Here at Navajo Council 7:30 am meeting on Delegate Edmund Yazzie’s legislation 0091-14, which would nullify Resources and Development Committee Subcommittee on uranium. meeting at Quality Inn in Window Rock.

DELEGATE RUSSEL BEGAYE
I have questions about Resources and Development Committee’s acknowledgement of URI’s access to uranium. and to acknowledge that URI has right has put tribe in hole to fight to get out of there.

and then RDC acknowledges that URI can access and carry out its business, which is an in-situ uranium mining demonstration project.

so two things here is URI can extract uranium and conduct IS uranium mining so authorizing URI to do business.

DELEGATE LEONARD PETE
we need to focus on legislation creating Subcommittee.

DELEGATE LEONARD TSOSIE
i can guarantee that there will be no more uranium mining before RDC approves. And all the delegates are invited and they have always been invtied. so when you say entry, it also involves their own land. But URI has to cross 30 feet of Navajo land. “You can cross this little bitty of land.” Let’s say we tell URI to go lost and we cud do that by nullifying all this today.

(NAVAJO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY DIRECTOR STEPHEN ETCITTY SAYS THAT THE COUNCIL’S NULLIFICATION OF SUBCOMMITEE WILL NOT CLOSE DOOR ON URI AND THE URI LAND TAHT TSOSIE IS TALKING HAS NAVAJO NATION AS THE OWNER OF MINERAL RIGHTS AND URI AS SURFACE RIGHTS.)

NAVAJO DIVISION OF NATURAL RESOURCES ATTORNEY ROBERT ALLEN ADVISES THE NAVAJO COUNCIL TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION.)

DELEGATE NELSON BEGAYE
we are already authorizing URI to enter the land. whether 30 feet or not, URI has to cross Navajo land. but already allowing access should have come after subcommittee.