That Time A Dam Burst, Irradiating New Mexico & Arizona

Way more radioactive waste was released in this accident than at 3 Mile Island a few months prior. Not many know this though, despite an annual remembrance march. 

March 28, 1979, a meltdown at 3 Mile Island released tons of radioactive gasses and iodine into the atmosphere in what is considered the worst nuclear power accident in history.

Something much worse happened 4 months later and not many know about it. Pretty much only members of the Navajo Nation, those most directly affected, remember.

July 16th, 1979, an earthen dam holding wastewater at a uranium mill near Church Rock, New Mexico broke, releasing 94 million gallons of radioactive water and 1,100 tons of uranium waste. The nearby Navajo Reservation got most of it.

The dam failure at the processing mill north of Church Rock, New Mexico, released radioactive liquid that eventually flowed into the Rio Puerco and through areas on the Navajo Nation, nearby Gallup, New Mexico, and, finally, Arizona. Now known as the Church Rock spill, the accident released the most radioactive material in U.S. history—more than the notorious partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station four months earlier—yet remains largely unknown to the American public. - insideclimatenews.org

45 years later, Navajo people in the area are still living with health issues related to this disaster and over 500 abandoned mines are spread all over their reservation. It's not fully known how many homes and drinking water sources are still radioactive.

The nearest home to "ground zero" is only a mile and a half away. People there and throughout the area must still use only bottled water for drinking, cooking AND bathing.

Eating fish or other animals native to the area isn't really a good idea either. Simply  living/working in places built with materials from a contaminated area can also lead to exposure.

Those things further extend the possibility/danger of exposure well beyond the most immediately affected areas. YOU are now among the (very) few that know about it ...