Over the span of 50 years, New Mexico saw the development of dozens of uranium mines mostly in the northwest part of the state on federal, state, tribal, private or mixed land.
While there are no active uranium mining activities or milling operations today, the state government is aware of the ongoing consequences of the state’s nuclear legacy and is still developing ways to share information about these areas, which the New Mexico Environment Department warns continue to put the health of community members at risk and endanger the environment.
A collaborative effort between the environment department and the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department has resulted in an online tool to help residents and the public learn where these mining and mill sites are located.
They launched an interactive dashboard—Formerly Operating Uranium Mines and Mills Sites in NM—that shares details such as mine and mill names, their last operators, the status of the land, relevant regulatory actions, legislative districts, county names, mining district boundaries and years of operation.
The data also shows the complexity of uranium mining operations in the state.
“We want to make the information on former uranium mining sites in New Mexico as easy as possible to access. The information on the dashboard gives everyone, from former uranium workers to neighboring communities to state and federal regulators, a single place to go for information on this topic,” Miori Harms, the environment department’s uranium mining reclamation coordinator, said in a statement.
Uranium extraction occurred in New Mexico from the 1940s until the early 1990s. The mining started to provide the United States with the mineral critical to boosting its military with nuclear weapons. Production transitioned to providing fuel for commercial nuclear power after 1970, according to a 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Energy.
New Mexico’s connection to the Atomic Age goes deeper. The first atomic bomb was built in Los Alamos. The first nuclear device, which had a plutonium core, was detonated at a site near Alamogordo.
In 1979, debris and wastewater from an underground uranium mine near Church Rock was released when an earthen dam collapsed, releasing more radioactive material than the Three Mile Island accident earlier that year. The spillage seeped into the Rio Puerco, which travels through parts of the Navajo Nation, the community of Gallup and into Arizona.
State lawmakers passed a bill in 2022 that directed development of the dashboard. The department will update the dashboard whenever the new information is available.
“This dashboard is an important tool to educate New Mexicans about these toxic waste sites in our state,” state Sen. Jeff Steinborn said in a statement. “It is a reminder of the unfinished business of the federal government to clean up the uranium mines used to create our nation’s nuclear stockpile.”
Steinborn, vice-chair of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee, was a cosponsor of the bill.
The Democratic senator represents Doña Ana County, which holds one former uranium mine on Bureau of Land Management land, according to the dashboard.
“I think it’s a very good tool and will be helpful for the state of New Mexico as it moves forward with its strategic plan to address uranium contamination,” said Susan Gordon, who was the coordinator of the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment for 10 years. She retired in December from the group, whose membership consists of community members and members of tribal nations impacted by uranium mining.
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She thinks New Mexico is the only state that has developed a dashboard that solely focuses on former uranium mines and milling areas.
In 2020, the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research released a report that looked at uranium mine remediation issues, including job opportunities developing from cleanup work. More than 75 industry professionals, educators, community members and government employees were interviewed for the study, which was authorized by state lawmakers in 2019 and paid for by state appropriations. Among the report’s recommendations was creating a centralized repository for documents related to uranium mining, employment, remediation, ownership and land status.
“We see this as a one-stop shop for everyone from former uranium mine workers to regulators to help tease out the complexity of these sites,” Harms, the state’s uranium mining reclamation coordinator, said during an update to the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee in December 2023.
Noel Lyn Smith
Roy W. Howard Investigative Fellow
Noel Lyn Smith is a Diné (Navajo) reporter. Her maternal clan is Honágháahnii (One-Walks-Around Clan), and paternal clan is Hashtł’ishnii (Mud Clan). Her reporting has focused on all aspects of the Navajo Nation. Her favorite topics include the tribal government and the environment. She reported about the Gold King Mine spill, water issues, threats to sacred sites and coal mining, including the tribe’s purchase of the Navajo Mine. She looks forward to expanding her understanding of Indigenous communities while working for Inside Climate News. Noel was a staff reporter with the Farmington Daily Times in northwest New Mexico and with the Navajo Times in Window Rock, Arizona. Her work has also appeared in ICT, formerly Indian Country Today. She took a break from her career to earn a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Noel is the first recipient of a partnership between the Cronkite School, the Indigenous Journalists Association and ICT to complete a master’s degree program at Cronkite. Her bachelor’s degree is in journalism from Northern Arizona University.
