"Water Is Our Life": Beamer Describes Impact of Mining Accident on Navajo Lands

Paloma Beamer, an associate professor of public health who holds a joint appointment with the department of chemical and environmental engineering, co-wrote an article that details the devastation wrought on the Navajo Nation lands by the Gold King Mine spill in 2015.

The accident released three million gallons of acid mine drainage near Silverton, Colorado, and contaminated the Animas and San Juan rivers with lead, arsenic and iron.

Beamer and her teams have been awarded grants by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the University of Arizona Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice to investigate the effects of the spill.