Activity Report Explorer

Four Corners • Entered by Jennifer Singer on April 29, 2025

Uranium Keeps Me Up at Night

January 3, 2025 – April 30, 2025

Key Issue: Public Lands Health & Protection
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Key Partners: White Mesa Coalition

Short Description of Activity

Signed our group onto the first group letter from the White Mesa Coalition Group and sent it to West Slope Broadbands for sign-ons and my partner Sierra Club Groups. We meet monthly and the 2nd group letter will be about uranium mining in New Mexico, and western CO- including Slick Rock, I hope. Shared numerous Take Action opportunities with 4Corners Broadband related to HB 25-1040 Nuclear Energy is Clean Energy. It passed anyway and is signed into law by Govenor Polis. When I read the text at least it said what the San Miguel County Commissioners new regulations for mining says- that future mining projects will have no health effects on the environment or the community. I know uranium mining can’t meet that standard if it applies as written! I wrote comments on San Miguel County draft mining regulations after meetings with Jennifer Thurston and Sheep Mountain Alliance. I got sign-ons from other regional Broadbands. Carrie Krickbaum and I wrote several emails and she’d like to be included in the White Mesa Coalition calls monthly meetings. Sierra Club made a Uranium Mining Toolkit that I shared with 4Corners Broadband. I spoke at Hickenlooper Town Halls with Lisa Pool and Montezuma County Commissioner Meetings about protecting public lands and community health from new uranium mining. I attended a state-wide uranium Zoom meeting to discuss ablation regulations and heard from people like Don Corum. I mentioned health effects from air pollution from the White Mesa Mill smokestacks and was told that it’s a Utah state issue- even if the 50 mile radius of concern extends all the way to Cortez. I have combined “We Love Public Lands” with Green Amendment because with the current lack of federal environmental regulations, we need to get a CO Green Amendment into our CO Bill of Rights or Four Corners will be the Energy Sacrifice Zone for the country again.

Reflection/Evaluation

The White Mesa Coalition meetings keep me up at night afterwards. The research I have found from NIH and other agencies like EPA How’s My Waterway showed levels of Thorium, Uranium, and Vanadium in McPhee Reservoir in 1977. I’ll search some more to see if it’s gotten any better since uranium mining stopped in the 1980’s around here. I saw interesting new air monitoring technology from NOAA and learned about water monitoring from Dan KIng from the Sierra Club Southwest CO Group at Durango Earth Day. Rebecca Samulski gave me a local contact too. I wrote a graphic poem about the effects of uranium mining and hope to get it published in the Four Corners Anthology to get the word out. The uranium lobby is strong, but they aren’t mentioning the front-end mining and back-end storage effects of nuclear energy.