Larry King
My name is Larry J King. I was born and lived all my life in the Navajo community ofChurch Rock, NM, which is located a few miles northeast of Gallup, NM.
From October 3, 1975 to April 2, 1983, I worked for United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) as a surface laborer, underground mine surveyor and mill worker. I live about four miles SE of UNC, and about 1000-ft across from an abandoned mine once owned by UNC, then purchased by HRI and recently sold to the Laramide Mining Co. The Puerco Wash also abuts my grazing permitted area on the east and south side, with the abandoned mine on the west side. The biggest spill of radioactive waste from UNC in US history on July 16, 1979, happened in the Puerco Wash. Along with my two sisters and their families, we have been living all our lives sandwiched between poisons left behind from the past mining operations.
As a surface laborer (1 yr.), I worked repairing and maintaining over 700 underground miner lamps, and I did janitorial work in the common area where underground workers changed from their street clothes to underground work attire and vice versa and showered. I also swept and mopped the floors. As underground ore prober (1 yr.), worked alongside with underground miners by flagging freshly blasted ore piles based on ore grade. I took ore samples to surface laboratory for x-rays. As underground miner surveyor (4 ½ yr.), I worked alongside with miners in surveying tunnel advancements made by miners, placed reference markers to guide miners in certain directions, and gathered all work information done by miners in previous 2 weeks, so payroll staff can calculate wages to the miners. These jobs frequently required me to enter unventilated areas, huge domes with sounds of ceiling sluffing off to guesstimate ore volume pulled out by miners, and other numerous jobs that exposed me to diesel exhaust, ore dust clouds, mine water, to name a few. Finally, as a mill worker (1 yr.), monthly monitored UNC Mill Tailings pond monitoring wells and took water samples. The UNC Mill unlined tailings ponds had created a contaminated plume beneath the ponds that required monitoring.
As a former underground and surface mine worker for UNC, I worry about my health daily. I am not and never have been a smoker, but in the past several years, I have developed breathing difficulties. My doctors cannot find anything specifically wrong with me, but they have alluded to asthma and high blood pressure. I will also mention that as a kid, I played on the big piles of ore and mine waste across the road from our home, unaware of the dangers.
On behalf of my community and the Post ‘71 workers, I beg the U.S. Congress to support the Post ‘71 uranium workers by supporting the RECA Amendments, House Bill # 2049 and Senate Bill # 197. It is past time to show these workers that their sacrifices for home and country have not been forgotten. The RECA Amendments will provide compensation for workers like me that contributed to the Cold War effort with my health and life.