ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - State regulators on Tuesday began considering changes to a permit that governs how a mining company cleans up contamination at a former uranium mill in western New Mexico.
The plan by Homestake Mining Co. of California calls for releasing up to 5,500 gallons of treated water a minute as it cleans up millions of tons of contaminated waste and polluted water left behind at the property.
The company is seeking approval from the state to expand its use of reverse osmosis to treat contaminated water and it wants to experiment on a larger scale with other technologies that involve filtering the water through layers of minerals that are thought to attract uranium.
Homestake attorneys and technical experts began outlining their proposal to a hearing officer with the New Mexico Environment Department on Tuesday.
The proposed changes have the support of Erika Schwender, director of the department’s resource protection division.
“It gives us the teeth to enforce and it gives us the green light to actively move forward at a much greater speed and volume in cleaning up the site, and that’s really what we need,” she said. “It’s been sitting out there for too long with very little action.”
However, critics say the company’s plans aren’t detailed enough.
“One of our concerns is the permit is very loosely worded,” said Susan Gordon, a coordinator with the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment.
It could be months before the state makes a final decision on whether to change the way Homestake goes about cleaning up the site, which spans more than 200 acres and contains an estimated 21 million tons of mill tailings, or waste from the mill, that stand 100 feet high.
There are about 200 people who live within a mile of the former mill, and state and federal officials have confirmed that seepage from the tailings has contaminated underlying aquifers.
The site has been on the national list of cleanup priorities since the early 1980s. In that time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the company’s collection wells, drains and evaporation ponds have recovered more than 4 billion gallons of contaminated water but more needs to be done.
Homestake initially requested permission to discharge some of the treated water that results from its operations onto the tailings in hopes of pushing the uranium, selenium, chromium and other pollutants in the piles toward the collection wells and drains.
While no longer part of the proposal, critics were concerned that putting treated water on the tailings could make them unstable and lead to even more contamination of the area’s water supplies.
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