>Posted by ishgooda@tdi.net :
>
>http://www.hcn.org/1999/dec06/dir/Western_Uranium_ha.html
>High Country News
>Vol. 31 No. 23
>December 6, 1999
>
> You Can Contact
> Mitchell Capitan, ENDAUM, 505/786-5341;
> Chris Shuey, Southwest Research and Information Center, 505/262-1862;
>
> Hydro Resources Inc., 505/833-1777.
>
>High Country News
>Box 1090
>Paonia, CO 81428
>1-800-905-1155
>
>Uranium haunts the Colorado Plateau
>
>A mining company promises to do it right this time
>
>by Andy Lenderman
>
>CROWNPOINT, N.M. - As a trademark New Mexico sunset paints pastels over
>this high desert town, it's hard to imagine that the poisonous legacy of
>uranium mining could be repeated here.
>
>During the 1950s and '60s, this town of about 2,000 near the Navajo
>Reservation was hit by a uranium mining boom. It left Navajos with
>polluted groundwater and high rates of birth defects and cancer, and
>miners and their families are still battling for federal compensation.
>
>"What uranium left is mainly heartbreak," says Mitchell Capitan, a board
>member of the nonprofit Eastern Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), a
>group of area residents.
>
>In late August, a proposal by Hydro Resources Inc. for three new uranium
>mines in the area gained partial approval from the federal Nuclear
>Regulatory Commission. It's the latest development in a decade-long
>fight over the company's plan (HCN, 9/30/96).
>
>The Navajo Nation's position on the mines has wavered, but opponents on
>and off the reservation say the mines threaten groundwater and the
>health of the 10,000 people, mostly Navajos, who live in the area.
>
>"Uranium has been a disaster," says Chris Shuey of the Southwest
>Research and Information Center, an environmental group based in
>Albuquerque. "It's hard to point to Navajos who have gotten wealthy off
>uranium."
>
>A new legacy?
>Yet Hydro Resources says the industry has cleaned up its act.
>"There is no opportunity for the legacy (of uranium) to be repeated,"
>says former company president Dick Clement.
>
>The Albuquerque-based company uses a method called in situ leach mining,
>which Clement says reduces the spread of radioactive dust and
>contamination. After drilling underground wells, technicians inject a
>chemical solution into the aquifer. This removes uranium ore from
>surrounding rock and sucks it into a treatment plant for removal.
>
>"We've had a perfect record in terms of restoring conditions to what
>they were before we began operations," Clement says. Hydro Resources'
>parent company, Uranium Resources Inc. operates two similar mines in
>south Texas.
>
>Clement says the company will spend between $30-40 million if the
>project gets approval and reaches its full production level of 3 million
>pounds of uranium each year. At full capacity, the mine could employ 300
>people in an area where unemployment levels can reach 50 percent.
>
>"We're one of the few companies actually interested in bringing economic
>development anywhere near the Navajo Nation," Clement says.
>
>For now, the courts seem to be favoring Hydro Resources. On Aug. 20, a
>judge for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the first of the
>mines, located near the tiny village of Church Rock. Larry King, another
>ENDAUM board member, says the judge's decision did not consider the
>livestock and people that draw water from the area.
>
>"I'm personally angry and upset," he says. "How could the judge refer to
>Church Rock as a vast desert, despite the fact that there are hundreds
>of families living within a two-mile radius of the Church Rock site?"
>
>ENDAUM and Southwest Research have appealed the ruling.
>
>An old battle
>
>Hydro Resources got another break on Oct. 27, when the New Mexico state
>water engineer's office granted the company's water-rights request. The
>tribe had vehemently opposed the move, since it will take water from
>ranchers and tribal members in one of the poorest and driest regions in
>the country.
>
>And a legal battle is pending over who can issue water discharge permits
>to the company.
>
>The federal Environmental Protection Agency has yet to grant a permit to
>Hydro Resources, and the company and the New Mexico State Environmental
>Department have sued the agency, claiming the state has authority to
>issue the permit.
>
>The long battle is getting old for Hydro Resources, and low uranium
>prices add to the frustration. Uranium goes for about $9.70 a pound now,
>but company officials say they need a $15 per pound price to make money.
>
>
>"There's always a limitation on what any company will do," says Clement.
>Mark Pelizza, who succeeded Clement as company president in October,
>says that if the price jumps and the water discharge permit fight is
>still held up in appeals court, the company may consider opening the
>mine anyway.
>
>The battle is getting old for ENDAUM, too. While cowboy tunes twang on
>his pickup radio, Capitan says he made his decision about the company a
>long time ago. "They're just like cancer. Once they get established,
>it's just going to spread."
>
>Says Capitan, "I'll never trust them. We're just not going to be pushed
>around anymore."
>
>Andy Lenderman reports for the Albuquerque Tribune. He is a former HCN
>intern. HCN intern Ali Macalady contributed to this report.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>© copyright 1999 High Country News and Andy Lenderman
>
>
>Reprinted under the Fair Use
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international
copyright law.
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