Wyoming environmental agency proceeds with uranium permits despite EPA groundwater concerns

Wyo. OK’ing uranium permits despite EPA concerns

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is proceeding with permits to allow uranium developers to inject wastewater underground despite federal regulators’ concerns.

The department recently issued a draft permit to allow Ur Energy Inc. to operate five underground injection wells at the company’s proposed Lost Creek uranium mine in Sweetwater County. The agency is accepting public comments on the draft permit through April 26.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, has raised objections that could hold up federal certification of the Sweetwater County project and two other similar projects in the state. The federal agency is concerned that injecting wastewater underground could pollute drinking water supplies.

The proposed uranium mines would use the in-situ method of mining, in which chemicals are injected into underground ore to free the uranium. Water holding the uranium is then pumped to the surface where the uranium is separated and refined.

Carol Rushin, acting regional administrator of EPA’s Region 8 office, recently criticized the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s analysis for the in-situ projects because the NRC considered only deep injection wells for wastewater disposal.

Ur Energy proposes to inject wastewater from the Lost Creek operation to a depth of about 8,400 feet, above both the Tensleep and the Madison aquifers.

Rushin noted that the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that Class I wastes be injected deeper than the deepest underground source of drinking water. She said that would present a major hurdle for dozens of proposed in-situ uranium projects in the region.

However, state regulators and Ur Energy officials say that although the Madison aquifer may be considered a drinking water source elsewhere in the state, it’s not a potential drinking water source in the Great Divide Basin, where the injections would take place.

“We simply don’t have any concern that it’s going to impact any existing or future drinking water supplies,” said Kevin Frederick, manager of the groundwater section of the DEQ’s Water Quality Division.

Heili said the Madison formation in the Great Divide Basin is geologically isolated from the Madison formation in northeast Wyoming, where the cities of Gillette and Moorcroft use it for drinking water.

“Our application for our Class I wells addresses the concerns that the EPA raised in a scientific and technical way, and it demonstrates these formations are not drinking water sources in areas where we are going to operate,” Heili said.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Powder River Basin Resource Council submitted written comments to the NRC saying there’s not enough evidence to be sure the wastewater injections couldn’t migrate into other drinking water sources in the Great Divide Basin.

David McIntyre, public affairs director for the NRC, said the agency is working with EPA staff members to address that agency’s concerns.

“We plan to respond formally to EPA’s letter in May or June. In the meantime, we have been considering their comments while finalizing the (supplemental environmental impact statements),” McIntyre said.

Information from: Casper Star-Tribune - Casper, www.trib.com