Rough and rocky traveling for Black Falls water haulers.

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- The first time Elsie Tohannie, 80, heard anything about uranium was long before Cameron Chapter was established in 1955, when one of the mine workers brought a rock over to a meeting at Cameron Trading Post. “He put metal around it and did something, and then it lit up like amber – really bright, bright red,” she said. He was trying to let residents know what they were digging for, according to Don Yellowman, president of the Forgotten People grassroots group, who translated for Tohannie. “He didn't say anything about whether it was contaminating the water, but he knew it was falling off the truck and onto the ground as it was being hauled,” Tohannie told him. Katherine Peshlakai, 87, said the digging for uranium started back around 1945. She also remembers the Civilian Conservation Corps started building a diversion dam for water not far from her home in Black Falls. “Then the war got going and as the U.S. got deeper into the war, that dam was abandoned,” she said. Like Rolanda Tohannie, 46, a victim of thyroid and esophagus cancer, the women still don't know whether the radionuclides in the springs from which they have been hauling drinking water came from above-ground atomic testing during the Cold War, or uranium mining, or whether it's just naturally occurring. But one thing Rolanda does know is that “about two weeks ago I was sitting there after we had finished having supper, and part of my teeth fell out. I used to have thick hair, and there's just a little bit on my head now. It's like every time I comb it, I take out gobs of hair.” They're not the only ones who have noticed problems. Jerry Huskie and Florabell Paddock live near Tohatchi Spring, one of four water sources in the Black Falls area tested last year by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and found to have high concentrations of uranium and arsenic. Another family, Jimmy and Irene Lee live just a few miles away near Paddock Well, which also is highly contaminated. Because of the health risks and the families' remote locations, EPA's Division of Superfund stepped in and set up a temporary water-hauling program. “We've got the funding in place to deliver water to these families,” said EPA's Clancy Tenley. “We will make sure that they get water for up to a year, but this can only be a temporary program. “They're elderly, and we know it was a priority for the community for those two families to get water, but it's a very unusual step that we would deliver water to anyone,” he said. Paddock has relied on Tohatchi Spring since childhood. “For all of her life, even though they lived a distance away from where they live now, she remembers her father with a wagon going to that spring and bringing water home,” Yellowman said. “They also would get water from there to water their crops.” Huskie and neighbors John and Mary Knight said there were many families who once lived in the area and utilized the springs for years. “There are so many people that have passed. They died in not a normal way,” Huskie said. “We were never told as residents out here that these springs were contaminated and no one alerted us to the fact that it could cause health ailments,” he said. “If they would have informed us we would have minimized the use of those wells and tried to distance ourselves from using that, but that wasn't done.” Paddock recalled hearing rumors years ago about the wells being contaminated, and someone occasionally stopping by and chlorinating the water. “She remembers that when they would gather water to take home that the chlorine was strong-tasting. She said they would usually leave the spring alone and let several days pass and the chlorine taste would kind of taper down,” Yellowman said. Through the Superfund program, Milton Yazzie of Black Falls now hauls 20 gallons of drinking water from Flagstaff for Huskie/Paddock and the Lees every two to three weeks. “The water that Milton brings, they rely on that for their cooking,” Yellowman said. Though they budget their water, “they still have to go to Tohatchi Spring to get water for cleaning up, washing their face, washing their dishes.” Paddock produced a list of health symptoms related to drinking uranium- and arsenic-contaminated water. Except for one or two items, “We've got everything,” she said. Yazzie is sympathetic to the families' needs and makes the water deliveries as best he can, but because of the difficulties involved, he may not be able to continue much longer. “When that road goes out, I can't get in and they can't get out. It's real not good,” he said. Besides wear and tear on his vehicle, it takes a lot of fuel. Though he is reimbursed for his travel by Superfund, sometimes it takes a bit before his invoice is processed, he said. “I can't tap into my Mom's Social Security just to make errands for them. I try to maintain my vehicle, but one day the whole back brakes came out by Jimmy Lee's. I ended up grinding it all the way home and that set me back $300 bucks because it ate the rotars on both sides. “I can't take more than eight bottles because I've got a Trailblazer with lack of space, and the water is heavy,” he said. “In between Jimmy Lee's and Florabell's, it's 9 miles. It's not paved. You have to go into washes and come out the other side. I wish it was washboard road! You can't even go more than 5 miles per hour. It takes me almost an hour just between Jimmy's and Florabell's. You gotta have 4 wheel drive. I got stuck for two hours and dug my way out.” In some places, there's nothing but rock, Yazzie said. “You don't know where the road goes.” In others, there are sand dunes which have become progressively worse over the past year. “Before you get to Jimmy's; there's a big old overhang – a hardened conglomerate with sand. You can't do too much to avoid it because one wheel will go off on one end and you won't be getting out soon,” he said. Though there is the possibility of Navajo Department of Water Resources getting a water-hauling truck to serve residents, it won't work on that road, he said, because of the overhang. “The cab is going to hook up on that and you might bring it down.” Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com