FORUM: In situ uranium mining will pollute water
January 12, 2013 6:30 am •
The company involved, Powertech Uranium, is a foreign corporation that has never mined anything. They want to use 9,000 gallons per minute of our water. And they will leave the water contaminated with radiation and other things -- like every other "in situ" leach uranium mine in U.S. history.
In situ leach mining involves pumping a solution underground, where it loosens the uranium from the rock, and then pumping the uranium-filled solution back to the surface.
Let's look at the company's claims. It says that its personnel have "extensive backgrounds" in the uranium industry. But let's look at that background.
The company's vice president of environmental health and safety resources -- the man who would be in charge of the health of our water -- was in charge of cleaning up a 130-acre radioactive uranium waste site in Moab, Utah. He failed to clean it up, and the company he was working for declared bankruptcy. Taxpayers are now paying for the clean up at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
We don't want that type of "extensive background" in South Dakota.
The company's track record is also suspect. It tried to mine uranium in Colorado. There, as here, local citizens and governments opposed the project. The state passed tough laws to ensure that its citizens and water would be protected. Rather than comply with the law, Powertech sued the state and eventually left Colorado.
The company has applied to the state for permits to extract 9,000 gallons of water per minute from the Madison and Inyan Kara aquifers. But the fact remains that, if the company gets the permits, it can use 9,000 gallons of our water, every minute of every day for a generation. It can sell the water to another company. Its project is on the Wyoming line, and water could be sold out of state. This is important in a semi-arid region that suffers regular droughts and relies on groundwater. We need our water.
And as for water quality, we know from the history of in situ leach uranium mining that the groundwater will be contaminated. Leaks and spills are common. Every in situ uranium mine has them. And at the end of the process -- when things have supposedly been "cleaned up" -- the groundwater has always been left polluted with radioactivity and with things like arsenic, selenium and lead.
Research shows that rural counties in the west that are managed for conservation and recreation, rather than for resource development, have greater economic success, including higher home prices and more jobs. Our tourist and recreation economy benefits us all. Uranium mining would benefit a foreign company and its Canadian, Russian and Belgian investors.
We don't want to be guinea pigs for this company. We want our water to be safe
and available for future use.
Uranium mining has been stopped in the Black Hills before. We need to stop it again.
The author
Lilias Jarding writes from Rapid City and has a Ph.D. with an emphasis on Environmental Policyhttp://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/forum-in-situ-uranium-mining-will-pollute-water/article_ecc53035-6f34-5293-8d5f-08b0e619bee0.html
