Uranium Leaks Could Cause ‘Dangerous Situation’: Groundwater District May Test Wells Now for Legal Proof Later
By Gabe Semenza, Victoria Advocate, Texas
Feb. 9–In case uranium leaks into Victoria County from Goliad County — where radioactive elements were found in the ground near the shared border — wells might be tested locally to supply the data needed to prove potential future contamination was caused by an outside source.
“We could look at sample wells up near the Goliad County line, where the uranium mining is taking place in Goliad,” said Garrett Engelking, general manager for the Victoria County Groundwater Conservation District, which meets today at 9 a.m. to decide if it should test wells.
“We’d test in Victoria County because the (uranium found in Goliad County) is so close to the county line, and the flow of groundwater looks like it does flow toward Victoria County,” Engelking said. “It’s just to get the baseline information.”
Uranium Energy Corp. has been drilling test wells in the Weser and Ander area of Goliad County since mid-May and has confirmed the presence of uranium. The company has leased about 2,000 acres in this area.
Comparing a potential uranium leak — from Goliad to Victoria county — to the legal problems that arise when a company spills oil, Kenneth Eller said, “If we’re monitoring it early enough, we’ll know who has to pay for the damage.”
Eller is a Victoria groundwater district director. Mark Meek is the district’s president.
“You could easily have contamination come in from the mining that’s going on right now,” Meek said. “I’m not saying that it’s happening, but it is a possibility. It’s something to stay on top of. It could be a dangerous situation.”
By testing now, it gives the district data — or the water quality — as it is today, thus giving it the ability to prove a contamination is caused by outside sources, if that were to ever happen.
“If water does get contaminated, we’ll have something to go by,” Meek said. “My thought was to stay ahead of the curve, and target some wells in that area and do some testing before it becomes a problem.”
Meek said no wells have been tested in the northeast corner of Victoria County, but “we feel like it’s something that we should take from the back burner to the front burner.”
Engelking, the district’s GM, said that since no decision has been made on whether to test wells, he couldn’t say when potential testing would begin.
He also said the district may ask interested landowners in that area to pay for the tests — at a cost of about $350, he thought.
“I’m not saying that we wouldn’t pay for some of the tests,” he noted. “We just don’t know yet. The benefit there, though, is the landowner would know what the quality of his water is, as far as it’s concerned to uranium mining issues.”
Three water wells in Goliad County — near this discussed area — that are located down the slope from a uranium mining exploratory area show levels of elements that far exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards for drinking water, the Advocate reported earlier this week.
Those wells, on property off Farm-to-Market Road 1961, revealed elevated levels of radon-222, radium-226 and gross alpha. The EPA defines gross alpha as “the total radioactivity due to alpha particle emission.”
One of the wells is several hundred yards from where uranium mining exploratory wells have been drilled and the others are nearby.
Sitting near the district directors today in its regular meeting will be Jim Allison, the district’s attorney.
Engelking said the district is also considering “hiring outside council for looking at rule development” as progress is made on creating its first-ever management plan.
Allison, who the district inherited when it was created a little more than a year ago, could stay on in other capacities, but his continued work with the development of the management plan will be debated. Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Victoria Advocate, Texas
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