Spokane tribal members have died of cancer near uranium projects. Proposal would turn former cleaning site into solar farm | Spokane News

SPOKANE, Wash. – Uranium mines were an economic engine for the Spokane Indian Tribe. Decades later, a wave of cancer cases left a complex legacy around the mines. A new Climate Commitment Act (CCA) study could turn one of these old mines into a solar farm.

Spokane Tribal Council Chairman Greg Abrahamson is looking forward to the $90,000 CCA viability study, which will determine whether the tribe's historic uranium mine could be converted into a solar project.

“We had two uranium mines, and this one was recovered in the mid-'90s,” Abrahamson said.

According to The Spokesman Review, the two major mines located on Spokane tribal lands, which were active throughout the Cold War, failed to take proper safety precautions to protect miners and their families from radioactive radiation.

Although the extent of radioactive exposure is disputed, the danger posed by uranium from mines to local water systems was illustrated by a 2008 investigation by The Seattle Times.

“A scientific model used by the EPA concluded that a person living on food collected from the Blue Creek drainage and using the water for sweat lodges had a one in five chance of getting cancer from the added radiation” , the investigation revealed.

Decades after the closure of uranium projects, cleanup of the Midnite mine project is still ongoing due to groundwater contamination by uranium.

“We are very proud to be working to create a clean water system,” Abrahamson said.

Abrahamson said the solar project would bring a new source of energy to a mining project with a complicated history.

“These mines had such an impact on employment at the time, and we haven't been able to prove their health effects, but we believe they had a health impact,” Abrahamson said.

Tribal leaders in Spokane have taken the lead in coordinating efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology to reclaim uranium-contaminated land.

The feasibility study is part of the broader goals of the Climate Commitment Act, which has spurred funding efforts to reduce Washington's greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050.

If he discovers that the reclaimed uranium mine could be converted into a solar farm, he could turn an old mine that tribal leaders say led to dozens of early cancer deaths, into an affordable renewable energy source.

“We are in the early stages of [the study]…after the feasibility study, we applied for other tribal clean energy grants from the Washington Department of Commerce and are considering other federal dollars, but that will be when we know what we want to do with the project,” Abrahamson said.

Spokane tribal leaders, despite institutional barriers and environmental problems caused by poorly regulated mining projects, continue to lead Washington in responding to the climate emergency.