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The tribe’s EPA is expecting to receive an initial amount of $26.4 million, which would be deposited into the Navajo EPA Hazardous Substances Fund, and the remaining sum would be received later in the year, according to the press release.

“Any funds resulting from this lawsuit are welcomed and long overdue,” Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said in the press release.

News about the settlement agreement was first announced by the Department of Justice on April 3. It was the result of a decision made by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper of the Southern District of New York, who ruled Anadarko was liable for billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs for uranium mines and mills once operated on the Navajo Nation by Kerr-McGee.

According to the EPA’s Region 9 website, Kerr-McGee mined more than 7 million tons of uranium ore on or near the reservation and operated sites from the late 1940s to the 1960s in Arizona’s Lukachukai Mountains.

The company left abandoned uranium mine sites, including contaminated waste rock piles, in the Lukachukai Mountains and in the tribe’s Eastern Agency.

On Nov. 10, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement agreement, calling it “fair and reasonable.”

Although the court approved the settlement, it was subject to appeals but none were received so the settlement went into effect on Jan. 21.

“Communities from the Navajo Nation to Henderson, Nev., are finally getting the funding needed to take crucial steps toward cleaning up toxic legacies that pollute their environment,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest, in a news release.

Shiprock Chapter President Duane “Chili” Yazzie said he gave a report about the settlement to residents during the Jan. 25 chapter meeting.

He said the community has been aware that a portion of the settlement is earmarked for the cleanup of the uranium mill site but the community wants to be part of the discussion regarding any cleanup activity by the federal and tribal EPAs.

“We’re going to require consultation to the full extent,” Yazzie said.

Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636 and nsmith@daily-times.com. Follow her @nsmithdt on Twitter.

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