Just when several government agencies say they are trying to coordinate efforts to clean up uranium contamination on Navajo land as the Independent reported today, the U.S. government comes out with a doozy.

New Mexico has been awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior to reclaim abandoned mines, enabling the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to reclaim abandoned mines at projects near Raton, Grants, Socorro, Orogrande and Lake Valley in the next year. 

But, and here’s the catch, most of the money is restricted for coal mines. While welcoming the federal money, state officials questioned the wisdom of the restriction, which would mean that less than one million dollars of the current grant is available for non-coal projects.

According to a press release released Friday by the state energy and minerals department:
 

This means that the State of New Mexico can not allocate the restricted money to reclaim non-coal mines such as uranium mines. New Mexico was one of the leading producers of uranium in the world in the period of the 1950s through the early 1980s. Much of the hardrock production that populates the Abandoned Mine Land sites in many Western states predates many of the significant state and federal environmental and mine reclamation laws. Many of these were uranium mines and largely unregulated leaving a legacy of safety hazards and environmental contamination. 

“The legacy of past uranium mining must be addressed," said energy and minerals secretary Joanna Prukop said in the press release. "We support the efforts of our Congressional delegation to remove this funding restriction. We appreciate Congressional efforts, and the hard work of New Mexico’s delegation to increase funding of state abandoned mine land programs.”

Any money for uranium mining cleanup, especially in the Navajo lands, seems long overdue. So whoever created this federal restriction appears unaware of the facts on the ground in the Land of Enchantment. In fact, even the plan lauded by some as a step in the right direction for cleaning up uranium contamination on Navajo land requires several federal agencies to do the work within their existing budgets.

 It causes one to wonder if anything really changes, doesn’t it?