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Crow Butte uranium mine’s license renewal protested
The Chadron Record By GEORGE LEDBETTER, Record Editor Monday, October 13, 2008 Opponents of the Crow Butte Resources uranium mine near Crawford used a two-day hearing in Chadron last week to try and convince a panel of Nuclear Regulatory Commission judges that the mine’s operation poses a danger to area water supplies, and may be causing significant health effects on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation The 13 individuals and groups seeking to have operations of the In Situ Leach (ISL) mine suspended face a significant hurdle, however, as they first must convince the panel that they have the right to take part in the license renewal proceedings……………………….The mine is owned by Cameco Corp., a Canadian-owned company that is the world’s largest uranium producer, and ships its yellowcake to Canada for use in nuclear electric generation plants…………………………Opponents of the license renewal include several of the same people and groups who are seeking to block the mine’s expansion. Among those are the Western Nebraska Resources Council, the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Owe Aku/Bring Back the Way, a Lakota Indian cultural group, Tom Cook of Chadron, Debra White Plume of Pine Ridge, S.D., and other individuals from South Dakota and Nebraska.

The Oglala Sioux Treaty Council, a group separate from the tribal government, is also seeking to intervene in the license renewal.
Opposition to the mine is based in large part on the allegation that the water used in mining, which is drawn from the shallow Chadron formation, could contaminate deeper underground aquifers that provide water for the reservation, 30 some miles northwest of the mine. Further threats are posed by surface water drainage into the White River, which flows from the Crawford area to the reservation, they contend.

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Tags: indigenous

October 14, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues