S. Texas Uranium Mine OK’D
By Anton Caputo, San Antonio Express-News
Feb. 23–State regulators have given a uranium company the go-ahead to expand its mine near the small South Texas town of Ricardo, despite the protests of residents who say the operation is fouling the groundwater.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ruled Wednesday that Dallas-based Uranium Resources Inc. could begin mining near the rural Kleberg County community.
Commissioners even overruled a Texas administrative law judge who had recommended that the company only be allowed to open the new mine after it cleaned up the groundwater in two older mining areas.
“I wish the outcome would have been different,” said Teo Saenz, a local pharmacist and member of the activist group South Texans Against Pollution. “But we were realistic going in. We knew it was a long shot.”
Mark Pelizza, vice president of the company, was happy with the state’s decision, saying the judge’s original order was unworkable because the company wants to go back to mine for untapped uranium in its old mining areas.
That uranium is now economically viable because of higher prices, he said.
Uranium prices were about $8 a pound in 2002, but have shot up to more than $37 a pound. URI can process 800,000 pounds a year at its Ricardo facility.
Saenz’s group has been fighting URI for almost 20 years, and he vowed to continue the fight.
The company has mined in the area since the mid-1980s, but stopped operations in 1999 because of plummeting uranium prices. It also threatened bankruptcy at the time without cleaning up its mines.
The pollution issue came to a head in 2004 when the EPA sent letters to about 30 residents of the Garcia Hills neighborhood warning them not to drink the water from local wells because of high levels of uranium.
No attempt was made during the permitting process to determine if the mining was responsible for the high levels — a state administrative judge ruled it was no part of his purview. And the residents have since switched to a local water supply company.
Pelizza contends that the wells were contaminated by naturally occurring uranium that has nothing to do with the mining company. It will probably take about two years for URI to ramp up operations in the area, he added, while touting the economic impact to the community.
“For every pound of uranium there is about $20 to $25 spent locally,” he said. “And we will hire about 100 people now.”
Saenz said his group would continue the fight, changing its focus to an agreement URI signed with Kleberg County that includes provisions for cleaning the groundwater.
Attorney Enrique Valdivia, who is working with Saenz, agreed with the tactic, saying he probably won’t appeal the TCEQ’s decision.
“This type of mining pollutes the groundwater,” he said. “It’s a major problem and I think the agency still isn’t taking it seriously.”
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