'If only we'd known'
South Texas residents tell opponents to keep fighting

Protestors make their way along the road toward a proposed mining site in Crownpoint April 24. Hydro Resources Incorporated received a license to mine at the site west of town, but still must go through several reviews, including input from concerned citizens, before the work can begin. The protestors shouted slogans like "Water is life!", "Respect our land!" and "HRI go home!". [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining aren't the only ones who want the uranium mining company Hydro Resources Inc. out of their community.

Almost 1,000 miles away in Kingsville, Texas, a half-hour's drive inland from the Gulf Coast, some of the locals who've already leased their land to the company want the same thing. Only in Kingsville, Uranium Resources Inc., HRI's parent company, has been mining uranium for almost two decades.

A group of lessors calling itself STOP, for South Texas Opposes Pollution, blames URI for permanently contaminating its land. It accuses the company of making false promises and breaking a restoration contract it made with the county. The company denies the charges. But when STOP member Elizabeth Cumberland heard about ENDAUM's plans to picket HRI's Crownpoint office last Tuesday, she got hold of a few other members and sent off a letter of support, urging residents here not to make the mistake they did.

"If I could, I would prevent them from signing the lease and getting in this position," she said. "You'll never get your land back. You'll never get your water back. You'll never be able to sell it."

Breach of contract?
STOP complains about the explosions and numerous spills on state record since URI started operations at its Kingsville Dome site in 1988. But what troubles the group most is what both STOP and Kleberg County are calling a breach of contract.

In 2004 the county and company agreed that any wells in Areas 1 and 2 that were suitable for drinking, irrigation or stock watering before mining started would be restored to pre-mining conditions before mining could start in Area 3. When they signed the deal, said George Rice, a groundwater hydrologist working for STOP, the county didn't have its own experts. So it relied on the tests URI conducted in 1985, which indicated that one of the wells, I-11, qualified. Although URI has yet to fully restore even that one well, it started mining Area 3 earlier this year.

URI, said Rice, "basically said 'Forget you, county. We're going to go ahead mining, and if you don't like it that's too bad.' "

The county, in turn, passed a resolution Feb. 12 calling for mediation with URI and authorizing litigation if necessary. Lowerre & Frederick attorney Eric Allmon said the parties were still mediating.

URI doesn't believe it's breached anything. After itsigned the deal with the county, the company found a second test from 1987, still before mining ever began, indicating that even I-11 didn't qualify.

But STOP's worries go beyond I-11. In a mass-mailing form letter Rice recently prepared urging state senators not to vote for a bill the group is opposing in the Texas Legislature, he claims that uranium concentrations at Kingsville Dome remain as much as 400 percent above premining conditions and that nearby domestic wells are in danger.

URI says the elevated uranium levels have nothing to do with its mining and that the water at the site was unsuitable for human use to begin with. As for the domestic wells nearby, Mark Pelizza, the company's vice president of environmental affairs, insists there's nothing to worry about.

To get at the site's uranium, URI pumps chemicals into the ground to loosen the mineral from the underground rock and brings the mixture to the surface for processing. It's called in situ leach mining and it's been around for 30 years. In all that time, Pelizza said, "there has never been a water well impacted."

HRI plans to use the same technique to get at the 25 million pounds of uranium officials say the company has claims to in northwest New Mexico, at two sites in Crownpoint and one near Church Rock.

To lease or not to lease
Despite ENDAUM's protests, some Crownpoint lessors are eager for HRI to get started. According to HRI, the nine people leasing land at just one of its Crownpoint sites could stand to earn as much as $1.1 million. Besides that, the lessors are urging opponents to consider the jobs uranium mining to could bring to Crownpoint, up to 100 according to company figures.

Teo Saens heard the same promises when he leased 40 acres of his Kleberg County land to URI in the early 1990s and regrets believing them.

"The words that were used were, 'We're going to take a batch of uranium and leave (the water) crystal clear,' " Saens said, cleaner even, the company added, than it had found it.

His lease has since expired. Because URI never mined the 40 acres, Saens said, he earned only $100 a year per acre. But he considers even that modest sum nothing short of "blood money."

"It's little consolation for what they're doing to the land," said Saens. "If we knew what we know today, we wouldn't have leased."

Incidentally, the same day ENDAUM was marching on HRI's Crownpoint office, STOP members were in Austin, Texas, urging their state legislators not to vote for a bill they say would eliminate public hearing from the process of evaluating new mining units proposals inside of a permitted area. Pelizza said the bill would actually strengthen the public's hand by requiring permits now granted for unrestricted terms to sunset.

But Cumberland sees more of a connection between Kingsville and Crownpoint than a common foe.

Because HRI has yet to start mining in northwest New Mexico, it's invested in land that's yet to turn a profit. So Cumberland can only assume the company is covering its New Mexico bills with its Texas earnings.

"It's mining from our land that's helping them mine on their land," she said.

The letter Cumberland sent ENDAUM was one thing. But ENDAUM hopes the group can send some members here to share their experiences with locals in person. If she hadn't been tied up in Austin, Cumberland said she might have even joined last week's march.