Animas Spill Claims Process Could Limit Rights of Tribal Claimants, Navajos Say

摘要

The Navajo Nation says it is concerned the Environmental Protection Agency has set up a claims process designed to limit the rights of tribal claimants affected by the early August spill of more than 3 million gallons of mining waste into the Animas River watershed in southwest Colorado. "The USEPA has repeatedly-expressed that it accepts responsibility for the spill, and that it will compensate people for the harms caused by the spill. Yet the process that the USEPA has set up to resolve claims appears to jeopardize the rights of the Navajo People," Ethel Branch, the nation's attorney general, said in an Oct. 5 statement. "This puts our people in a precarious position because they need immediate recovery from known damages."