Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/30/2015
In a record environmental settlement, the U.S. government and Kerr-McGee Corporation subsidiary Anadarko Petroleum Corporation finalized a $5.15 billion settlement last week, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice announced. Of the $5.15 billion, $985 million will go toward the cleanup of radioactive contamination at approximately 50 abandoned uranium mines in and around the Navajo Nation in the Southwest. “This recovery will lead to cleanups across the country that will undo lasting damage to the environment, including contamination of tribal lands, by Kerr-McGee’s businesses,” Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division John Cruden said in a statement. “This result emphatically demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to environmental justice for all Americans, and it fulfills the Department’s promise to hold accountable those who pollute and those who try to foist their responsibility for cleanup on the American taxpayer.”
The settlement stems from a bankruptcy proceeding for Tronox Limited, a company spun off by Kerr-Mcgee in 2005 as part of a company reorganization that tried to place all the environmental legacy responsibilities onto Tronox while Kerr-McGee kept the lucrative oil and gas exploration part of the company. Saddled with the expensive legacy payments, Tronox was forced to file for bankruptcy while Kerr-Mcgee was bought in 2006 by Anadarko Petroleum. In December 2013, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the South District of New York found “that the Kerr-McGee Unit of Anadarko Petroleum committed a fraudulent conveyance in trying to separate Kerr-McGee’s oil and gas assets from its legacy liabilities and was liable for substantial damages attributed to this fraud,” the courts said.
EPA, Navajo Nation Meeting to Work Out Cleanup Plan
In an effort to develop a cohesive work plan, the EPA, the Navajo Nation, and the state of New Mexico are currently meeting to develop a work strategy that could start by the end of this year. The EPA will be taking the lead on the cleanup project, according to EPA spokeswoman Margot Perez-Sullivan. “This work is planned for the approximately 50 Kerr McGee mines located in the Cove area of Apache County, Ariz. and the Ambrosia Lake area of McKinley County, N.M,” Perez-Sullivan said in an email. “EPA will take the lead in this cleanup effort, working closely with the Navajo Nation and affected communities. We will first assess the mines to determine best cleanup approach.” The EPA plans to contract much of the cleanup work out, but the agency declined to comment on any plans or scope of work those contracts will cover.
Assessing contaminated sites within the Navajo Nation and focusing on the cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site and Tuba City Dump topped the priority list for the Environmental Protection Agency and four other federal agencies in their second five year plan to address the uranium contamination within the Navajo Nation, released last year. The five year plan attempted to better define the work needed to be completed along with clearer roles for each involved federal agency, including: the EPA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, the Indian Health Service, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, in consultation with the Navajo Nation.
Navajo Nation Welcomes the Finalized Settlement, More Needed, Navajo President Says
The Navajo Nation, meanwhile, celebrated the finalization of the settlement, but cautioned that more funding is still needed. “Although we are receiving more than a billion dollars, much more is needed to address the 520 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation,” Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said. “Any funds resulting from this lawsuit are welcomed and long overdue.” In a Government Accountability Office report from last year, the GAO concluded that if current funding levels for the cleanup were to remain the same, the cleanup would take decades to complete. To complete the project, the GAO said the federal price tag will be in hundreds of millions of dollars
Outside the $985 million set aside for the uranium mill cleanup, the Navajo Nation received $43 million to address radioactive waste left at the former Kerr-McGee uranium mill in Shiprock, N.M. According to Stephen Etsitty, the executive director of Navajo EPA, the initial payment will cover more than half what is allocated. “I understand the initial amount we will receive is $26.4million. This is 60 percent of the total amount we are set to receive,” Etsitty said. “The remaining 40 percent will come in a few more months to the Nation and U.S. EPA.”
