By Shondiin Silversmith

Posted February 20, 2025

 

Fourteen days after the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels, Inc. signed an agreement allowing the transport of uranium ore across Navajo land, semitrucks carrying 25 tons of uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine passed through Navajo land, marking the beginning of the daily truck hauls

 

“We are now implementing the agreement,” Stephen Etsitty, the executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, said during a Naabik’íyáti’ Committee meeting on Thursday.

 

Hauling officially started on Feb. 12, the earliest date possible under the agreement, which requires the mining company to give the Navajo Nation 14-day notice of its transportation plans.

Etsitty said that the mining company provided notice on Jan. 29 of its transportation plans for the remainder of February. There will be two trucks a day to start, with an increase to four trucks by the end of February.

 

Notification for March’s transportation schedule will be shared with Navajo officials later this month.

 

“We are now conducting the safety and monitoring inspections,” he said. Those inspections, which are authorized by the agreement, will take place in Cameron.

 

As the first two semitrucks hauling uranium ore in silver trailers covered by a tarp rolled down Highway 89 toward Cameron around 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, they were directed to a designated area for inspection by the Navajo Nation EPA.

 

The Navajo Nation Police and EPA set up at the entrance of Cameron — the starting point of the haul route through the Navajo Nation — to conduct a safety inspection of the trucks. Each had one driver, and the trucks were followed by two additional pickup trucks with representatives from the trucking and mining company.

 

Etsitty and Navajo Environmental Law Officer Arnold Maryboy were the certified inspectors on site, and several Navajo Nation police officers were on the scene to observe and monitor the inspection.

 

Etsitty and Marboy had a checklist of regulatory requirements established by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Arizona Department of Transportation, which they used for the inspection.

 

“What we did today was basically verify compliance with the existing regulatory requirements that are in place (and) that the company is trained and responsible for,” Etsitty said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror after the inspection on Wednesday.

 

The regulations are part of the U.S. DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which regulates and ensures the safe and secure movement of hazardous materials.

 

Etsitty and Maryboy’s first steps in the inspection were to verify all the technical information about the haul, such as the bill of lading for the radiation detection scans and truck and trailer identification numbers, to confirm that the Navajo EPA had the correct data.

 

Once all that information was verified, Etsitty said that they spoke with the truck drivers, asking whether they had hard copies of the transportation emergency plan from the trucking and mining companies and their emergency spill kits, which are both used in case of an accident.

 

Etsitty said those plans include essential contacts within the Navajo Nation, including the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety, Navajo Fire and EMS departments, and the Navajo EPA.

 

After verifying the documents and equipment, Etsitty and Maryboy inspected the trailer carrying the uranium ore. They started by checking the trailer’s weight to verify they were not overloading the trucks and abiding by the 25-ton limit.

 

Then they checked the visual placement of the placards and signage to ensure they were in the correct locations. The trucks have yellow radioactive placards on all four sides of the hauling trailers.

 

“RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL USE ONLY. RADIOACTIVE LSA” was painted in all-black letters on a small panel on the side of the hauling trailer near an orange marker light.

 

The tarps covering the trailers were next inspected. Etsitty said they were checked for significant damage or misplacement. The inspection finished with a gamma radiation reading.

 

Etsitty took readings on each side of the trailers using a Ludlum Model 19 Radiation Monitor. He said that they collected readings to compare with those taken from the mine.

 

“The levels that I was recording today were all well below the maximum allowable limit,” Etsitty told the Mirror, noting that the highest radiation reading was 13, while the regulated maximum allowed is 200.

 

About 30 minutes after the inspection began, the trucks were back on the road.

 

From what they checked on the trucks and trailers at the inspection point, Etsitty said that the trucking and mining companies comply with the U.S. DOT regulations, which are the primary rules they must follow.

 

However, he said he wouldn’t be completely satisfied until they verified that the haul trucks had safely left the Navajo Nation and delivered to the White Mesa Mill near Blanding, Utah. Etisitty got that notice about 3 hours later.

 

Implementing the agreement

 

Seeing the first haul trucks pass through the Navajo Nation on Wednesday left Etsitty with mixed emotions. He said he was pleased with the procedural aspects of the situation because they performed the inspection properly and executed everything correctly.

 

However, Etsitty said he understands that people are angry and hurt by what is happening because of what the legacy of uranium has done to the Navajo people.

 

“I’m no different. I share a lot of the same stories,” he said.

 

But, Etsitty explained, he holds a leadership position that adheres to the statutes and laws of federal, state and tribal governments that guide decisions.

 

“When you have to work in that type of regulatory and policy environment in Indian affairs, decisions are oftentimes displeasing to the populace,” he said.

 

The agreement between the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels was announced on Jan. 29, nearly six months after the mining company voluntarily halted transportation following their first transport through the Navajo Nation without notifying the tribe.

 

The company started negotiations with the Navajo Nation in August 2024 after the tribe condemned its actions. As the executive director of the Navajo EPA, Etsitty has been involved in those negotiations since the beginning.

 

Although the Navajo Nation has a law prohibiting the transportation of uranium across their tribal land, there are exceptions.

 

For instance, the approved route for the transportation of uranium ore is along roadways under the jurisdiction of state and federal agencies. The tribe does not control the right of way for State Routes 89 and 161, the roadways on the Navajo Nation on which haul trucks will travel. Therefore, the tribe can not block transportation because it lacks jurisdiction.

 

“We can ban uranium transport on a lot of other roads on the Navajo Nation,” Etsitty said. “We just couldn’t do it outright on these federal and Arizona state-granted rights of way highways.”

 

Another exception is how federal law prohibits states and tribes from banning the transportation of radioactive and other hazardous materials under a legal doctrine called preemption. Essentially, when two bodies of law conflict, the law of the higher authority displaces the law of the lower authority.

 

Etsitty said the tribe considered its legal options and ultimately decided the best course of action was to negotiate an agreement with the mining company rather than enter a legal battle it was unlikely to win.

 

“How can we push back? How can we fight? If we go to court, are we gonna win? What does this mean for our sovereignty?” he said of the questions that Navajo leaders had to weigh as they decided what to do.

 

In the end, Etsitty said the best option was to develop an agreement with the mining company that benefited the Navajo Nation.

 

The Navajo EPA has primary oversight responsibilities for transport, but the Navajo Nation and the mining company have not released the signed agreement to the public.

 

Etsitty said the work the Navajo EPA is doing through this agreement is a good step in the right direction for this particular industry, and shows that the Navajo Nation has a role in it.

 

“You may not like it. You may think that you have all the approvals you need to bypass us, but if you’re going to engage and impact any of our lands and our communities, you need to come work with us and work through these things with us,” he said.

 

‘We were duped’

 

When Treina Jones learned that the haul trucks from Pinyon Plain Mine would start driving through the Navajo Nation, she set up near the main intersection of State Route 191 and 264 in Tuba City to greet them.

 

“I was there holding up my banners for the truck drivers to see,” Jones said. She posted a large banner on the side of her truck that read, “Stop Energy Fuels. Haul No,” with a radioactive symbol on each side.

 

Jones said as she watched the trucks pass by, she thought about how it affects the whole community by risking the health of the Navajo people.

 

She said it’s devastating that haul trucks will pass through her community daily, but she plans to be out along the route with her banners.

 

“The most we can do is to educate ourselves, be here for our community, listen to our community and try to help by providing resources,” Jones said.

 

She co-founded Bidí Roots, a grassroots group working to provide information to Navajo communities about the recent agreement signed by the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels. The group will host an awareness walk on Feb. 22 in Tuba City.

 

Jones said they collaborate with HaulNo!, a volunteer-led grassroots group that spreads awareness and stimulates action within Indigenous communities about nuclear issues impacting the Southwest.

 

She got involved with the work after spending time last year working on campaigns where they visited communities along the haul route to provide information about the Pinyon Plain Mine and the planned hauling.

 

Hearing the stories from elders and community members pushed Jones to learn more and continue the work because “they were scared about this transportation.”

 

She said she remembers how Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren condemned the hauling of uranium across tribal land last year. She said she even walked with him and First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren during an awareness walk held in Cameron about uranium mining and its transport.

 

“I hoped that Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren would stick to his word,” Jones said. “I was happy to stand by him, and I was positive that he would protect his people, be here for his people and be the voice for his people.”

 

But Nygren has stopped advocating for them, Jones said, which makes her angry and frustrated because tribal leaders have a duty to inform the community about what was happening.

 

HaulNo! co-founder Leona Morgan and other volunteers have worked to raise awareness, educate and inspire resistance to uranium threats, specifically those surrounding Pinyon Plain Mine, White Mesa Mill and the transportation between the two.

 

Morgan said she hopes the Navajo people will see that this uranium transport is going to open up the tribe to more, and it’s up to the people to hold the tribal government accountable.

 

“It’s heartbreaking that this is happening,” Morgan said, adding that it is being allowed to happen by entities on and off the Navajo Nation. “The most heartbreaking part is our own (Navajo Nation) government doesn’t have our back.”

 

Morgan said last year when the temporary pause in hauling and the Navajo Nation’s updating of its laws regulating uranium transport were moves to help the tribe uphold its sovereignty. But then the tribe agreed to let the ore travel through its land.

 

“I feel like we were duped,” she said.

 

“Essentially, what the Navajo Nation has done is become compliant in Energy Fuels and the United States Department of Energy’s plan to expand the White Mesa mill to process rare earth elements,” Morgen said, adding that they are using critical minerals and the advancement of national security as an excuse to make “the biggest radioactive dump in the Southwest.”

 

Morgan said the Navajo Nation entering this agreement did not only hurt their tribe but other tribal nations in the region, such as the Havasupai, the Hopi Tribe, the Hualapai and the Ute Mountain Ute.

 

“All our neighbors are really upset,” she said.

 

The Havasupai Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe have openly condemned the transportation of uranium along this haul route, the Pinyon Plain Mine and the White Mesa Mill.

 

Morgan invited Yolanda Badback from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to speak during a community forum webinar on Feb. 4. Etsitty participated in the webinar and provided details about the agreement to attendees before Badback spoke.

 

Badback criticized the agreement’s provision that the mining company will dispose of waste from abandoned uranium mines at White Mesa Mill, located only a few miles north of the Ute Mountain Ute tribal community of White Mesa.

 

Energy Fuels agreed to accept 10,000 tons of uranium mine waste from abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation and transport it to the White Mesa Mill, which Energy Fuels owns, for processing and disposal at no cost to the tribe.

 

“Why don’t you want to contaminate your own reservation and contaminate another reservation?” she said of the Navajo government’s decision. “We need to collaborate with each other and try to stop this from harming our people and harming our communities.”

 

Badback said they don’t want uranium ore or waste near her tribe’s community, which is only a few miles from the mill and already experiencing contamination.

 

“My community is small. We’re not big like other reservations,” she said, adding that it hurt her to hear that uranium waste would be moved from the Navajo Nation to the mill near their home.

“You’re hurting your own tribe,” Badback said. “You’re hurting other tribes, as well, by having them haul it through on Highway 191.”

 

During the webinar, Etsitty said that he has become more aware of the efforts of other tribes in the region. They have all been trying various things to stop mining and transportation, including advocating for an updated environmental impact statement. But it is unclear what may come of those efforts.

 

Etsitty said that, through the agreement, the Navajo Nation was able to gain the ability to monitor and track transportation to improve safety along the route.

 

He said the sad reality is that the mining company did not need the Navajo Nation’s approval to transport the uranium because it already had all the state and federal approvals it needed.

 

“We were able to take advantage of their willingness to sit down with us and to work out this agreement for the protection of the communities that this material is going to go through on the Navajo Nation,” Etsitty said.

 

“I know that every Indian nation across the United States that has to deal with environmental justice issues works very hard to do the same thing,” he added. “Sometimes, we’re able to work together. Sometimes, we do things independently.”

 

‘We always have a choice’

 

Since the agreement was signed, Etsitty said he has been working on sharing more information about the agreement with Navajo leaders, including the Navajo Nation Council, chapter officials and community members.

 

Etsitty has met with some of the chapter house officials along the route, and he has provided reports to tribal committees, including the Navajo Utah Commission, the Law and Order Committee, the Resources and Development Committee and the Naabik’íyáti’ (NABI) Committee.

 

Concerns the NABI committee raised during its Feb. 13 meeting focused on the lack of transparency regarding the agreement’s details and negotiation process.

 

Navajo Nation Acting Deputy Attorney General Kris Beecher provided the committee with a printed document of the entire agreement after calls from committee members to do so.

 

He told the committee that the document includes a confidentiality clause, and if they wanted to discuss the agreement in further detail, an executive session would be needed.

 

Beecher requested that the document not be shared with outside parties and that the council delegates refrain from taking photos of the agreement. Copies of the agreement were returned at the end of the meeting.

 

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton called on the Navajo DOJ to provide the exact citation they relied on when referencing how the tribe could not waive federal preemption.

 

“I need to know the citation that is being referenced to that is saying that we didn’t have a choice because of preemption,” she said. “We always have a choice. That is what we pay DOJ the big bucks for.”

 

Charles-Newton also questioned who negotiated the agreement, and bristled at the document’s declaration that the Navajo Nation had signed off on the terms. Various Navajo codes generally define the Navajo Nation as the president, vice president, council delegates, and chapter, and she noted that the “council did not enter into these agreements.”

 

“I don’t like the agreement, and I don’t like that I was not allowed to make a statement on this issue, and now this contract is already in place,” she said. “I challenge the legality of this contract.”

 

Charles-Newton also expressed her disappointment in the transparency of information for the Navajo public. There were no public hearings about the negotiations and agreement, and nothing but silence from the Navajo Nation President’s office — not even a press release informing the public that the contract was finalized.

 

President Nygren released a statement on social media about the agreement, emphasizing his “immediate action” after the hauling started last summer, including signing an executive order prohibiting the transportation of uranium ore across tribal lands.

 

Nygren said that the Navajo Department of Justice led negotiations to ensure the Navajo peoples’ concerns were addressed.

 

“This agreement reflects our Nation’s commitment to protecting our people and asserting our sovereignty,” Nygren said in a post on the social media platform X on Feb. 13.

 

In his post, Nygren confirmed that Acting Attorney General Heather Clah signed the agreement on behalf of the Navajo Nation.

 

He said that Clah acknowledged Energy Fuels for negotiating in “good faith” and recognizing the “deep trauma” uranium has caused Navajo communities.

 

Nygren’s post is his first public response to the agreement since it was signed on Jan. 29. He condemned the transportation of uranium ore through the Navajo Nation in July 2024 when the mining company sent two haul trucks across tribal land with little notice to the tribe.

 

 

Shondiin Silversmith is an Indigenous Affairs Reporter with Arizona Mirror. This article is republished from Arizona Mirror  under a Creative Commons license. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.