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Report of the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project 2003-2007 — Executive Summary

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The Navajo Uranium Mining Experience

Background

The Crownpoint Uranium Solution Mining Project (CUP) consists of four uranium in situ leach (ISL) mines that would be constructed in the Diné communities of Church Rock and Crownpoint in northwestern New Mexico. The proposed mining sites are called Church Rock Section 8 and Section 17, Unit 1, and Crownpoint (see map). The proposed mines would use chemicals to extract uranium from an aquifer that supplies drinking water for more than 10,000 residents of the Eastern Navajo Agency.

Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI), the New Mexico subsidiary of a Dallas-based uranium company, first proposed ISL mining at Section 8 in a license application to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 1988. HRI later amended the application to include mining at the Church Rock Section 17, Unit 1 and Crownpoint and uranium processing at a plant in Crownpoint. The NRC Staff issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in October 1994, and after considering nearly 1,000 comments, issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement in February 1997. On January 5, 1998, NRC granted a license to HRI to construct and operate the CUP at all four sites.

Legal Challenge by ENDAUM and SRIC.

In May 1998, a NRC administrative law judge granted Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), Southwest Research and Information Center, and two Navajo women "standing" to intervene in NRC's licensing of the CUP. ENDAUM and SRIC retained legal representation through the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) and the Harmon-Curran firm in Washington, D.C., and hired 18 different experts in a variety of scientific, economic and cultural disciplines. Between November 1998 and May 2001, ENDAUM and SRIC challenged the NRC Staff evaluation of the project and the overall safety of the CUP in numerous legal briefs, written testimony by their experts, and thousands of pages of supporting documentation.

NRC Decisions.

In March and August 1999, a NRC administrative judge dismissed all of the Intervenors' concerns, but approved mining only at the Section 8 site and uranium processing at the Crownpoint plant. In May 2000, the Commission overturned a portion of the judge's decisions, amending HRI's license to prohibit the company from mining at Section 8 until certain financial assurance, or bonding, requirements were met. In November 2000, HRI submitted to the NRC Staff a Restoration Action Plan that estimated that HRI would need a bond of more than $9 million to assure that the Section 8 groundwater would be cleaned up after mining ceased. ENDAUM's and SRIC's restoration experts, who included two scientists who regulated uranium ISL mines in Wyoming, said HRI's plan substantially underestimated the amount of groundwater HRI would have to treat to achieve compliance with restoration standards and that cleanup would likely cost more than $20 million. The groups asked the NRC judge to disapprove the plan and rescind the Section 8 license; a decision by the judge is expected in the Fall of 2001.

In January 2001, the Commission agreed with the Intervenors again and ruled that a hearing must be held on the entire HRI license, not just on the Section 8 site. As a result, HRI must defend its mining plans for Section 17, Unit 1 and Crownpoint in a hearing that would begin in early 2002. As of the date of this report, uranium mining is not authorized and is not occurring at any of the four CUP sites.

About the Project.

Using the in situ leach mining process (see diagram below), HRI would extract uranium by injecting a solution of water containing dissolved oxygen and sodium bicarbonate into a uranium-bearing rock formation. The solution strips, or dissolves, the uranium from its host rock. The resulting uranium-laden solution is pumped to the surface for separation and refining of the uranium into yellowcake - the raw material used to make fuel for nuclear power plants. Mining would occur in the Westwater Canyon Aquifer, a sandstone derived from ancient, buried stream channels. The aquifer is the only source of high-quality drinking water for Crownpoint and surrounding chapters, and an important source of water for domestic and livestock uses in Church Rock and other Eastern Agency communities. At least 10,000 people in the area are estimated to obtain their water from this aquifer.

Potential Impacts of HRI's ISL Mines.

ISL mining involves drilling and operating hundreds of injection and production wells at each mining site. About 450 injection and production wells would be installed at the Section 8 mine alone. Oxidizing the aquifer to recover uranium changes the chemistry of the groundwater dramatically: native concentrations of uranium in the groundwater are increased by up to 100,000 times. Levels of other naturally occurring radioactive elements and heavy metals would be increased similarly, making the groundwater in the mining zone unsafe for human consumption. Since late-1998, ENDAUM and SRIC have presented extensive technical testimony and evidence by qualified scientists that indicate the following problems with HRI's proposed mines:

• Mining solutions could escape the mining areas during operations by flowing rapidly through the thin and narrow channels in the aquifer;
• Monitor wells intended to detect such "excursions" would be spaced too far apart;
• High levels of uranium and other contaminants in the mining solutions would not be diluted by uncontaminated groundwater outside of the mining areas, should an excursion occur;
• The Unit 1 and Crownpoint mine sites are too close to Crownpoint's drinking water wells;
• Historically, commercial uranium ISL mining has never been conducted in an aquifer containing groundwater as pure as that found in the Westwater Canyon Aquifer;
• Restoration to pre-mining, "baseline" conditions has not been achieved at any commercial-scale ISL mine in Wyoming, where water quality is similar to that in the Church Rock-Crownpoint area;
• Restoration at two of HRI's parent company's Texas mines was approved in the late-1980s only after the Texas regulatory agency relaxed the cleanup standards for uranium and other contaminants;
• Restoration was unsuccessful at a pilot-scale ISL mine operated by Mobil Oil at a site 5 miles west of Crownpoint in between 1979 and 1986;
• NRC's proposed groundwater clean-up standard for uranium is nearly 15 times higher than the national drinking water standard and nearly 200 times higher than the natural uranium level in Crownpoint's drinking water wells;
• Biomedical studies have shown that uranium is extremely toxic to the human kidneys at levels lower than the national drinking water standard and much lower than in the mining solutions;
• Radioactive radon gas released from injection well values and tanks in the satellite processing plant at the Church Rock site would exceed federal limits and add to the already unhealthy levels of radon in the Church Rock area where most of the dozen abandoned uranium mines have not been cleaned up;
• Residences, schools, churches, businesses and healthcare facilities in Crownpoint are all downwind of the Crownpoint processing plant, and releases of radon and uranium from the plant, even in minute quantities, would increase health risks for Crownpoint residents.

Current Status of the Project.

No mining can legally take place at any of the HRI sites for three important reasons. First, NRC's May 25, 2000, decision prohibits HRI from "using" its license to conduct mining at Section 8 until it files and receives NRC Staff approval of a financial assurance plan that would guide cleanup of the mine. As discussed briefly above, the Intervenors and their experts argued that HRI's November 2000 Section 8 Restoration Action Plan underestimated the cost of groundwater restoration at the site by at least a factor of two. ENDAUM and SRIC have asked the NRC's new administrative law judge, Thomas S. Moore, to disapprove the plan and rescind HRI's license. Moore is not expected to rule on the Section 8 restoration plan and cost estimates until this fall. Hence, mining cannot begin on Section 8 until the adequacy of the restoration plan and cost estimate is resolved.

Second, HRI must obtain an underground injection control (UIC) permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before it can commence mining on Section 8. A federal appeals court in January 2000 rejected a challenge by HRI and the New Mexico Environment Department of a determination made by EPA in July 1997 that the federal government, through EPA, must regulate solution mining there until a dispute over jurisdiction over the land is settled. EPA has not made a final determination about whether Sections 8 and 17 are lands within "Indian Country" and therefore subject to federal and tribal jurisdictions. As of the date of this report, HRI had not applied for a UIC permit for Section 8. ENDAUM and SRIC asked the Commission to temporarily revoke HRI's license until HRI obtains a valid UIC permit from EPA or the Navajo Nation; that request is still pending.

And third, the Commission ruled in January 2001 that former NRC Judge Peter Bloch erred in October 1999 when he granted HRI's motion to suspend the hearing following the completion of arguments on Church Rock Section 8. ENDAUM and SRIC had objected to Bloch's decision on the grounds that it illegally "bifurcated," or split up, a hearing on a single license that authorizes mining at four sites, effectively denying the Intervenors - and the communities they represent - the chance to challenge the entire project. The Commission ruled that Bloch's decision was fundamentally unfair to the Intervenors, and ordered that the hearing resume within six months.

In late May, Judge Moore ruled that HRI is required to prepare and submit for NRC Staff approval restoration action plans and cost estimates for each of the three remaining sites starting in July and ending in November. Should the NRC Staff approve the plans, which is expected, ENDAUM and SRIC will be allowed to review the plans and file legal arguments and technical testimony on their adequacy sometime in early 2002. Hence, neither the hearing will recommence, nor can mining be authorized at the three remaining sites, until these initial steps are completed. Even then, a hearing on Section 17, Unit 1 and Crownpoint will likely last through the end of 2002, and quite likely well into 2003.

The Threat of New Uranium Mining Remains.

Despite the Intervenors' success in stalling the project through credible scientific evidence and legal argument, the threat of new uranium mining in Church Rock and Crownpoint remains. If Judge Moore approves HRI's Section 8 restoration plan and cost estimates and HRI obtains a UIC permit from EPA, all regulatory approvals would be in place for HRI to commence mining. By that time, the economics of uranium ISL mining may be more favored for companies like HRI. For instance, if legislation providing up to $30 million in federal grants for uranium ISL mining companies is approved by Congress and signed by the President, HRI's parent company, Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI), could receive enough money to cover the $13 million in capital costs that HRI needs to construct the Church Rock Section 8 mine and produce the first pound of uranium. The Bush Administration's support for nuclear power also could drive up the market price of uranium from its current level of less than $9 per pound to a level closer to what HRI says its needs to justify mining - $15 per pound. As long as these powerful political and economic forces continue to promote domestic uranium development, HRI's proposed Crownpoint Uranium Project remains a very real threat to the health, safety and environment of the Navajo communities of Church Rock and Crownpoint.

The Big Picture About the CUP.

New uranium development on the Navajo Nation does not occur in a social or political vacuum, but in the context of nearly five decades of overwhelmingly negative impacts of uranium mining on the health, environment and culture of the Navajo people. Diné are still dying from their past work in uranium mines and mills. Hundreds of former Navajo uranium workers and their families are still awaiting federal radiation compensation payments. More than half of an estimated 1,100 abandoned uranium mines in Navajo Country have yet to be reclaimed¹. (See map below; courtesy of the Times-Picayune.) And few health studies have been conducted in uranium-mining areas to assess the effects of residents' chronic exposures to natural and anthropogenic sources of uranium.

Navajo Opposition to New Uranium Mining.

Abandoned mines and their attendant impacts, coupled with growing concerns about health problems among families of former uranium workers and among families who lived near old mine sites, are fueling widespread opposition to uranium mining throughout the Navajo Nation. Concern about possible ongoing adverse effects of abandoned mines in the Church Rock area was one of the main reasons Church Rock and Crownpoint residents decided to oppose new mining in resolutions adopted by those chapters in June and March 2000, respectively. Several other Eastern Agency chapters and institutions - including the Eastern Navajo Agency Council, the Crownpoint Hospital Safety Committee, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Management Board, and the Eastern Navajo Health Board - also have adopted resolutions opposing all or parts of the HRI project.

Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation Executive Order Moratorium on Uranium Mining, which was issued by former President Peterson Zah in December 1992, remains in effect². Current Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye told ENDAUM and SRIC on two occasions in 1999 that he intends to keep the moratorium in place and does not support new mining until the health and environmental impacts of past uranium development are resolved. In July 2000, ENDAUM presented the Council with a lengthy report, summarizing community opposition to the HRI project. In December 2000, the Council received hundreds of postcards from Navajos urging the Council to outlaw uranium mining. Despite these events, the Navajo Nation has not taken an official position on the HRI project.

For more information on the CUP, contact Chris Shuey at SRIC, P.O. Box 4524, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, or call 505-262-1862 (fax 505-262-1864), or visit www.sric.org/Uranium. Mr. Shuey also can be reached at sricchris@earthlink.net. For more information on ENDAUM, visit SRIC's website and click on "ENDAUM". To contact ENDAUM, write Kathleen Tsosie, administrative officer, at P.O. Box 150, Crownpoint, NM 87313; ktsosie@earthlink.net or ktsosie@dnalegalservices.org; or call 505-786-5209 (fax 505-786-7275). For information on the health effects of uranium, contact Dr. John Fogarty at P.O. Box 179, Crownpoint, NM, 87313, or send messages to lucyjohn@hotmail.com.

Footnotes
¹ SRIC staff, in conjunction with researchers at the University of New Mexico's Community Environmental Halth Program, has prepared a Powerpoint slide show summarizing uranium health and environmental research in Navajo communities over the past 50 years. An early version of this presentation can be viewed at our website www.sric.org/uranium/upresentation/4-1.html.
² A resolution adopted in January 2000 by the Navajo Nation Council Resources Committee that authorizes uranium ISL mining on Navajo lands and rescinds the Zah executive order moratorium has not been approved by the full Council and, according to the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, carries no legal, regulatory or policy weight.