Navajo community wants action on neglected school, promise

“It’s like having a really nice meal and then it’s been taken away. The more we prolong this it’s going to cost us money, due to inflation. We don’t have time to seek additional money. How long are we going to talk about it? The next five years? The next 10 years?”

Lorraine Johnson Roy, community member

The community of Cove on the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation was promised a new school to replace its current one, but radiation from decades of uranium mining in the area may hinder those plans and force community members to wait longer.

Cove Day School was built in 1959 in northeastern Arizona, at a time when uranium mining was in full swing on the Navajo Nation. Cove was no exception and today, there are about 32 abandoned uranium mines in the area, raising issues about contamination.

This school, which is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, was the focus of a two-day tribal consultation to seek community input on the replacement of the school.

During the session, three questions were posed to community members:

● Is the current location of Cove Day School feasible to proceed with the new school project?

● Should the new school be built at a different location and if so, what alternative sites are recommended?

● Should Cove Day School be consolidated with nearby Red Rock Day School?

“They said the school would be placed here at the same location,” said community member Lorraine Johnson Roy. “They didn’t say we are going to move here or move to this place. Me, being a community member, a grandparent, the school should stay here at the same location. It’s already been discussed. Why are we talking about it again now? Our decision is already made that the school should stay here.”

Roy had attended Cove Day School when she was younger, and has also served on its school board. Roy said they’ve seen the designs for the new school, and their hopes have been raised, only to be left waiting for construction to actually happen.

“It’s like having a really nice meal and then it’s been taken away,” said Roy. “The more we prolong this it’s going to cost us money, due to inflation. We don’t have time to seek additional money. How long are we going to talk about it?

The next five years? The next 10 years?”

Cove Day School sits about 14 miles from Red Rock Day School, which is having its own problems dealing with water issues, according to parents.

Both schools serve four small communities: Cove, Red Valley, Mitten Rock and Oak Springs.

In 2004, the Cove Day School Replacement Project was included in the BIE’s Replacement School Listing. In 2016, construction funding of $22.9 million was received for the project. In June 2018, a design was completed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Region.

Should Cove, Red Rock schools consolidate?

Katrina Denny, a parent with two young children who attend Cove Day School, said her son would go to school at Red Rock, but since that school is dealing with water issues, her son is at Cove. The water issue has been ongoing, even before the pandemic and could’ve been fixed during that time as students attended remotely, she said.

“I’m in favor of a new school to be built at Red Rock,” said Denny. “Here in Cove, there are teachers who are combined, and they have two classes. I always worry my son is not getting the individual attention he needs and that worries me. If you combine the school, you would take care of that issue. It would benefit both schools.”

Cove Day School offers Kindergarten to sixth grade classes, while Red Rock Day School offers Kindergarten to eighth grade classes. Currently, 50 students are enrolled at Cove, compared to 114 students at Red Rock.

“We heard from the community about 10 years ago,” said Sharon Pinto, deputy bureau director for school operations for the BIE. “The replacement was confirmed and designated and from that time that they wanted the replacement here. Fast forward eight years later, there was discovery of some environmental issues, and we’ve been addressing and remediating it. You see one right outside the school building, right when you walk in.”

Last September, there were four unresolved radiation “hot spots” located on the school’s exterior grounds as well as four areas of elevated radon, a carcinogenic radioactive gas, located inside the school, all linked to uranium mining. It’s because of this that Cove Day School had to be shut down last year, though it has since reopened. This issue is also the reason why BIE is again discussing different options with the community.

The BIE’s efforts to replace Cove’s facility at the current location required environmental remediation activities, which delayed work on the new school project, according to the BIE.

“Is there an opportunity to move the school outside the area?” said Pinto. “The other opportunity is co-locating with the neighboring school Red Rock. In the best interest of our students, the best interest of our children, that may be the decision for the future.”

Uranium mines left contaminated sites

Ten years before Cove Day School was built, uranium was discovered in Cove as part of a wide search for the resource across northern Arizona.

Nearly 7 million tons of uranium ore was mined in and around the Navajo Nation, leaving behind more than 500 abandoned mining operations. In 2014, a settlement provided almost $1 billion to investigate and clean up approximately 50 uranium mines on or near the Navajo Nation that were operated by Kerr-McGee Corporation and its successor, Tronox. Approximately 32 of these mines are in the Cove and Lukachukai areas in northeastern Arizona.

When addressing the Cove Day School closure last year, Valinda C. Shirley, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, said there are two parties that are responsible for the abandoned uranium mines, Tronox and Cyprus Amax, while 11 mine sites don’t have a responsible party.

“I know within Cove there are quite a few sites,” said Shirley last September. “A lot of the mining happened up in the mountain. Cove Day School. Naturally, it should be an area that doesn’t have radioactive material unless it was brought down by flooding or a haul.”

The radon levels came up in 2016 after the Navajo EPA conducted tests at Cove Day School. A letter was sent to BIE to with the radon test findings. Radon is a cancer-causing radioactive gas that can go undetected because a person can’t smell, see or taste it. It is the second-leading cause of lung cancer.

Even after the Navajo EPA’s radon findings, it was reported radon is not regulated in homes, structures, or other public places because radon is found everywhere, said Eugenia Quintana, Navajo EPA.

“Radon can be a little tricky,” said Quintana. “But we don’t know how much radon there is for us to be able to determine if we should take action or not, unless we test for it.”

During the recent tribal consultation, community members said radiation and other byproducts and contamination of uranium mining will always be there. So rather than consolidating Cove and Red Rock Day Schools, or trying to find a new location within Cove, the only option is to replace the old Cove Day School with a new facility.

“We should have a new school now,” said Nancy Benally, a community member and grandmother. “I’m looking forward to it. I want to see it. We’re getting old. This uranium is going to go on and on. I’ve lived with it. We are not going to get away from uranium.”