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by Rebecca Boyle
Fort Collins Now
June 25, 2008 Residents of Goliad, Texas who are fighting a proposed in-situ uranium mine continue wrangling with state regulators and the mining company despite a recent decision that may signal the mine will open eventually. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said last week that the department’s director made a preliminary decision that a a permit allowing Uranium Energy Corp. to extract uranium meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. The director also said an aquifer exemption, which would be required to install injection wells to extract uranium, also meets the requirements. The permit has not yet been issued, but the announcement that it and the aquifer exemption fall within the boundaries of the law is an important step toward opening the mine. In-situ mines, or “in-place” mines, typically use oxygenated groundwater to pump uranium out of the rock where it came to rest eons ago. Mining companies say they can clean the water and that the dangerous metals extracted along with the uranium will not migrate to sources of drinking water. But residents are not so sure. UEC plans to extract uranium from a 424-acre area in Goliad County, where residents who use the aquifer for domestic and agricultural use are worried it will be contaminated. The residents are suing the state to stop the mine, and also plan to request a “contested case hearing,” similar to a civil trial in district court. Those legal proceedings mean the mine is still a long way from opening. FC Now visited Goliad earlier this year because residents fighting the mine are in a similar position to residents of Northern Colorado who are concerned about a possible in-situ mine in northwest Weld County, not far from Fort Collins. Click here for article.
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