Uranium Mill in Mexican Hat

State: Utah
Location: Mexican Hat
Time Period: DOE (Remediation) July – October 1987 and September 1992 – February 1995
Facility Type: Department of Energy

Facility Description: This mill conducted ore processing operations from 1957 through 1965. DOE environmental remediation contractors performed remediation under the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (Public Law 95-604) at the Uranium Mill in Mexican Hat for a few months in 1987 and again for a few months of 1995. DOE and DOE contractor employees who performed this remediation are covered under EEOICPA.

Listing:
Uranium Mill in Mexican Hat is listed as an Atomic Weapons Employer (AWE) site and as a Department of Energy (DOE) site under the EEOICPA.

Compensation:
As of 06/07/2015, the total compensation paid under Parts B and E of the EEOICPA, including medical compensation, for workers suffering from the effects of having worked at the Uranium Mill in Mexican Hat is $350,000.

Uranium Mill in Mexican Hat Workers:
If you or your parent worked at this or any other DOE or AWE facility and became ill, you may be entitled to compensation of up to $400K plus medical benefits from the US Department of Labor. Call EEOICPA Counsel Hugh Stephens at 1-855-EEOICPA (336-4272) or fill out the form to the right, whether your claim has been accepted or denied.

We can help with all OWCP (Federal Workers Compensation) claims, impairments, wage loss and health care. 2495 Main Street, Suite 442, Buffalo, NY 14214.

*Site Location and History:
The Mexican Hat disposal site is located on the Navajo Reservation in southeast Utah, 1.5 miles southwest of the town of Mexican Hat and about 10 miles north of the Utah-Arizona border. The site is also the location of a former uranium-ore-processing mill. Texas-Zinc Minerals Corporation constructed the Mexican Hat mill on land leased from the Navajo Nation and operated the facility from 1957 to 1963. Atlas Corporation purchased the mill in 1963 and operated it until it closed in 1965. A sulfuric acid manufacturing plant operated at the site from 1957 to 1970. Control of the site reverted to the Navajo Nation after the lease expired in 1970.

Much of the ore brought to the mill contained a considerable amount of copper sulfide and other sulfide minerals and was processed to recover both copper and uranium. The milling process produced radioactive tailings, a predominantly sandy material. Spent tailings were mixed with process water and pumped through a pipeline to two onsite tailings piles.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) completed surface remedial action at the site in 1995. Radioactive materials from the former upper tailings pile, demolished mill structures, and 11 vicinity properties were placed in a disposal cell constructed at the site of the former lower tailings pile. An additional 983,000 cubic yards of tailings and associated waste were hauled from the Monument Valley, Arizona, Processing Site about 15 miles to the south and placed in the cell on top of contaminated materials from the Mexican Hat site. A total of about 3.6 million cubic yards (4.4 million tons) of residual radioactive materials were stabilized in the Mexican Hat disposal cell.

*Source