The Navajo Nation’s president on Tuesday formally requested aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of a 3 million-gallon mine wastewater spill last month in Colorado.
President Russell Begaye, in a letter to FEMA’s leader, specifically asked that a federal disaster recovery coordinator be appointed to oversee response.
Begaye said a coordinator would “enable a focus of federal resources and seamless coordination to effectively respond to this disaster.”
“Although the Environmental Protection Agency has been appointed as the lead federal agency responding to the disaster, FEMA is best positioned and structured to coordinate all available assistance,” tribal officials said in a news release.
Navajo officials have chastised the EPA since the Aug. 5 EPA-caused spill at Gold King Mine. Leaders say the aftermath of the spill left their people on the brink of economic disaster and threatened their culture.
The Los Angeles-based law firm Hueston Hennigan LLP will represent the Navajo people in all claims against the EPA.
