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Uranium leaks discovered in the groundwater have come closer to contaminating the entire supply of drinking water for two villages in the Hopi reservation. A series of studies conducted by consultants of the Hopi tribe and Navajo Nation show uranium contamination within 100 feet of water supply wells that provide all the drinking water to the village of Lower Moencopi.

Two American Indian tribes say their pleas to have the federal government remove medical, uranium and other radioactive waste from their land near Tuba City have been ignored, and they want it cleaned up. Navajo and Hopi officials say the waste is contaminating the land and threatening water supplies. The Hopi Tribe has put the federal government on notice that it plans to sue over the cleanup. On May 26, the Navajo Nation filed a motion to intervene in a 2007 lawsuit that was brought against the federal government by the operator of a uranium mining mill where some of the waste originated. "I think everybody is starting to come together to accept the conclusion that there are contaminants affecting the shallow groundwater," said Stephen Etsitty, director of the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency. "But we still have differences in what the tribes believe and what the U.S. government is willing to accept, how grave the situation is and what the remedy should be in the end." El Paso Natural Gas Co. claims that the federal government is responsible for the cleanup of the mill, the Tuba City open dump and another landfill north of U.S. Route 160. The mill and the U.S. 160 landfill are on Navajo land. The 30-acre Tuba City dump is on Navajo and Hopi land.

Two American Indian tribes are pressing the federal government to clean up an area where they say medical, uranium and other radioactive waste was dumped and has been contaminating the land and groundwater. The Navajo and Hopi tribes say their pleas to have the waste materials from two sites near Tuba City, Ariz., taken off tribal land have been ignored. The Hopi Tribe filed a notice of intent to sue the federal government last week over the cleanup. On Tuesday, the Navajo Nation filed a motion to intervene in a 2007 lawsuit the owner of the mill brought against the federal government. El Paso Natural Gas claims that the federal government is responsible for the cleanup of the mill and nearby properties.

Two tribes say their pleas to have the federal government remove medical, uranium and other radioactive waste from their land near Tuba City have been ignored, and they want it cleaned up. Navajo and Hopi officials say the waste is contaminating the land and threatening water supplies. The Hopi Tribe has put the federal government on notice that it plans to sue over the cleanup. During late May, the Navajo Nation filed a motion to intervene in a 2007 lawsuit that was brought against the federal government by the operator of a uranium mining mill where some of the waste originated. "I think everybody is starting to come together to accept the conclusion that there are contaminants affecting the shallow groundwater," said Stephen Etsitty, director of the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency. "But we still have differences in what the tribes believe and what the U.S. government is willing to accept, how grave the situation is and what the remedy should be in the end."

The Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe are tired of investigations of the Tuba City Open Dump. They want it cleaned up. Studies since 1999 have indicated the presence of uranium and other metals in the dump and shallow groundwater exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. The tribes have repeatedly indicated that clean closure - or excavation, removal and off-site disposal of all buried wastes - is the only acceptable option to prevent future contamination.

The Grand Canyon lies just 90 miles north of Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, where in early August tribes lost the most recent skirmish in a battle to stop a ski resort from making snow from reclaimed wastewater. Like the peaks, the canyon is central to the cosmology of the Hopi and other tribes in the Four Corners region. The site is also a national park. Recent attempts to preserve the canyon from uranium mining have met with some success, but the battle is far from over and the chances of winning it, based on the results of efforts to protect other Native sacred sites, are far from certain.

The EPA will drill test holes looking for uranium-contaminated waste that villagers fear is a threat to their downstream springs. A dump near Tuba City that has been leaching low levels of radioactive waste into the shallow aquifer finally is getting some federal attention, if not an actual cleanup yet. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to fence off a remaining section of an old dump, near two Hopi villages, and test for hot spots of radioactivity close by. This includes one area where the agency says uranium levels in the water exceed what's federally considered safe for drinking water by eight times. Local villagers who believe their downstream springs are threatened have long sought a total excavation of the dump. Uranium-related waste found in the testing will be removed with heavy equipment beginning in October, and 263 new testing holes will be dug to search for more.