Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said Friday farmers in his tribe continue to struggle as they await reimbursement for impacts from the .
Begaye, testifying during a congressional field hearing in Phoenix on the disaster, reiterated earlier claims that the federal government’s response to the accidental wastewater release has fallen short.
“Our people have not been compensated,” he said.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing held by Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., focused on continued tribal fallout from the spill and how the Environmental Protection Agency, which was responsible, plans to continue its response.
The EPA, which caused the 3 million-gallon wastewater release above Silverton in August, has repaid about $150,000 to the tribe for their costs. Begaye said that represents just a fraction — about 8 percent — of what his government is owed.
Navajo officials have chastised the EPA since the Aug. 5 spill, saying the impact left their people .
The wastewater release sent some 880,000 pounds of heavy metal contaminants cascading down the Animas River in to the San Juan River, which runs through the tribe lands.
LoRenzo Bates, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council who represents areas of the tribe that most impacted by the spill, told the Senators he wants to maintain a good relationship with the EPA but asked for answers about water quality and long-term effects.
“The secondary impacts of these economic losses are only just beginning,” he said.
Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator in the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, testified that the agency is committed to ongoing response efforts in the spill’s wake and admitted to some error in the disaster’s immediate wake.
“Clearly there are thing we could do better,” he said.
Stanislaus pointed to the EPA’s for the Gold King and surrounding mines as proof of their commitment to the remediating the situation.
McCain said the Indian Affairs Committee will continue monitoring the EPA’s response and called for criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into the disaster’s cause.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul
