You can’t blame the Navajo Nation for being a little gun-shy when it comes to a new round of uranium mining. After all, Navajo is at the front end of the nuclear food chain.

For more than 60 years, mining companies have benefited from Navajo labor and the Nation’s rich uranium reserves, some reaping vast fortunes while paying workers with nothing more than a few groceries.

This worked out fine for the companies and federal government, because in later years, when workers began to suffer from uranium-related illnesses, there was no paper trail, therefore, workers didn’t qualify for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act because they had no proof of work history.

Many went to their graves with only an apology from Congress for “the hardships they have endured” due to occupational exposure to radiation while employed in the uranium industry during the build-up to the Cold War.

For Navajos, to date, there have been no comprehensive health studies. Navajo Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. EPA have identified 520 known abandoned uranium mines across the reservation that sit just as they did when the companies packed up and left town. Getting funding to clean them up is another problem.

The extent of contamination in groundwater, wells and springs has not been thoroughly assessed. An estimated 54,000 Navajos lack access to safe drinking water. Many of the livestock wells they rely on for water hauling are contaminated, and families are knowingly drinking uranium-laced water because they have no other choice.

Groundwater pumping is lowering water tables while rising temperatures are reducing river flows. According to a federal study, water supplies will become increasingly scarce in coming years, calling for trade-offs among competing uses and potentially leading to conflict.

Knowing this, and the fact that the Navajo Nation has stated emphatically that it wants no part of uranium mining and has passed a law to that effect, one has to question why Hydro Resources Inc. continues to push its plan to mine aquifers in Churchrock and Crownpoint for the sake of recovering uranium.

HRI and parent company Uranium Resources Inc. say the new mining technology is safe. It will not cross-contaminate aquifers or produce the legacy issues of past mining. Great! Let the company provide proof to Navajo of where it has done in-situ mining and restored groundwater to pre-mining conditions.

When the Navajo Nation first went before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2007, it requested $500 million to begin addressing uranium legacy issues. What it has received so far has been a drop in the bucket. Yet U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is pushing for $100 billion in federal loan guarantees, largely to fund a nuclear renaissance.

There must be a plan to clean up the legacy of uranium mining from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s before more mining is allowed in the 2010s. There must be good, high-paying jobs, there must be a proven record of safety, there must be assurances that precious water will not be contaminated and most of all there must be a commitment by uranium mining companies they will not just come to Indian Country, take what they want and then leave the mess for others to live with.

Until then, new mining and a nuclear revival are a slap in the face to those miners who sacrificed so much for us in the past, the Navajo Nation and tribal sovereignty.