News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Oglala Sioux Tribe appeal blocks water permits for uranium mining
A march led up to EPA hearings on Black Hills water permits for uranium mining held in May 2017 in Rapid City, S.D. Out of 80 speakers, only two testified in favor of granting the permits. (Photo credit/ Talli Nauman)
Ruling: EPA must reconsider proposed operation in Black Hills aquifers
Favoring an Oglala Sioux Tribe appeal, an oversight panel this week blocked permits to commence uranium mining in the Black Hills aquifer system. The Environmental Protection Agency must redo the permit process for its faulty handling of South Dakota’s first-ever in-situ leach mining proposal, the panel ruled.
EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board rejected two so-called Underground Injection Control permits. With them, Powertech (USA) Inc. has plans to punch 4,000 well holes in the Inyan Kara and Minnelusa aquifers.The activity would take place at the 12,000-acre Dewey-Burdock Project 50 miles west of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
The law requires the permits because in-situ leaching forces chemical-laced groundwater through a porous orebody to separate radioactive uranium from its bedrock host. The leaching also produces millions of gallons of wastewater that operations can pump back underground only by EPA permit.
The permit applicant Powertech, a subsidiary of enCore Energy Corp., received the now invalid permits in 2020, despite significant popular resistance.
“When EPA rushed the permits out in late 2020, it profoundly failed the Oglala Sioux Tribe and everyone involved.”
Lilias Jarding, executive director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance
Oglala Sioux Tribe Water Resources Director Reno Red Cloud said the ruling “provides EPA flexibility to finally grant the tribe’s long-standing requests.” He said the Oglala want Powertech “to fund or complete the required groundwater tests.” His department also wants “a cultural resources survey of the renowned historic site it seeks to mine.”
The proposed Dewey-Burdock radioactive materials recovery operation is at the headwaters of the Cheyenne River, which flows down alongside Pine Ridge reservation. Its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license allows operators to cycle groundwater and chemicals through the mineral deposit at an estimated 9,000 gallons per minute to leach out the uranium. The license also lets them dispose of the wastewater in an aquifer or by surface irrigation. However, Powertech must obtain EPA water permitting to proceed.
The Black Hills area is the “Sacred Heart of Everything that Is” for the Oglala, a Lakota band belonging to the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation. An unconstitutional U.S. treaty violation deprived the Indigenous people of the ancestral – but not the spiritual – claim to its mountains, waters and wildlife.
At the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s insistence, the Environmental Appeals Board returned the suspended permits to staff at Denver-based EPA Region 8. “Given the Region’s incorrect views and approach regarding the administrative record and documents it argues are not or should not be part of the record, a remand to the Region is necessary,” the board stated.
Red Cloud noted that the permits came out just after former U.S. President Donald Trump lost his re-election bid to President Joe Biden. “This is a significant decision, requiring EPA’s broad reconsideration of the illegal and rushed decision to issue the permits in late November 2020 at the post-election close of the Trump Administration,” [a]he said in a tribal media release.
“This is a significant decision, requiring EPA’s broad reconsideration of the illegal and rushed decision to issue the permits in late November 2020 at the post-election close of the Trump Administration.”
Oglala Sioux Tribe Water Resources Director Reno Red Cloud
According to attorney Jeff Parsons, the permitting errors the board identified stem from Region 8’s failure to disclose necessary records. This prevented the board’s review of the mine’s threatened impacts. It also “concealed the pivotal role of EPA Region 8’s lengthy private pre-application negotiations with Powertech and mining industry consultants, which excluded the tribe and public,” the media release stated. Parsons, senior partner of Western Mining Action Project in Lyons, Colo., and Travis Stills, of Energy & Conservation Law, in Durango, Colo., represented the tribe in the appeal.
The enCore Energy Corp. communications personnel did not respond to inquiries from Buffalo’s Fire. The corporate slogan is: “Committed to providing clean, reliable, and affordable fuel for nuclear energy.” Based in Texas, the business is “the only United States uranium producer with multiple production facilities in operation,” according to its website.
Some 400 people attended two days of EPA hearings on the water permits, held in May 2017 in Rapid City, S.D. Out of 80 speakers, only two testified in favor of granting the permits.
Among those speaking in opposition was Lilias Jarding, executive director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. “Powertech’s permits to inject chemicals and pollute our aquifers are no longer valid,” she said of the appeals board decision.“This uranium leaching project is very unpopular, and EPA has illegally bowed to Powertech and let it avoid collecting critical data for groundwater and cultural site protections.”
Jarding added, “It’s time for basic respect for tribes, water, and cultural sites.” She said “When EPA rushed the permits out in late 2020, it profoundly failed the Oglala Sioux Tribe and everyone involved.”[b]
The recent decision provides for participation if the agency action falls short of expectations again. “Anyone dissatisfied with the Region’s decision on remand the media release.
References:
UIC Appeal No. 20-01
“Oglala Sioux Tribe wins legal case sending Powertech Dewey-Burdock uranium mine permits back to EPA Region 8 for further review”
https://www.buffalosfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ost-powertech-release.pdf
“Tribes give resounding NO to EPA questions on uranium mining”
Dateline:
RAPID CITY, S.D.