Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Conclusion – Effects of Alternative 2 on Environmental Justice
The proposed action would potentially create beneficial impacts due to the provision of jobs and
economic opportunities in minority and low-income communities; and adverse impacts of minor
magnitude due to potential health risks for miners and nearby residents of San Mateo.
Additionally, adverse mental health impacts of moderate magnitude would occur to tribal
environmental justice communities due to mine development within the spiritually significant Mt.
Taylor TCP. Both beneficial and adverse effects on EJ would likely be significant.
The proposed mining activities would not require lane closures or cause traffic/time delays and,
therefore, not restrict access to hospitals and public health facilities, recreation areas, or
institutional places of worship. The extent of impacts would be medium (localized), since safety
mechanisms mandated by the MSHA tightly regulate public access to the mine site.
Underground mining remains an inherently hazardous occupation, and may always be, but
implementation of more stringent mining regulations and more advanced technologies and
techniques in recent decades has made it much safer than in the past. The likelihood of health
risks and impacts to miners from worksite injuries would be probable but this is mitigated with
new technology, standards, and safety measures that have been recently developed and
introduced. Health impacts to miners from exposure to unsafe levels of radon and other hazards
are unlikely to possible. The precedence and uniqueness of the impact would be severe, since
mining activities in the designated Mt. Taylor TCP is very controversial.
The provision of jobs to environmental justice communities would be medium term to long term
and last roughly 2 decades, the estimated duration of the construction and operation phases; the
impacts would be reversed in the long term once the mine closes and well-paying mining jobs are
lost. The impact of mining on local economies around the world has often been described as
“boom and bust.” Expected health effects would be limited to fugitive dust, diesel, and heavy
vehicle emissions from the activities of drilling, blasting, use of heavy equipment, and the
transportation of materials throughout the lifetime of the proposed mine.
Protection of Children
As discussed above, the McKinley County population is younger than that of the State as a whole.
It contains approximately 6,166 children under the age of 5 and 18,903 children between 5 and
19; 35 percent of the total county population is younger than 19 years. Distribution of the Cibola
County population by age categories is roughly equal to that of the State, however, the
distribution of children younger than 5 years—as displayed in figure 59—appears to be
concentrated on the Navajo, Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni Reservations which are located in both
McKinley and Cibola Counties. As such the potential for disproportionate harm to children needs
to be addressed in these areas (ESRI, 2010).
While it has been established that uranium mining caused serious health impacts to miners in the
past, techniques, technologies, and safety measures have advanced significantly in recent
decades. However, it is not known whether exposure to uranium and its daughter products would
affect children differently. Very young animals absorbed more uranium than did adults when fed
uranium, but it is not know if this would happen in children. Extremely high doses of uranium in
drinking water resulted in birth defects and an increase in fetal deaths in lab animals. While it is
not likely that uranium can cause these problems in pregnant women who are exposed to
background levels of uranium in food, water, and air, it is not known whether exposures to
276 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest