‘We feel disrespected’: Navajo farmers wait for justice years after EPA disaster

Seven years after the EPA accidentally released 3m gallons of acid mine water, poisoning waterways that carry water to fields, farmers are still waiting for compensation

On 7 August 2015, crews from the Navajo Nation irrigation office in Shiprock rushed to close the main gates of two irrigation canals that carry water from the San Juan River toward the fields of hundreds of Navajo farmers.

It was peak growing season in the arid north-western corner of New Mexico. About 12,000 acres of crops had been planted. And a disaster was threatening all of them.