UA-Led Team Investigating Effects of Gold King Mine Spill
March 22, 2016
Karletta Chief, Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathon Nez and Paloma Beamer tour the River of Wellness at the Arizona Health Sciences Center.
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Karletta Chief and Paloma Beamer inspect water samples collected at the San Juan River, which were delivered by Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathon Nez.
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Paloma Beamer's doctoral student, Yoshira Ornealas Van Horne , inspects a water sample brought by Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathon Nez.
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Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne inspects water samples.
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Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne inspects and processes water samples from the San Juan River.
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Members of the UA team and Navajo Nation tour the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants.
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Karletta Chief samples San Juan river water.
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Northern Arizona University doctoral student Tommy Rock and Janene Yazzie, an intern with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, sample sediment along the San Juan River.
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Northern Arizona University doctoral student Tommy Rock holds a sediment core collected along the San Juan River.
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Core samples were taken from a cornfield as a result of the Gold King Mine Spill.
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Northern Arizona University and Environmental Health Sciences Transformative Research Undergraduate Experience students with members from the UA team.
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Ruby Sierra of the Environmental Health Sciences Transformative Research Undergraduate Experience program, Paloma Beamer and Arnold Clifford take a core sample in an agricultural field.
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Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathon Nez, Karletta Chief, Paloma Beamer and Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye.
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Paloma Beamer and Karletta Chief in Window Rock, Navajo Nation capital.
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University of Arizona researchers Karletta Chief and Paloma Beamer have received a $434,000 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to work with the Navajo Nation on assessing exposure and risk perceptions following the Gold King Mine spill.
Chief, a Navajo hydrologist and assistant professor in the UA Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, and Beamer, an associate professor of environmental health sciences, are leading a cross-disciplinary team with plans to address tribal questions regarding the impact of the environmental disaster on their communities.
In August 2015, an estimated 3 million gallons of acid water and heavy metals spilled from the Gold King Mine into Colorado's Animas River, eventually flowing into the San Juan River, the primary source of irrigation for Navajo Nation farmers. The spill was accidentally caused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency while trying to prevent leakage of toxic materials.
"To the Navajo people, water is sacred. The land they live on is their identity and their livelihood," Chief said. "Their worldview is based on Mother Earth and Father Sky. The impact of this spill cut deep to the core of these spiritual and traditional values. At the same time, there is little data that provides answers to Navajo concerns regarding the potential exposures they face as result of this contamination."
Chief and Beamer, of the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, are Superfund Research Program investigators, and their grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will support a team of researchers from the UA and Northern Arizona University, and also Navajo community health representatives.
Photos courtesy of Paloma Beamer