White Plume: Keep out! Radioactive Sacrifice Area

By Debra White Plume

Powertech USA Inc. is embarking on a path of destruction from which there is no return. The company plans to start in situ leach mining in South Dakota’s Custer and Fall River counties that will puncture through four aquifers on the Great Plains and endanger a fragile geologic system.

As a result of ISL mining planned at the Dewey-Burdock site – 12 miles northwest of Edgemont – we on the Plains must face the threat of groundwater contamination for generations, while the corporate leaders reside far away in their homelands of Canada and France.

This new corporation has no history of accountability in adhering to environmental laws or in the clean-up of a mined-out area. There are thousands of reports by mining corporations that document problems trying to contain uranium-laden water at mine sites, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Web site.

Will this new corporation – which will be mining uranium in an area with thousands of improperly abandoned boreholes and fractured aquifers – have the capacity to contain the radioactive water it plans to pump to the surface through miles and miles of pipe? Pipe which leaks, according to the NRC.

Powertech plans to start in situ leach mining in South Dakota’s Custer and Fall River counties that will puncture through four aquifers on the Great Plains and endanger a fragile geologic system.

Powertech knows about the thousands of uncapped boreholes in their mine permit area, and about the horizontal and vertical faults and fractures between aquifers through which groundwater can spread thorium, radium, arsenic and other contaminants disturbed with ISL mining.

These metals can travel to contaminate clean drinking water which may eventually end up in the pipe that brings drinking water into our homes, or the garden hose that waters our family gardens. Arsenic and alpha emitters make people sick.

The history of earthquakes in the Black Hills makes ISL uranium mining even more dangerous.

Does Powertech have the finances to pay fines for leaks and spills that other corporations have had to pay or to cleanup? It is not clear if the company has the resources to pay for cleaning up its mess, or if water can ever be safely restored.

Powertech’s uranium mining applications to the NRC and the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources were deemed inadequate. But rather than denying the applications, both entities helped revise Powertech’s applications.

The fact that the corporation failed to complete a satisfactory application does not create confidence and makes one wonder about these governmental entities: Are they here to look out for the well-being of people and the environment, or for the mining corporations?

The opportunity to view the public records of Powertech’s 6,000 page application as limited to Internet availability is prejudicial. It assumes that everyone has a computer and Internet access and eliminates untold members of the general public.

Let me be clear, this practice impacts the most vulnerable: The poor and the isolated.

The Dewey-Burdock area is in 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory and in a place sacred to the Lakota People: The Black Hills, the heart of everything that is. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was ratified by Congress and was never amended. Under international law it is our land.

Our ancestors fought the United States, and many people died, to protect the Black Hills and our homelands. There are hundreds of places in the proposed mining area that have been identified as archeological, historical and cultural sites.

Will this new corporation have the capacity to contain the radioactive water it plans to pump to the surface through miles and miles of pipe?

There are tipi rings, stone cairns, graves; there are eagle nests there which need protection. For a corporation to have more rights than human beings is a violation of our basic human rights.

To keep us away from a sacred place is to kill our people and way of life. What kind of government makes such laws that allow a corporation to turn this into a “National Sacrifice Area?”

The laws of the United States, the NRC regulations, and the individuals who sit behind those desks can honor treaty law, the life way of the Lakota, environmental laws, and demonstrate respect for Mother Earth by denying Powertech USA Inc.’s application to mine uranium.

After Powertech has mined for 20 years, used billions of gallons of water, fouled our aquifers and land, and completed processing its yellow cake imported from Wyoming, Powertech’s board of directors and shareholders will remove the pumps that keep radioactive water “contained,” cap the deep disposal wells storing billions of gallons of radioactive waste, dismantle its buildings for shipment to a nuclear waste dump, lay off the handful of local employees, close its Hot Springs Office, and enjoy their profits back in their home offices in Canada and France.

The NRC staff will file away the paperwork of the Dewey-Burdock Uranium Mine – our homelands. Will the file tab read “Radioactive, Keep Out?”

Debra White Plume is an Oglala Lakota author, artist, and activist from the beautiful Pine Ridge homelands.

The preceding story first appeared on Indian Country Today

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/Keep-out-Radioactive-sacrifice-area-98105464.html

America’s Secret Chernobyl – Uranium Mining & Pollution in the Upper Midwest

The following report was produced by Defenders of the Black Hills:

1. World War II ended with the nuclear bomb and introduced the use of nuclear energy for the production of electricity which caused the price of uranium to rise. Uranium mining in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota began in the middle of the 1960s. As the economy of the Midwestern states depends primarily on agriculture, when uranium was discovered in the region, many get-rich-quick schemes were adopted.

Not only were large mining companies pushing off the tops of bluffs and buttes, but small individual ranchers were also digging in their pastures for the radioactive metal. Mining occurred on both public and private land, although the Great Sioux Nation still maintains a claim to the area through the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, the March 3rd Act of 1871, Article VI of the US Constitution, and the 1980 Supreme Court decision on the Black Hills.

2. In northwestern South Dakota, the Cave Hills area is managed by the US Forest Service. The area currently contains 89 abandoned open-pit uranium mines. Studies by the USFS show that one mine alone has 1,400 millirems per hour (mR/hr) of exposed radiation, a level of radiation that is 120,000 times higher than normal background of 100 millirems per year (mR/yr)! In the southwestern Black Hills, the US Forest Service reported on 29 abandoned open-pit uranium mines, one of which is about 1 square mile in size.

3. It is estimated that more than 1,000 open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in the four state region from a map developed by the US Forest Service. The water runoff from the creeks and rivers near these abandoned uranium mines eventually empties into the Missouri River which empties into the Mississippi River.

4. The following agencies are aware of these abandoned uranium mines and prospects: US Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Bureau of Land Management, SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the US Indian Health Service. Only after public concern about these mines was raised a few years ago did the USFS and the EPA pay for a study in 2006 of the off site effects caused by only 1 abandoned mine.

5. More than 4,000 exploratory holes, some large enough for a person to fall into, are found in the southwestern Black Hills with an additional 3,000 holes just 10 miles west of the town of Belle Fourche, SD near the Wyoming border. These holes go to depths of 600 feet. This exploratory process itself allows radioactive pollutants to cross contaminate underground water sources. More exploratory holes for uranium are being drilled in Wyoming and South Dakota.

6. The US Air Force also used small nuclear power plants in some of their remote radar stations. No data is available on the current status or disposal of these small nuclear power sources or of their wastes. The US Air Force is responsible for monitoring these sites although there is no stopping the radioactive pollution that could contaminate aquifers.

7. In Wyoming, hundreds of abandoned open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in or near the coal in the Powder River Basin, and the coal is laced with uranium ore. The coal is shipped to power plants in the Eastern part of the United States.
Radioactive dust and particles are released into the air at the coal fired power plants and often set off the warning systems at nuclear power plants. The same radioactive dust and particles are released into the air that travels across South Dakota and to the South and East in the coal strip mining process.

8. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a secret Executive Order declaring this four State region in the Upper Midwest to be a ‘National Sacrifice Area’ for the mining and production of uranium and nuclear energy.

Conclusion

This Fact Sheet regarding past and planned uranium and coal mining in the Upper Midwest region should give cause for alarm to all thinking people in the United States. This is the area that has been called “the Bread Basket of the World.” For more than forty years, the people of South Dakota and beyond have been subjected to radioactive polluted dust and water runoff from the hundreds of abandoned open pit uranium mines, processing sites, underground nuclear power stations, and waste dumps.

There needs to be a concerted effort to determine the extent of the radioactive pollution in the environment, and the health damage that has been and is currently being inflicted upon the people of the United States.

It is imperative that a federal bill be passed in Congress appropriating enough funds for the cleanup of ALL the abandoned uranium mines in this four State region. This harmful situation must not be placed on the end of the Superfund list of hazardous sites to be addressed in twenty years. Those responsible for this disaster must be held responsible for the consequences, but the cleanup and health concerns of the nation need to be addressed first. The health of the nation is at stake!

The cleanup of all of these mines and underground sites must begin NOW!

We hope you will consider our request for concerted actions to be taken at the national level regarding these grave concerns. This problem of radiation pollution spreading throughout the United States has been allowed to continue quietly for much too long.

********* What you can do ***********

1. Contact your Congressional Representative and Senators by phone (202) 224-3121, through the mail, and email. Ask that they consider sponsoring a bill for the cleanup of all the abandoned uranium mines and prospects, and underground nuclear sites in the Upper Midwest Region of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

2. Ask your Congressional Representatives and Senators to support the Expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include also those harmed by abandoned uranium mines and prospects in the Upper Midwest Region.

3. Encourage the use of alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Nuclear energy is not the answer and only creates very long term problems to the entire environment.

Thank you!

Produced by Defenders of the Black Hills, PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709, a nonprofit corporation.
For more information check out www.defendblackhills.org

W.A.R.N. Report 1980

Full downloadable text of the 1980 W.A.R.N. Report, showing massive, widespread problems with Indian health.  The report details high levels of bone cancer, infant mortality and a miscarriage rate seven times the national average.  It points to the immediate need for a systematic study of water quality in Indian country, with specific emphasis on Uranium and its tailing toxins, as well as dioxin, the active element in Agent Orange, used for crop-dusting at nearby Martin, South Dakota.  Tests at Oglala and Manderson were shown to have Uranium rates of 25 & 19 pico curies per litre of water, a rate far in excess of 15, the national limit EPA Limit for Uranium, a standard that is itself considered too high by Joe Wagoner of Public Health Services.  The report also calls for tests to determine the prevalence of chemicals from pesticides such as Malathion & Toxaphane.

Download the full 1980 WARN Report

Table of Contents

I. Background

II. Work Completed by the Health Study

III. Findings

Poor Statistics – Lack of Information

Serious medical Conditions

Radioactivity

Poor Well Maintenance

Possible Chemical Contamination
-Toxaphene
-Agent Orange, Dioxin, 24D, 245T
-’1080′
-Zinc Phosphide
-Malathion
-Sevin, Faradon
-Gunnery Range retained area

Poor Media Coverage

IV. Recommendations for Tribal Government

V. Footnotes

Appendix

W.A.R.N. Health Investigation 1980 – Summary

A copy of the groundbreaking Women’s Health & Water Report detailing high levels of chemicals present in Pine Ridge water such as uranium, dioxin & ’1080′, as well as nuclear waste from a nearby U.S. Air Force Gunnery Range. The report details the effects of these poisons on the people and their concerns for their future health:

PINE RIDGE HEALTH INVESTIGATION: Health Problems Proven

In a one month period in the late 1979, 14 women or 38% of the pregnant women of the Pine Ridge Reservation miscarried. Medical personnel were concerned. The people of the reservation were concerned.

That incident brought to a head health issues that had been developing for some time among the Lakota people. The elders said that cancer was a “white man’s disease” – that it had not existed in previous generations. Yet each family seemed to have had at least one death due to the disease in the present generation. Heart problems and respiratory problems seemed to be on the rise. Birth defects – club feet, heart defects, cleft palate – were noticed increasingly. The rate of complications of pregnancy seemed higher… and miscarriages were forcing the birth rate down.

Women of All Red Nations, a grassroots organization of Indian women, began a health investigation. Random interviews of Pine Ridge families were done and compared with a similar group of families on the Cheyenne River Reservation in northern South Dakota. The Pine Ridge interviews revealed a rate of cancer, heart ailments, and miscarriage far greater than the Cheyenne River group. Water samples from the Cheyenne River and a subsurface source at the Pine Ridge community of Red Shirt, tested at a Rapid City lab revealed a gross alpha radioactivity level of 19 and 15 picocuries, respectively. Federal safety regulations state that a reading greater than 5 picocuries is considered dangerous to life.

These results confirmed fears held by the Lakota people since uranium mining and development had begun in the southern Black Hills, just 75 to 100 miles west of the reservation. Would they suffer from the radioactive wastes and effects of this industry? It is well documented, that on June 11, 1962, 200 tons of radioactive mill tailings at the uranium mill in Edgemont, South Dakota washed into the Cheyenne River and traveled into the Angostora Reservoir. The Cheyenne River flows from the Reservoir down through the Hills and across the reservation. The Cheyenne passes within a few hundred feet of the Red Shirt well where the contaminated water sample was taken. That well supplies water to the community.

Also in question is the purity of the Arikaree and Ogalala aquifers which provide ground water for the reservation and its people. These aquifers, which extend under a large area of south-western South Dakota, may be affected by exploratory drilling being done by energy corporations in the area. Such drilling may expose water supplies to veins of uranium and the emission of radon gas, a radioactive uranium by-product which dissolves easily in water.

Many people on the reservation also believe that the U.S. Gunnery Range, an area of the reservation retained by the U.S. Air Gunnery Range, an Area of the reservation retained by the U.S. Air Force, is being used as a nuclear and chemical waste dump. They question the impact that this might be having on their water, air, and health.

In March, 1980 W.A.R.N. demanded immediate alternative sources of water for the Pine Ridge reservation until the source of these health problems and water contamination could be isolated and averted. The Environmental Protection Agency, Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs all denied their request. The Indian Health Service, responsible by federal statute for protection of Indian health, denied the existence of any health-problem.

W.A.R.N. investigators, however, obtained IHS records and statics under the Freedom of Information Act which revealed rates of miscarriage on Pine Ridge even times the national average and infant mortality rates at more than twice the national rate.

Dr. Jeffrey Olenick, a physician at the Pine Ridge IHS hospital, reported unusual excessive bleeding after miscarriages of Pine Ridge women and called for a comprehensive health study. Ann Corral, Director of Field Health Nursing at the hospital cited high cancer and diabetes rates among the elderly and high rates of reproductive cancer. In an interview with W.A.R.N. attorney Jacqueline Huber, IHS Aberdeen area Acting Director Dr. E.S. Rabeau, mentioned high rates of bone cancer on the reservation. (Experts cite bone marrow and reproductive organ tissue as the most sensitive to develop cancer as a result of contact with radiation).

Preliminary water tests done by IHS using EPA taken water samples revealed gross alpha levels in wells in Oglala and Manderson also above federal maximum safety levels and thus there is no cause for concern. The people remain unconvinced and ask why these health problems exist and what relationship they have too high gross alpha and uranium levels in the water. EPA has responded that it will monitor the water for one year and then determine what action should be taken.

W.A.R.N. investigators have now revealed new causes for concern for water contamination on the reservation. Toxic chemicals 2-4D and 2-4-5T are used widely in the Pine Ridge area. One of the active ingredients, dioxin, has been shown to have caused impotency, respiratory and nerve disorders, and cancer in military veterans exposed to it during the Vietnam War. “1080″, another extremely toxic chemical, has been recommended for prairie dog control on the reservation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Toxaphene, a poison that may bring on brain hemorrhage or cancer of the liver, is rumored to be used as a grasshopper spray on the reservation. Engineers at the Indian Health Service have admitted that many wells on Pine Ridge are improperly capped and that, as a result, any of these surface contaminants could filter down into water supplies or, of course, contaminate surface waters.

In June of 1980, IHS revealed water test results for the Pine Ridge community of Slim Buttes (another western community) which indicate gross alpha levels three times the federal safety maximum IHS has agreed to drill a new well for that community. The sewage system at the town of Pine Ridge has backed up, dumping raw sewage into area streams.

Alternative water supplies have yet not been received and are still being demanded. IHS claims lack of money to provide this water or to establish a preventive health study or program at Pine Ridge. The Aberdeen Area Office, however, admits having turned one million dollars in unused monies back to the U.S. Government in the last fiscal year.

Due to the local dissatisfaction with the response of federal agencies, W.A.R.N. is presently organizing an independent comprehensive investigation by medical and environmental experts into the health problems on Pine Ridge, their causes, and their relationship to environmental contaminants on the reservation. Also in response to local concerns, the reservation tribal government has appointed a tribal water quality investigator and has created a legal project to work toward the return of the Gunnery Range area of the reservation. It is hoped that with or without federal agency support, the people will have answers to their questions and health problems soon.

A Downloadable copy of the 1980 WARN Report on Health Issues:

warn_report_summary_1980

Water and Energy BHA Report – 1979

A comprehensive look at how aquifers are formed, the toxic state of water and the implications to humans and animals of Uranium mining.

Download BHA Water & Energy Report 1979

–Excerpts–
-Uranium tailings move easily in wind or water because they are fine particles like sand. But they are very different from most sand, because they retain 85% of the radioactivity of the original uranium ore.

-The radiation is measured in “picocuries” per liter of water; a “picocurie” isn’t much, but the U.S. Public Health Service limit for safe water is only 3 picocuries per liter of water.
About 60 water samples taken in the Southwest had from 0.5 to 65 picocuries of radium per liter. Several streams have been declared unfit for irrigation and for drinking by stock and humans. Unfortunately, animals can’t read, and they continue to drink (and die) from dangerous streams.
Another pollutant, selenium, was present in wells near the United Nuclear/Homestake mill at levels 340 times the recommended maximum for drinking water. Studies show that water from mill activities move from streams to aquifers, and that effects on groundwater are “marked.”

-To make things worse, tailings are often stored mixed with water, so they move unexpectedly in a flood or if the dam used to hold them breaks. there have been over a dozen tailings-dam breaks in the U.S., none of which has been cleaned up. The biggest was a spill at the United Nuclear mill in Church Rock, N.M. in July 1979.
The dam break spread 100 million gallons of tailings and water for 50 miles down a river, despite the fact that the dam was “of the newest and safest type approved by federal and state agencies.” Radioactive readings were more than 6,000 times the drinking water standard.

-In 1962, the problem was aggravated by spilling 200 tons of tailings, much of which washed 25 miles then sank into the Angostura Reservoir. Current plans for moving the tailigs will reduce the release of radiation into the air and the Cheyenne, but will not stop seepage through the ground — only slow it down.