A/HRC/36/46/Add.1 withdraw more than 4,000 acre-feet of water from the aquifer annually to transport coal to a processing plant through an underground slurry line. Reports indicate that significant depletion and possible contamination is present in the Black Mesa water table and that the aquifer is showing signs of continuing deterioration owing to decades of pumping. 43. One of the most emblematic cases of environmental destruction bearing on indigenous access to water was the Gold King Mine waste water spill near Silverton, Colorado, in 2015. While the Environmental Protection Agency was conducting an investigation, 3 million gallons of water contaminated with arsenic and cadmium were inadvertently released into Cement Creek and travelled down the Animas and San Juan rivers through New Mexico and across the Navajo Nation to Lake Powell in Utah. The spill caused severe damage to crops and livestock and threatened the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers. The long-term environmental and health impacts of the spill are unknown. The fact that the mine had not been operational for nearly a century underscores the dangers of present-day extractive activities on future generations of indigenous peoples. Duane Yazzie, President of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation stated, “We are torn, we need water, but we must also preserve farms for coming generations; farming is our life, water is our life, this is our culture, our spiritual way, it’s who we are.” 44. Another effect of energy development that has been borne by indigenous peoples is the dramatic increase in the flaring of natural gas in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. Because of the lack of sufficient natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the relatively new production area, many wells in the area have been forced to flare the natural gas product as a method of disposal. The various hazardous air pollutants emitted during the combustion of the gas flare, including methane, have been associated with a variety of adverse health impacts, including cancer, lung damage and other neurological defects. These impacts are being felt by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and surrounding communities. The Special Rapporteur heard testimonies from indigenous peoples that, despite the possible negative health impacts from gas flares, they would not even consider leaving their ancestral lands. 45. Uranium mining continues to have a dark legacy of environmental impacts on Indian tribes, particularly their water supply. Fuelled by the Cold War, uranium production boomed in the 1960s particularly in the southwestern United States and impacts of decadesold unreclaimed mines still linger in the form of severe water pollution. According to the Uranium Mine Location data of the Environmental Protection Agency, to date, approximately 15,000 uranium mines exist in the United States, about 4,000 of which are currently active. According to the 2012 census, 13 of the states with the highest percentage of Indian populations are in the western United States; over 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines can be found in 12 western states, 21 10,000 of which mined uranium. Although reservations cover only 5.6 per cent of the western United States, one in five uranium mines is located within 10 km of an American Indian reservation, with more than 75 per cent (over 3,200 of 4,600) being within 80 kilometres. 46. Through its Superfund programme established as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (1980) to fund the clean-up of sites contaminated by hazardous substances and pollutants, the Environmental Protection Agency has performed remediation work on more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation; 30 million tons of uranium ore had been extracted during the Cold War on or adjacent to Navajo lands. 47. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to note that each federal agency has been ordered to “make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations … in the United States and its territories and possessions”.22 21 22 10 United States of America, General Accounting Office, 2014. United States of America, Executive Order 12898, Federal Register, vol. 59, No. 32. 7629 (16 February 1994).