). Then as if cooing like love-struck bunny rabbits with big doe eyes would help their article, they even give a full run-down of Secretary of Energy Chu: this added even more to their copycat lameness but at least they made me laugh (to think people actually send these people their hard-earned money for their Rush Limbaugh style commentary).

In other words, bashing others behind their backs is much like your grandmother twisting your cheeks at XMAS. Get away from that computer and start cleaning up your own backyard, keep your paws out of mine, because you might try to say that after I clean it up, that you did all the work by being my cheerleaders.

Now the problem is that most environmental groups, like the authors decry, take the easy road out when it comes to climate change: they copy the slogans, the chants and even take credit of the awesome work of others who risk their freedom opposing the dirty energy industry. Talk about magical thinking, doing this is magical thinking and does nothing to protect our world from our pollution!

The real groups actively opposing dirty energy are out there, they are doing wonderful work, they are changing attitudes, one polluting person at a time. I wish I could say the same about the magical thinking article but I can’t. All I can say is:

NO NUKES

NO COAL

NO KIDDING

A who's who guide to corporate lobbying in Copenhagen

http://www.corporateeurope.org/climate-and-energy/content/2009/12/corporate-lobbies-copenhagen

8 December 2009

The UN climate talks have become a "must attend" for huge numbers of business lobbyists, each eager to promote their preferred "solution" to tackling climate change – which protects their business interests.
Business lobby groups have been preparing for Copenhagen for years, lobbying national governments to ensure their interests are represented at the negotiating table. Their influence is one of the reasons why governments are finding it so hard to reach agreement on emission cuts. Many of the lobbies have urged governments to block tough targets for 2020. They want easier access to off-setting through a global carbon market (avoiding emissions cuts at source) and funding for controversial technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear power and agrofuels.
This guide lists some of the main lobby groups found at the talks – it is not comprehensive – but highlights some of the players involved.