Inside this geometric mound, with a skin of coarsely crushed rock, is a demolished uranium mill and its radioactive tailings. The mill was buried in 1992 by the Department of Energy, one of 24 uranium mill tailings sites in the US that are being remediated as part of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project (UMTRA). The site covers approximately 196 acres of this remote valley north of Grants, New Mexico. The uranium mining district around Grants was the most productive in the nation, operating from the 1950s to the 1980s. As at some other UMTRA sites, the DOE has installed carved granite warning monuments (resembling tombstones) around the unfenced mound.
Comment: Demand the leaders of Virginia to keep the BAN on uranium mining or we may have the title down the road of “the environmental legacy from uranium mining and milling in Virginia". Southside VA will be only the beginning if uranium mining is allowed," U R NEXT"!
Beacon staff writer
GRANTS - Region 6 of the U.S. Environmental Agency has issued a report on the community meeting held in Grants on Oct. 20, 2009, to address the environmental legacy from uranium mining and milling in the Grants Mineral Belt. The area extends along the southern border of the San Juan Basin within Cibola, McKinley, Sandoval and Bernalillo Counties as well as on tribal lands.
Part of the Ambrosia Lake sub-district of the Grants Mining District, as well as the Laguna and Marquez sub-districts, contain uranium legacy sites that are under the jurisdiction of EPA Region 6 and the State of New Mexico.
The October public meeting was between the EPA, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the tribal, federal, state and local partners.
It was the first in a series of planned collaborative activities in which communities can provide input to long range planning activities for the Grants Mineral Belt five-year plan, which identifies the goals, objectives, and tasks to assess the health risks and environmental impacts that could have resulted from legacy uranium mining and milling extraction, processing and waste disposal.
The report included a representative sample of questions, which were asked by the public at the community meeting.
Q. What structures in the area will be evaluated?
A. The EPA will assess structures on land likely to be contaminated with radiation from uranium waste rock or debris. Based on data gathered by aerial over flights, this effort will focus on the area of San Mateo, Poison Canyon, Spanish Land Grant and Laguna Pueblo. Impacted structures could include homes, barns, sheds, fences and freestanding shelters that may have been built with uranium waste or waste rock.
Q. Will there be an aquifer study throughout the Grants Mineral Belt?
A. The EPA, working with its partners, began a sampling effort in 2009 to determine impacts to private wells in the San Mateo Basin. Results from this sampling will be shared with NMED, residents and public health officials to determine appropriate future actions.
Q. Are comprehensive health studies planned for the Grants Mineral Belt?
A. At this time, the New Mexico Department of Health has no funds to conduct comprehensive health studies. However, if funds become available, the DOH will conduct water and/or urine sampling and analysis for uranium in the Grants Mineral Belt region. It has been reported that by the end of the year Indian Health Service will begin medical monitoring clinics across the Navajo Nation to screen individuals for non-job related exposure to uranium.
Q. Did industry funding for the N.M. Mining and Minerals Division cause a conflict of interest?
A. Since the Mining and Minerals Division directed the contract; we did not have concerns about the industry funding. MMD drafted the scope of the contract, approved the contractor and oversaw the fieldwork and report preparation.
Q. Is the EPA complying with Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority and Low Income populations?
A. EPA is complying with the Order. In April, June and August of 2009, EPA began communications with the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, the Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance and other organizations concerned with issues of environmental justice. The October meeting was the first in a series of large community meetings to open up the collaboration process to the wider community.
Q. What work has been done by the Department of Heath to evaluate human exposure to uranium contamination?
A. The New Mexico Department of Health's Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau has been active in a six state Rocky Mountain Biomonitoring Consortium to address environmental health problems. The goal was to assess the extent of human exposure to environmental contaminants through the testing of drinking water and urine. In New Mexico, about 850 volunteer participants had their drinking water and urine tested for a number of chemicals, including uranium. With respect to uranium, the 90th percentile exposure among New Mexicans was higher than the 90th percentile for the nation.
All New Mexico participants whose uranium drinking water concentrations exceeded the EPA maximum contaminant level of 30 micrograms per liter were contacted and advised to utilize reverse osmosis filtration or to drink bottled water to avoid this exposure.
Future community meetings to discuss the issue will be announced in the Beacon.
Read more:
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2010/02/01/news/doc4b67672e9a2da496908818.txt
