WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Trent Franks has once again introduced a bill that would add the southern half of Mohave County to the list of communities receiving compensation from nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
Franks introduced House Bill 4712 on Feb. 26 to amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
In 1990, the federal government recognized the damage the above-ground tests had done to residents in Utah, Nevada and Arizona and passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The act is designed to compensate victims that lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site, worked in uranium mines or worked at the test site and developed cancer.
According to the act, uranium miners that qualify can receive $100,000, and test site workers that qualify can receive $75,000.
Residents in Utah, Nevada and Arizona can receive $50,000, but they must have lived in the right spot, during the right time and have the right disease.
Residents must have lived in one of 10 counties in Utah; five counties or part of Clark County in Nevada; or five counties or the Arizona Strip portion of Mohave County in Arizona for two years between 1951 and October of 1958 or for the entire month of July in 1962.
At the same time, they must be suffering from one of 20 different types of primary cancers or disease that can be linked to radiation exposure.
Left off the list for compensation were residents south of the Grand Canyon in Mohave County despite the fact that Mohave County had the second highest rate of cancer in the state between 1995 and 2000.
Residents of Mohave County weren't the only ones left off the RECA compensation list. The Hualapai Nation has also been fighting to get compensation.
Why the southern half of Mohave County and the Hualapai Tribe were left off the list is still a mystery. Some say it is because of a typo in the original act, where Mohave County was spelled with a "j" instead of an "h."
Eleanore Fanire, one of many Mohave County residents who pushed for change in the compensation act, recently passed away from pancreatic cancer. Fanire was 33 when she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She beat that cancer but later developed pancreatic cancer.
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Article comment by:
Downwinder 1962
Here's more information on the bill that was introduced this week
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2010
Posted: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Article comment by:
Pat tat
Lou Sorenson was the city manager for the City of Kingman.
Posted: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Article comment by:
BOBO CLOWN
Vote ALL the Bums Out. Time for new clowns to run this laugh we call Arizona HAHHHAHAHAHAH.. P.S. KDM.. thanks for printing my garbage opinions along with other peoples...
Posted: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Article comment by:
Robert Hathaway
Lou Sorenson was NEVER the Mayor of Kingman.
Regardless of the reason lower Mohave County was omitted, the fact is that it was omitted, and the reason is not important.
I thank Trent Franks for listening and rising to the occasion of fix the error.
Posted: Monday, March 08, 2010
Article comment by:
Vote the Bum Out
Well it is election time, isn't it, Good o' Trent is only concerned about us when it is job review time. I, for one am tired of being used.
Posted: Friday, March 05, 2010
Article comment by:
a downwinder uranium minor
Where was Trent Franks in 2003,04-05-06 when legislators from WA, ID, MT, UT, NV, CO and other western states were attempting to get recognition for the Downwinders? He sent his Mohave county staffer- Sherri Farrington, to represent him and she had no answers. Yes, she was at the first hearing of the National Academy of Scientists in St. George, UT, but where were they after that? Senator McCain sent his staffer Nick Matila to attend a few of the downwinders meetings. And have you seen the requirements for showing proof of residency???? it is the government again saying "It won't hurt a bit!" Then check out the statistics of the many who have had cancer in Mohave County and elsewhere--because radiation from the NTS bombing was not suppose to hurt anyone. Radiation did not stop at state lines, rivers, or mountains.. but it fanned out and spread across the USA to NY where even Eastman Kodak said "let us know when you are testing those bombs, and we won't produce any film that day!" (well not those exact quotes but similar!)
Oh, Diane Speilberg of the US Dept of Justice sent to then Mayor Lou Sorenson a letter stating that the reasons for Mohave not being included was because of a typo.
