Organizations from five states met in Casper Saturday to discuss concerns about in-situ leach uranium mining in Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado.

During a press conference held by the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a panel of speakers defended their views. Many at the meeting supported an approach that focused on educating people about the processes associated with mining uranium.

Defenders of uranium mining spoke from the audience during the meeting, arguing that safety in uranium mining is heavily regulated and indicating that the uranium mining is one way to make the United States energy independent.

After years of depressed prices for uranium, the mineral has experienced a renaissance of sorts, with energy-grade uranium oxide often fetching better than $40 per pound, after plunging to record lows in the late 1980s.

Wilma Tope, a Wyoming rancher, said her goal is "to educate the public about the process of in-situ uranium mining and the problems that are associated with it."

Tope said uranium mining hurts ranchers in the Northern Great Plains by lowering local property values and ruining their health with radiation.

"If our land is gone or destroyed, they've taken away our ability to make a living, they've taken our health, and really they've stolen our ranch and they've stolen our future," said Tope, who lives on property in Aladdin surrounded by land leased for potential uranium mining. "And we can't let that happen."

Charmaine White Face, a former science professor from South Dakota, was concerned mostly with the effects of mining on water. She said she worried that the in-situ, or underground mining process, would take water from an already short supply and would contaminate well water with uranium-based pollutants, some that could cause human illness to those who drink it. White Face said in-situ mining is ruining water supplies in her home state and surrounding states.

"We're very concerned with what's happening in Wyoming because it affects us in South Dakota, and Wyoming people should be concerned about what's happening in South Dakota," White Face said. "Whatever happens in one state is going to happen in the other."

Donna Wichers, senior vice president of ISR operations for Uranium One, attended the meeting and was confused by the panel's concerns.

"We have very strict regulations and we're required to clean up the groundwater once we're finished with in-situ," she said. We've been doing this type of mining in Wyoming and Nebraska for a long time, and our restoration projects have been approved by the state, so I thought we were doing a good job. I think there have been a lot of accusations, but I'd like to see their facts."

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com

For more information...

Contact the Powder River Basin Resource Council at (307) 672-5809 or info@powderriverbasin.org, or visit www.powderriverbasin.org.