Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) is a coalition of community-based organizations working to restore and protect the land, water, and communities affected by uranium mining in the Southwestern United States. Founded in 2007, MASE formed as an alliance of grassroots groups—Red Water Pond Road Community Association, Post-71 Uranium Workers Committee, Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, and Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance—that united in response to decades of environmental harm and health crises caused by abandoned uranium mines and mills. The organization serves Indigenous and rural communities disproportionately impacted by radioactive contamination, groundwater pollution, and environmental injustice. MASE engages in community organizing, policy advocacy, education, and collaboration with agencies such as the EPA to push for cleanups and safeguard cultural heritage, promoting intercultural engagement for the benefit of all life and future generations.
An aerial view of United Nuclear’s uranium mine and mill within the Navajo Nation in Church Rock, New Mexico. Photo: U.S. EPA/Wikimedia Commons
A community-led organization with one full-time coordinator, one part-time consultant, and dozens of volunteers, MASE is a diverse alliance rooted in the experiences of uranium-impacted communities in the American Southwest. In 2015, MASE joined allied organizations to submit reports to the United Nations highlighting the disproportionate harms of uranium mining on Indigenous communities and calling for environmental justice, cultural protection, and cleanup before any new mining is allowed. In early 2020, MASE pressured Rio Grande Resources to abandon plans to reactivate the Mt. Taylor uranium mine by challenging permits, mobilizing public opposition, and advocating for cleanup to protect nearby Diné and Acoma communities. In January 2025, MASE supported a first-of-its-kind decision by EPA Region 9 to relocate over one million cubic yards of uranium mine waste from the Quivira Mine near Church Rock, New Mexico, to the newly designated Red Rock Landfill (located off Navajo tribal lands), protecting community health and setting a precedent for future cleanups elsewhere.
Desert landscape outside of Abiquiú, New Mexico. Photo: Joonyeop Baek/Unsplash