Leaders from the Seneca Nation joined Water Walkerz, a local grassroots group, for the annual Water Walk for a Nuclear Free Future Saturday.

The walk began near the Aldrich Street bridge in Gowanda. Walkers then followed an approximately 14-mile route along Route 438, stopping for lunch at the Stanley “Sully” Huff Cultural Center on the Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory, before continuing on to Sunset Bay at the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek. The walk is held to bring healing to the waters, the land, the people and all creation impacted by nuclear fuel waste created from the West Valley Demonstration Project, which operated as the only commercial spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in the United States.

From 1963 – 1972, the site processed 640 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and generated over 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level waste. Spent nuclear fuel rods and other nuclear waste leached radionuclides into the ground and water until the site was forced to stop operations. In 1968, a filter blowout released cesium into the air, which was carried to the northwest and deposited on the ground in the area of Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory.

“The West Valley site is part of a long legacy of unacceptable environmental atrocities inflicted upon Mother Earth, the Seneca people, and our lands and waterways,” Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca said. “We must never forget the devastating impact these developments had on our Nation, including our health and our ways of life along Cattaraugus Creek. Our people will continue to advocate and fight to protect our waters so they can sustain all forms of life for generations to come.”

Contaminated discharges from the West Valley site continue to flow into Buttermilk Creek, Cattaraugus Creek and Lake Erie, impacting the Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory and all who live downstream and downwind. Many Seneca people utilize Cattaraugus Creek and its banks for fishing and recreation, and for harvesting wild onions and natural medicines.

“The walk is a spiritual journey and a good platform for advocacy and education,” said Maria Maybee, a Seneca Nation member and one of the walk organizers. “Every step is a prayer. We pray for ourselves, we pray that the workers and decision makers at West Valley have a good mind in how they move forward, and we pray for all the animals that have been impacted.”

The U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Research and Development Authority are jointly preparing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the West Valley Site. The SEIS will evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with completing the decommissioning of the West Valley Demonstration Project. Once the SEIS is released later this year, the public will have six months to review the report and provide questions and comments.

“Every question that can be asked should be asked as part of the SEIS process,” Maybee said.

For more information on the SEIS process, including how to get involved, visit https://www.energy.gov/wvdp/seis-home.

Participating in the walk continues the Seneca Nation’s activism and advocacy on important environmental justice issues. Last week, the Nation announced the creation of a joint task force with the City of Olean to address the chronic discharge of untreated sewage from the City’s wastewater treatment system into the Ohi:yo’, the Seneca name for the Allegheny River. Since 2007, there have been 46 recorded discharges from the city’s system into the river, resulting in millions of gallons of dangerous waste flowing through communities downstream, including the Nation’s Allegany Territory.

“We are the protectors of Mother Earth,” President Seneca added. “The Seneca Nation will continue to act, we will continue to advocate and educate, and we will continue to fight until the destructive attacks that threaten our environment, vital ecosystems, and the health and safety of our people are finally stopped. Our voices will not be silenced.”