Wild Utah
Indigenous Justice at White Mesa, Utah
Located just three miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community and one mile from Bears Ears National Monument, the White Mesa Uranium Mill was originally designed to run for 15 years before being closed and cleaned up. 40 years later, the mill is still in operation, and community members are concerned about the mill's continued impacts on public and environmental health, as well as the mill’s ongoing desecration of cultural and sacred sites. As the last remaining conventional uranium processing mill in the country, will the White Mesa Mill become the world's radioactive waste dump? We speak with Yolanda Badback from White Mesa Concerned Community and Talia Boyd, Cultural Landscapes Program Manager with the Grand Canyon Trust, about the nuclear fuel cycle, impacts to Indigenous communities, and what you can do to help stop ongoing harm by closing and cleaning up the mill.
Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.