As we suspected,
Hydro Resources is one step closer in
gaining NRC permission to inject ground water with chemicals to extract uranium in New Mexico.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission judge has endorsed a mining company's plan to extract uranium near two Navajo Nation communities in northwestern New Mexico.
Keyword: near
My last diary on this subject reported that the Navajo Nation had banned uranium mining due to the horrible legacy of death and disease that uranium extraction has caused on the reservation. While the banning is good news we all know that the current administration is going to support uranium companies.
Hydro Resources will try to mine just outside of the Navajo Nation escaping the ban but the proposed aquifer services the reservation.
-more below-
Of course
ENDAUM is watching this closely.
Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining has raised concerns about possible groundwater pollution at four proposed mining sites near Church Rock and Crownpoint.
-snip-
The anti-mining group is concerned about how the mining, called in-situ leaching, would affect an aquifer that supplies drinking water to surrounding communities.
The aquifer "is the sole source of drinking water for about 15,000 people, almost all of them Navajo,'' said Doug Meiklejohn, an attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe, which represents the group.
Craig Bartels of Corrales, president of Hydro Resources, said Monday his company would not pollute the groundwater.
yeah, right...we have his word.
He accused the law center of milking the issue for fund-raising purposes.
uh huh.
The NRC staff and NRC Judge E. Roy Hawkens have ruled against the challenges to Hydro Resources' plan, Bartels said.
"Any reasonable technical person who looks at this finds in our favor,'' Bartels said. "So any reasonable person who looks at this has to say that what they're presenting is not correct.''
-jerk-
hmm.... Judge E. Roy Hawkens, here's our man.
Bartels said the company expects to begin mining operations within a few years, once it addresses the permitting issues and constructs infrastructure.
The price of uranium has climbed from about $7.50 a pound five years ago to about $30 a pound today, he said.
The price increase has fired interest in new mining efforts, Bartels said.
Attorneys for the anti-mining groups will continue to appeal to the NRC commission.
Update: Press release from a Nuclear Engineering website:
Uranium mining approved in Navajo Nation
28 July 2005
A judge at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has endorsed a plan to extract uranium in northwestern New Mexico.
New Mexico-based Hydro Resources Inc has applied to the NRC for permission to conduct in-situ leaching in which solvents are injected underground to release uranium so it can be pumped to the surface.
The move came despite the concerns of some Navajos over the potential for groundwater contamination at three proposed mining sites near Crownpoint and Church Rock.
Mining has NOT been approved in the Navajo Nation, the ban should stand! This press release is misleading. Hydro is only one step closer.
I have been watching the stock price of Hydro. When I wrote my second diary their price was at 50. Today it went over 70.