Church Rock, New Mexico
On July 16, 1979, an earthen dam at a uranium mill near Church Rock failed, sending more than 90 million gallons of acidic, radioactive waste into the Puerco River. It became the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, unfolding the same year as the Three Mile Island accident but receiving far less national attention. The spill contaminated the river and downstream soils, affecting Diné (Navajo) families and livestock who relied on this waterway, and leaving a long, quiet legacy on the land.
Documentary Video
Video placeholder: Embed the Church Rock documentary film or field recording here.
Watershed & Place
Puerco River Watershed
The Puerco River begins in the high desert of eastern Arizona and flows southeast across the New Mexico state line, braided through arroyos and ephemeral channels. For most of the year it runs shallow or dry, carrying water only after monsoon storms. Its floodplain holds clay soils and saltbush, recording each flow in thin layers of silt and debris.
At Church Rock, the river passes beneath the uranium mill site before turning toward Gallup and the wider Little Colorado River basin. Contaminants released in 1979 moved quickly along this path, carried into downstream ranchlands and communities that use the wash for herding routes, watering points, and seasonal crossings.
Diné (Navajo) Communities
The spill unfolded across Navajo Nation lands, where extended families live in dispersed homesites surrounded by grazing areas for sheep, goats, and cattle. For many Diné residents, the Puerco was a practical and familiar feature of the landscape: a place to cross, to water animals, to gather, and to travel along.
Radioactive waste and acidic tailings settled into low spots, livestock ponds, and along riverbanks. Some families were not immediately warned. Animals drank from contaminated pools, and children played in the riverbed, bringing the long reach of the mill into everyday life and memory.
Church Rock Today
Decades after the breach, the mill site and unremediated waste piles remain visible on the mesa above the community. Cleanup efforts and long campaigns for recognition continue, led by Diné organizers, chapter officials, and regional environmental justice groups.
The riverbed still records this history in its sediments and altered use. Many residents treat the wash with caution, even as it remains a corridor for movement, grazing, and weather, tying Church Rock to other communities along the Puerco and beyond.
Image Sequences
Pre-Disaster
Caption placeholder: Describe the landscape, community life, and river use before the dam failure.
Disaster
Caption placeholder: Document the dam breach, tailings release, and immediate impacts on the river and nearby homesites.
Post-Disaster
Caption placeholder: Trace ongoing cleanup work, remaining contamination, and how the landscape holds memory of the spill.
Associated Stories
Use this section to link to oral histories, archival documents, reporting, and contemporary organizing related to the Church Rock spill and the Puerco River watershed. Placeholder: add story titles, brief descriptions, and links as they are collected.