By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
The Navajo Indians call it “yellow death.” But like so much of what happens in
The battle brewing in
That became clear Wednesday with the introduction of two bills into the General Assembly. The bills address what sponsors, scientists and doctors say is the potential pollution of a new technique to draw uranium ore from beneath the earth all over
By session’s end, some members of the legislature hope to raise the bar high enough to avoid past environmental disasters caused by mining. Those disasters turned into perpetual clean-ups costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Almost all involved poisoning water supplies with toxic chemicals.
One new law seeks to insure that mining companies can restore water supplies to their pre-mined status before the companies begin ore extraction. This before-the-fact proof is necessary, critics of uranium mining claimed in a Capitol briefing Wednesday.
However, said Jeffrey Parsons, a senior attorney with the Western Mining Action Project, definitive evidence may be impossible to offer for the new uranium mining technology that would be employed in Weld and other
Not so, claimed a spokeswoman for Powertech, the company that plans to mine uranium in Weld a short drive from
Haley McKean of Peter Webb Public Relations said Powertech will be able to show the statutorily-required five sites where the mining technique called in-situ leaching has not substantially changed water quality in the long run.
In-situ leaching injects chemicals into the earth that draw uranium into the water. The uranium is then extracted from the water and the water re-injected into the ground.
Test wells in
Still, the company has said it expects to get those permits and could be extracting ore by 2010.
But the Colorado Mining Association claimed that one of the newly proposed laws “would ban many technologies essential to modern mining operations without enhancing environmental protections.”
Better safe than sorry, replied Dr. Cory Carroll of the Colorado Medical Society.
The toxic chemical residue sometimes left in ground water by uranium mining can concentrate in the brains of people or animals that drink the water. “The more I research this, the residual chemicals are of concern,” said Carroll, a
Animals may be most at risk of dying, but higher rates of non-lethal diseases have been associated with humans living near uranium mining sites. The effects were devastating enough on Navajo Indian reservations that the tribe has now banned uranium mining, Parsons said.
“They call it ‘yellow death,’” Carroll said.
Uranium also breaks down into radon, a pollutant linked to cancer, the doctor explained.
In part, that led Reps. John Kefalas of
Kefalas said
Getting so many contaminates into the water supply could filter its way up the food chain, Kefalas claimed.
All the way to the “cheese on your pizza,” he said, talking about a dairy processing plant that might soon locate near
Though the mining industry claims new and improved water reclamation processes, the pollution threat still demands a new standard for mining permits, Fischer said.
“There has been radioactive contamination from previous uranium mines,” he explained. “We need 21st century laws to meet the risks of 21st century mining. We have to act now to protect water resources statewide.”
Republican Sen. Steve Johnson, also of Larimer, worried about 30,000 families drawing water from wells in the underground aquifer affected by Powertech’s mining.
“I don’t think this technique should be done so close to a ground water supply,” he said.
A second proposed law addresses the ability of localities to know that such mining could even happen. Right now, Parsons claimed,
People have the right to know what’s going on in their extended backyards. Especially when what’s happening could affect their lives for decades.
And most of it comes back to water.
Powertech claims that it will not have to bring the water it pollutes in
This comes as news to Nunn rancher Robin Davis.
“We’re drinking water from that aquifer right now,” she said.
Copyright 2008 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
6 users commented in " Uranium Mining Whets Thirst to Preserve Drinking Water "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackJim,
Thanks for raising this issue, but it’s not just uranium mining. What about all the oil-shale drilling that is in the works for the Roan Plateau? Neither the oil companies or the greedy politicians who support them are telling Colorado citizens that more of our precious water will go down the drain once oil-shale drilling starts up.
Millions of people flooding into California, Arizona and Nevada already are draining the Colorado River. Add all of this mining and global warming to the mix and the West will not just be arid, it will become a great desert. Scientists are predicting a dust bowl that will make the Great Depression-era conditions look tame.
I live on the western slope where oil, natural gas, and minerals resources exist. My cynical view of the world is that each of items will be “harvested” because there is a dollar to be made and it provides jobs.
These activities, while raping the environment, will provide future employment in an attempt to repair the damage done by these actions. Super Fund sites certainly have created economic activity.
The impact on our citizen’s health is not a major concern. The indifference of the federal government toward the former employees of Rocky Flats is a prime example.
As long as our national policy is “live for today, don’t worry about tomorrow” we can expect more environmental disasters.
Not to worry, as these industries have our best interest at heart, and are more than able to regulate themselves.
Each one of them says, oh, we’ll leave it (almost) as good as it was…. Everybody pees in the stream only once, so we can’t figure out why it’s polluted. It’s the death of a thousand cuts. The most important thing is to keep this giant machine going, this extraction from the earth of every last drop of her resources. No politician, local, state or national, has had the guts to say that we are overpopulated, period. As soon as America reached Zero Population Growth years ago, the government opened our southern borders to siphon off extra players. Economists are so woefully deficient in their own supposed science, they can’t figure out how to structure a system that doesn’t require the young to support the elderly. Government is addicted to “growth” like Colorado is addicted to “growth,” and whenever anybody questions that policy, it’s like they’ve committed sacrilege. We need family planning, sex education and unlimited birth control, and we need to export those things generously, along with women’s human rights. Or we all go down together, farmers, mining companies, Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists, animals, columnists.
Uranium mining is all its forms is not healthy for people living near the mines nor is a very good investment, considering the PowerTech’s secret financing structure.
Everytime I see an article about PowerTech, I always respond with asking PowerTech to drink the “safe” lixiviant to prove that it is safe.
As for “accidental” excursions of the lixiviant from the well fields, not enough is know about the hydrology of the basins. Also when an excursion happens, then it is already too late, nothing can be did to stop except to add more toxic chemicals in the hopes of neutralizing the lixiviant.
So then the question becomes whether the laws are adequate or moral; personally I prefer moral over adequate any day.
Yes and what about industries in general.. most of them polute in some way. Let´s close them down and import instead.
Especially all dirty energy industry like oil, nuclear and yes those horribly ugly windfarms should close too!!
[…] Uranium Mining Whets Thirst to Preserve Drinking Water Spencer Speaks: Here are my thoughts; share y… may be impossible to offer for the new uranium mining technology that would be employed in Weld… of uranium mining may boil down to the state’s most precious and rare resource - drinking water… high enough to avoid past environmental disasters caused by mining. Those disasters turned… supplies with toxic chemicals. One new law seeks to insure that mining companies can restore water… proof is necessary, critics of uranium mining claimed in a Capitol briefing Wednesday. However […]
Leave A Reply