Proposed uranium mine resumes permit process
Photo Credit: Defenders of the Black Hills
By Abby Wargo, Rapid City Journal
A Canadian corporation spearheading a controversial uranium mining project near Edgemont is re-initiating the permit process with South Dakota so it can progress with the project, which will be the company’s first.
Powertech Industries Inc., a subsidiary of Azarga Uranium based in British Columbia, Canada, first began applying for permits and licensing for its Dewey Burdock Project in 2013. The project is the company’s initial development priority.
The project will use “in situ leach” mining, a process similar to fracking in which injection wells are used to pump groundwater fortified with oxygen and carbon dioxide into the ore deposits to dissolve uranium. The production wells are then used to pump the uranium-laden fluids to the surface for recovery. For the Dewey Burdock Project, fluids from the production wells will be processed at two separate facilities at the mine site to extract and concentrate the uranium, according to a project description on the DANR website.
In situ mining requires large amounts of water, which Powertech needs permission from the state to use. The company plans to appropriate 9,051 total gallons per minute of water from two underground aquifers which also supply water to communities in Fall River and Custer counties, including Edgemont and Hot Springs. In comparison, the entire city of Rapid City uses around 6,500 gallons of water per minute — 2,551 gallons per minute less than Powertech wants.
Over the 16 years the project is proposed to last, the company will use over 52 million gallons of water. The project is anticipated to produce over 14 million pounds of uranium.
According to Powertech and Azarga, in situ uranium mining is environmentally friendly and has less impacts than other kinds of mining like open pit mining — there’s minimal surface disturbance, reduced water usage, aquifers’ water quality is restored, and there is no additional solid waste generated from the process.
Interveners in the project’s permit applications, however, oppose the mining project on the basis that it will destroy the water supply for the southwestern portion of the state, where water scarcity is already an issue. Fall River County’s biggest economic draw is agriculture, so having an ample water supply is important for community members who depend on farming or ranching.
Susan Henderson, a rancher from Edgemont and an intervener in the Powertech case, said the project won’t have any benefit to anyone in South Dakota and will “probably destroy” Fall River County. Henderson said no mining company has ever sufficiently restored an aquifer’s water quality after contaminating it and she does not have faith that Powertech would be the first.
“Once they extract the uranium they turn around and dump the slag containing lixiviates back into the water. The next thing you know, they’ve contaminated the aquifers. We’ll never get back out of this,” Henderson told the Journal. “The acids stay there and keep dissolving stuff. [These chemicals] move once you inject [them] into the ground. It doesn’t stop.”
Henderson said by the time Powertech obtains all its permits and begins its work, the contamination will begin soon after and create irreversible damage.
“You can’t put [water quality] back together; this is not Humpty Dumpty,” she said. “This isn’t ever going to be workable, and it’s going to happen quickly – the minute they start drilling it will affect the water and we won’t recover from that.”
Powertech and Azarga currently have control over the mineral and surface rights for 12,613 surface acres and 16,962 net mineral acres, and now they are seeking a water rights permit from the state Water Management Board — the next step in the permitting process. The WMB can grant water rights for available water in an area. The water itself belongs to the state, but other parties can be granted rights if they meet the criteria.
The three permits Powertech has left to obtain before they can begin operations are all from the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources: the Ground Water Discharge Plan, the Water Rights Permit, and the Large Scale Mine Plan Permit.
The first license Powertech received, the source and by-product materials license, was issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April 2014, despite a lawsuit brought by the Oglala Sioux Tribe relating to the identification and preservation of historic and cultural resources.
The U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board granted them the license despite the company’s failure to complete a cultural resources survey of the mining area. The three judges on the board sided with Powertech, but the Oglala Sioux Tribe has appealed the decision.
Powertech was also issued two permits by the Environmental Protection Agency in November 2020, which were then appealed to the Environmental Appeals Board. However, the company does not expect either appeal to be successful, so they are moving ahead with the other permits.
When the company first submitted the applications to the then-Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2013, the two federal permits had not yet been issued. Now that the federal regulatory approvals have been completed, the company’s focus is on resuming hearings related to the three state permits.
The Journal reached out to Powertech/Azarga for comment but did not receive a response.
The WMB hearing for Powertech will take place during the Board’s regular meeting on May 5, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Mountain time.
