2023-12-08_PERMIT FILE - P2023018 (2)

Home Browse Search

more than 700 million pounds of radioactive materials from contaminated sites across the country and the world, sit just a few miles from the White Mesa community (GCT 1, 2022). White Mesa community members,tribal leaders, and the tribe's environmental department are concerned that radioactive contamination from the mill could put public health, water, and air quality at risk.The community's drinking water aquifer is located deep beneath the mill's waste pits. At a spiritual walk (GCT 2, 2022) opposing the mill on October 22, 2022, Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council Member Conrad Jacket told the crowd assembled outside the community center. "Red,white, blue...I don't give a care what color you are, if water gets contaminated,then that's the end..." (GCT 2, 2022). 3. Uranium possesses both chemical toxicity and radioactivity.The effects of low-level radioactivity include cancer, shortening of life, and subtle changes in fertility or viability of offspring, as determined from both animal studies and data on Hiroshima and Chernobyl survivors.These effects can be delayed for decades or for generations and are not detected in short-term toxicologic studies (NIH 2O23). The Sierra Club's opposition to the issuance of an exploratory drilling permit are due to both health and environmental concerns about uranium mining including: 1) health and safety of miners and mine sites; 2) health and safety of people in the vicinity who might be affected by spread of radioactivity from the tailings or tailings ponds; and 3) environmental effects of increasing background radiation and water contamination. Contamination from uranium mining activity will persist for generations.The dust that blows away from the sites and the copious amounts of water used for dust control and uranium extraction all contain long-lived radioisotopes that are being disseminated into the environment. In the tailings,thorium 230 decays to produce radon gas. With a half-life of 76 000 years, it will produce radon for millennia. In the atmosphere, radon decays into the radioactive solids polonium, bismuth, and lead, which enter water, crops,trees, soil, and animals, including humans (NIH 2O23). 4. A recent analysis of biodiversity values across the unprotected public lands in Colorado found 71 areas on unprotected federal public lands in Colorado containing high biodiversity values; of those 71 areas,the public lands within the Dolores River Canyon Country represent the largest and most biologically diverse unprotected publicly-owned landscape in Colorado (Figure 1) (CSP 2023). All phases of uranium development — exploration, mining and milling — can pose unique threats to species, ecosystems, and human communities. From habitat destruction and disruption of wildlife to bio-accumulation and irreversible pollution of waters, uranium exploration and mining threatens to build upon uranium's legacy of environmental and social harm. Disturbance of the land surface by mining,the temporary storage of ores and mining and processing wastes on-site, dewatering of mine workings/pits, and a variety of reclamation activities all have the potential to significantly affect the concentrations and loads of dissolved and suspended materials in surface water off-site ( NIH 2O11). Pollutants from the mining of uranium can contaminate aquatic ecosystems for hundreds of years, threatening downstream communities and fish and wildlife. Even small amounts of some pollutants can poison fish, accumulate in the food chain, and cause deformities and reproductive problems for aquatic species.