In 2015, an attempt by the EPA to manage an abandoned gold mine resulted in the release of acid mine drainage and wastewater into a watershed, poisoning everything and everyone downstream. Affected populations include citizens of the Navajo Nation, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. In 2022, the Navajo Nation settled with the U.S. government, which agreed to pay over $31 million for cleanup and restoration. Gold King is just one recent example of the danger abandoned mines pose. There are many other mines in the United States that discharge harmful wastewater and a long history of mining-caused environmental harm to indigenous peoples.
River of Lost Souls: the science, politics, and greed behind the Gold King Mine disaster by 
Resource Exploitation in Native North America by The Gold King Mine blowout is far from the only example of environmental injustice affecting the Navajo Nation. There is a long history of mining and exploitation disproportionately affecting the people and lands of the Navajo Nation.
Yellow Dirt: an American story of a poisoned land and a people betrayed by 
The Navajo People and Uranium Mining by 
Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country by 
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