EPA awards contract for cleanup of abandoned uranium mines

CROWNPOINT, N.M. (AP) — The federal government has awarded a $3.85 million contract for excavating contaminated soil and related road-improvement work associated with two abandoned uranium mines in two areas of the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico's McKinley County. The Environmental Protection Agency's announcement Monday says Navajo-owned Arrow Indian Contractors will clean up portions of the Quivira Mines located on the reservation's Coyote Canyon and Standing Rock chapters northwest of Crownpoint. The EPA says funding for the project comes from a $1 billion settlement reached in 2015 for the cleanup of 50 abandoned uranium minutes for which Kerr McGee Corp. and a successor, Tronox, have responsibility. The Quivira Mines site consisted of two mines and was in operation from 1974 to 1985, generating about 1.2 million pounds (.54 million kilograms) of uranium ore.