Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Health data are seldom available for specific communities or small populations. This is due to
several factors, including individual privacy concerns. Therefore, much of the data presented to
describe baseline health conditions in the ROI is presented at the county level, for Cibola and
McKinley Counties. Some health data are also presented at the level of the health region. The
northwest health region is one of five health jurisdictions delineated by the New Mexico
Department of Health. The northwest health region includes five counties, including Cibola and
McKinley. Other counties are: San Juan (population = 130,044), Sandoval (population =
131,561), and Valencia (population = 76,569).
For Native American tribal groups in the project area, data are presented on the level of the State
of New Mexico for all Native Americans/Alaska Natives. Where possible data are presented by
tribe; however, in most circumstances data on the level of the tribe are unavailable (Best, 2011).
For the purposes of this EIS it is assumed that data on the level of the State are similar for the
local tribes in the ROI, realizing that there are likely variations within and between tribal groups.
It should be noted that for all sources, the rates presented for some diseases and health indicators
may be unstable, meaning that the point estimates are highly variable. Small numbers of cases
reported and small population values can cause some rates to differ greatly over time or in
comparison to other areas. The instability is illustrated by wide confidence intervals surrounding
the point estimate. Where confidence intervals are not provided, it is not possible to determine
whether rates are statistically different from one another.
Public Health Context
Health in all settings is influenced by a wide range of social and environmental factors. However,
there is one unique factor that affects health in the ROI: the historical legacy of uranium mining
in the region. This is a complex and emotionally charged issue, but one that is important to
understand, as it has had a significant health effect for some residents in the past, and continues to
affect health in the present. A brief overview of relevant legacy issues is, therefore, presented
below in order to contextualize the health data that is presented in this affected environment
section.
“Legacy issues” is the term used to refer to the historical impacts of uranium mining in the ROI,
including peoples’ biophysical, social, and political experiences. Although these experiences may
have taken place in the past, they remain deeply embedded within the social history and collective
psyche of these communities, and continue to affect current perceptions and the adaptive potential
of both communities and individuals toward new proposed projects. In the ROI, there are three
types of historical experiences that have colored the way people in the ROI may perceive a new
mining operation at it relates to their individual or collective health.
The first of these are the health effects experienced as a result of previous mining activity. A large
burden of disease was experienced by miners, their families, and other community members that
was a direct result of exposure to hazardous substances. The disease burden was particularly felt
by the local Navajo population. These health effects (discussed more in the “Cumulative Impacts”
section) persist among former workers and their families, as people continue to die from uranium
mining-related illnesses and as new cases of these illnesses are diagnosed. Exacerbating unease is
the fact that the full extent of health impacts from uranium mining and milling remains
understudied and thus uncertain; to date, no comprehensive public health study has ever been
conducted within these uranium mining communities (Shuey, 2007).
380 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest