Sanders School Superintendent Dan Hute looks out over the school and the small town of Sanders that’s dealing with toxic levels of uranium contamination in the drinking water.
“Currently I’m dealing with thyroid cancer,” Lynch said.
Two years ago the town of Sanders, Arizona, learned their drinking water was toxic. The school district installed a water filtration system this summer, but many people like Lynch are sick with conditions linked to uranium contamination.
“It’s been tough on our family,” Lynch said.
Since then many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that millions of gallons of water contaminated by mill tailings were released into groundwater through unlined ponds.
That river runs right through Sanders.Navajo Council Delegate Raymond Smith Jr. said cleaning up the mine is progress.
The federal government has been trying to hold the mining companies accountable but many have gone bankrupt. Three companies have reached multimillion-dollar settlements for the cleanup of about 150 abandoned mines.