This week on Fronteras: --Navajo farmers in Shiprock, New Mexico are scrambling to save their crops following the Gold King Mine spill. --Biologists are tracking the impact of the spill. So far, fish and bugs are okay. --Mine pollution is nothing new. Mines have leaked wastewater for decades --More than a month after Sandra Bland was found hanged in her Hempstead, Texas jail cell, concerned citizens keep a daily vigil there. --We remember the father who fought to integrate Dallas public schools. Navajo Crops Threatened Following Mine Spill The fallout from the three million gallon Gold King Mine spill two weeks ago continues as Navajo farmers desperately try to save their crops. Water contamination dissipated in the Animas and San Juan Rivers allowing them to be used for irrigation and livestock. The Navajo Council, however, closed the river because it didn’t trust the test results from the Environmental Protection Agency. And when the EPA sent water in, farmers claimed it, too, was contaminated. As the Navajo considered opening access to the river for irrigation farmers said it may be too late to save their crops. KUNM’s Fronteras reporter Marisa Demarco talked with the farmers about the situation. Biologists Track Spill’s Impact No one knows yet what the long term effects of the heavy metal waste water contamination will be on wildlife in the rivers. KUNM’s Rita Daniels reports on how biologists are tracking the spill’s impact. Mine Pollution Built Up For Decades The spill of the backlogged mine wastewater was a disaster waiting to happen. Mining pollution is nothing new in the Southwest. Contaminated water builds up and leaks out slowly all the time. The Denver Post reports that 230 mines are currently leaking metal-filled wastewater into Colorado rivers. KUNM News Director Elaine Baumgartel talked with Jonathan Thompson, Editor of the High Country News in Durango, Colorado, about how this spill occurred. Activists Keep Vigil At Texas Jail Where Sandra Bland Died On July 13, police found Sandra Bland, a young African American woman, hanged in her Waller Country jail cell, northwest of Houston. That was just three days after she was arrested in a traffic stop. Authorities ruled her death a suicide, but her family and others have questioned that finding. Since 2012, Texas has averaged 25 suicides in county jails each year. There have been 29 this year, including Bland. This week, Texas Governor Dan Patrick ordered a Texas Senate committee review of the mental health and suicide prevention policies at all of the state’s 243 county jails. The Texas Jail Standards Commission recently found that the Waller County jail staff failed to check on Bland hourly and did not have proper mental health training. Syeda Hasan of Houston Public Media reports Bland’s death continues to motivate activists who show up daily to demonstrate outside the jail where Bland died. Dallas School Desegregation Legacy Remembered Long after the courts called for public schools to integrate, black and white children attended different schools. Then a concerned father named Sam Tasby got involved. His black children had to walk past better, all-white schools, to reach they school they were assigned to attend. Tasby became the primary plaintiff in a lawsuit that finally desegregated Dallas schools. He died last weekend at age 93. KERA’s BJ Austin reports, Tasby rarely spoke about the long legal battle, but its impact was profound. |
Fronteras is a public radio show about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border and changing demographics in the Southwest. Texas Public Radio’s Shelley Kofler was this week’s host. Alexis Yancey produced the program.