Uranium Mining in the Black Hills

Uranium Mining In The Black Hills
by Debra White Plume, Lakota on Pine Ridge, S.D.
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Maps from Powertech website

The planned uranium mine site in the southern Black Hills can impact four aquifers. Powertech, Inc. USA plans to begin uranium extraction in 2011 and operate for 15 years in the permit area of 10,580 acres located in Dewey and Burdock Counties, north of Edgemont, SD. PT plans to drill 4000-8000 wells to a depth of 400-800 feet underground to extract 1 million pounds uranium per year, initially using 4000 gallons of water per minute. As well as the four aquifers in this area, the site includes the surface water of Beaver Creek and Pass Creek, which empty into the Cheyenne River downstream from the mine site. To permanently store the mining waste of radioactive water and sludge, PT plans to use several evaporation ponds and deep disposal wells. Thirty-eight people currently live within a 6 mile radius of the proposed mine, with a cattle ranch nearby that raises beef for sale as food. PT plans to locate its’ processing plant in the Burdock area. Once this area is mined out sometime around the year 2026, PT plans to continue to use the area as a yellow cake processing site for uranium extracted from its mines in Wyoming and Colorado, according to PT’s Environmental Protection Agency Aquifer Exemption Application.
Who Is Powertech, Inc. USA?
Powertech, Inc. (PT) is a recently formed, foreign-owned uranium exploration corporation from Vancouver, BC, Canada with an office in Denver, CO and Hot Springs, SD. (PT’s parent company is Suez, the giant French-owned multinational corporation.) PT also has ISL mining plans for Wyoming and currently is in the permitting process for ISL uranium mines in both South Dakota and Colorado. PT has completed exploratory drilling in the Dewey-Burdock uranium mine permit areas, which straddles Fall River and Custer counties 12 miles northwest of Edgemont. PT utilized several thousand drill holes made by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 20-30 years ago when TVA explored and mined the area. From 1951 to 1964, TVA produced 1,500,025 pounds of yellow cake from this uranium deposit. TVA left many uranium drill holes uncapped and abandoned when they left the Black Hills. TVA sold their claims when the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant approached a melt-down, and the horror of Chernobyl happened. PT acquired the property in the Edgemont area in 2005. PT is also preparing to mine uranium southeast of Edgemont in the Plum Creek area.
How Will the Miners Get the Uranium Out of the Ground?
ISL Mining is a method used to extract uranium ore from underground, using water to inject solutions deep into the uranium ore body through injection wells, then the ‘production well’ pulls up the injected solution with the uranium ore attached. The piping is placed in drill holes which puncture the aquifers. From these pipes, the uranium ore enters the production plant, the solution and dirt debris is shaken off, and the remaining uranium ore is dried to turn the it into a fine powder called “yellow cake”. It is necessary to drill thousands of holes deep in the ground to conduct ISL mining. Arsenic, Radium 226 & 228, Thorium 230 and other contaminants are stirred up during the extraction process and can enter groundwater through leaks in the thousands of pipes used to ISL mine. Such leaks can allow the radioactive water to seep out of the pipe and back into the groundwater, which has happened at ISL mines all over the world. (for info see www.wise-uranium.com ). Water that is used to extract the uranium ore out of the ground is re-used to repeat the extraction process, some of this water is then stored in evaporation ponds, along with the sludge of the contaminants, some is stored permanently underground in disposal wells. The sludge is shipped out as radioactive waste. No corporation has ever been able to clean up the aquifers of an ISL uranium mine site, rather, the state or EPA will relax its water standards.
Water Pollution A Major Concern In SD
Environmental and conservation groups, including the Sierra Club of SD, warn that water pollution will be a major concern if the mining company Powertech is given a permit to mine for uranium. Shirley Frederick, with the Sierra Club's Black Hills Group, says there's a high likelihood that aquifers will become polluted if an injection-well recovery system is used to mine the ore. "It's a huge potential for contamination of groundwater."
Powertech Inc USA has submitted its uranium mining application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and it can be viewed at the NRC website. The NRC has announced a time period for interested individuals to voice their concerns regarding the uranium mine’s impacts to the environment. This proposed uranium mine will be the first time folks can be heard under the new GEIS.

Bill Quigley: Haiti Still Starving 23 Days Later

Published on Friday, February 5, 2010
by CommonDreams.org

Haiti - Still Starving 23 Days Later
by Bill Quigley

You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti.

Twenty-three days after the earthquake jolted Haiti and killed over 200,000 people, as many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance.

On February 4, the UN World Food Program reported they had given at least some food, mostly 55 pound bags of rice, to over a million people. The UN acknowledges that it still needs to reach another one million people. The 55 pounds of rice are expected to provide a two week food ration for a family. Beans and cooking oil are scheduled to come later.

The Associated Press reported that people in Haiti at small protests were holding up banners reading “Help us, we’re starving.” Over a million people are displaced. About 10,000 families are in tents, the rest are living under sheets, blankets and tarps.

One of the people living under a sheet is a brand new mother with her one-day-old baby. The New York Times reports that Rosalie Antoine, 33, and her one day old baby were living in a neighbor’s yard with puppies and chickens under a sheet in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port au Prince.

Haiti and the United Nations estimate 250,000 children under the age of 7 are living in temporary housing. Most need vaccinations.

Flavia Cherry, of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, this week witnessed a pregnant double amputee give birth on the ground in one of the tent camps without any medical assistance at all. “This poor mother had nothing, no milk, no clothing for the baby, nothing!”

Even people who can afford to purchase food are having a difficult time. A 55-pound bag of rice costs 40 percent more today than it did before the earthquake. Dr. Louise Ivers, a Partners in Health physician in Port au Prince, reports a 25 kg (55 pounds) bag of rice that sold for $30 US dollars (1,207 Haitian Gourdes) before the quake, now costs $42 US dollars (1,690 Haitian Gourdes).

The World Food Program reports prices are still rising and people outside the earthquake zone are having difficulty meeting their basic food needs.

Twenty-three days after the quake.

Bill just returned from Haiti. He is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. His email is Quigley77@gmail.com

Navajo Council's New Green Economy Commissioners

IGR committee confirms Navajo Green Economy Commissioners
By Navajo Nation Council
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- Hon. Lawrence T. Morgan is proud to announce the formation of the first Navajo Green Economy Commission. The five commissioners who have been selected and confirmed by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee include Wahleah Johns, Samuel Woods, Keith Betsuie, Anna Rondon, and LeVon Thomas.
"Each of the Commissioners is highly qualified to carry out the intended goal of creating green jobs on the Navajo Nation," said Speaker Morgan. "Today, there are more opportunities than ever before to move towards the development of a green economy and the creation of green jobs. These Commissioners are passionate about bringing green opportunities to the Nation, and I look forward to the work they will accomplish on behalf of our people."
The Navajo Nation Council became the first American Indian tribe to pass legislation supporting green jobs on tribal lands: Legislation No. 0179-09, enacting the Navajo Nation Green Economy Commission (NGEC) Act of 2009, and Legislation No. 0180-09, enacting the Navajo Green Economy Fund Act of 2009. Both were passed during the summer session of 2009.
"On the same day we were confirmed, President Obama declared that clean energy will be the driver of our economy for the long-term. With enormous solar and wind resources, our Diné can benefit from and lead the way towards this clean energy future," said Johns.
The five Commissioners are tasked with seeking appropriate federal, state, and other funding for the Navajo Nation Green Economy Fund, and networking with local, state, national and international groups to advocate and build Navajo Nation green economy strategies. They will also be working with Navajo Nation divisions and entities to coordinate these efforts and help bring green funding to the programs. The Commission will focus will be on small-scale, community development projects for economic development to empower local communities.
"In the years to come, and as we begin to transition toward more alternative renewable energy forms as a Nation, it is my vision that chapters will be able to sustain their own local green projects, and the Commission will become tasked with coordinating large scale green projects throughout the Navajo Nation," said Speaker Morgan.
The passage of the Navajo Green Economy Commission and the Navajo Green Economy Fund
started with a shared vision. Partnerships with various non-governmental organizations were
instrumental in moving the vision of a green economy forward. The Navajo Green Economy Coalition, which consists of various non-profit organization representatives, garnered 23 Navajo Nation chapter resolutions and two agency resolutions in support of the Navajo Green Economy Legislation and Navajo Green Economy Fund, ultimately helping to turn ideas into legislative action at the Navajo Nation Council level.
"The input, guidance, and expertise from non-governmental organizations will continue to be of incredible worth as we move forward in our planning for a sustainable green economy," said Speaker Morgan. "I want to thank them again for sharing this vision with me."
The Navajo Green Economy Commission has received numerous inquiries since its passage and will begin its work immediately.
"Serving on this commission is a tremendous opportunity to lead the Navajo people to a greener and cleaner energy future," said Thomas. Thomas will serve as the youth representative on the Commission.
"I'm humbled to have been selected to this commission, and I look forward to seeing community-based green economies growing in the near future," said Rondon.
Speaker Morgan believes the concept of 'going green' is not a foreign concept to the Navajo people.
"Our livelihood has always depended on our intrinsic relationship with the land," said Speaker Morgan. "By moving towards a green economy, we will be re-shifting into a way of life that has always reflected our core values as Navajo people."

Rodriguez: 'We wanted a Nelson Mandela, We got a Clarence Thomas'

We Wanted a Nelson Mandela; We got a Clarence Thomas



By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Photo: Roberto Rodriquez walking for migrants who died in the Sonoran Desert/Photo Brenda Norrell


President Barack Obama is an enigma. No one quite seems to know what
he actually stands for.

Most progressives saw in the election of Obama, a Nelson Mandela
figure. Based on his first year in office, many are understandably
disillusioned.

Conversely, much of the right wing of this country demonize(d) him as
a Joseph Stalin figure, this in a “right-center” country

The context of the 2008 election is important in making sense of these
views; it was a landslide. Obama garnered 54% of the electorate
compared to 46% for McCain (Apparently, someone forgot to tell the
electorate that we live in a “right-center” country).

Understanding this, the 2010 analyses of McCain/Palin and their
supporters matter little because it is their views that were
thoroughly repudiated in the 2008 elections. And their hostile
opinions of the president have not actually changed. If anything,
they’ve been emboldened by now having 41 votes in the senate –
compared to 59 for the Democrats (Apparently neither party can count
as Bush never needed 59 votes to govern forcefully, albeit for the
wrong causes). They would be quite happy with a Torquemada figure,
someone who governs from a place of fear, with an iron fist, who is
not afraid to employ torture.

The Obama enigma has more to do with the expectations of those who
swept him into office. In truth, those who thought they had gotten
Mandela – a liberator – were few because most understood that Obama
was elected head of an empire, not head of the UN Human Rights
Commission. Many more Democrats and Independents thought they had
elected a Martin Luther King figure – someone who would fight for the
rights and dignity of all human beings. Unquestionably, Obama indeed
can speak like MLK, but his actions, especially on matters of war and
peace and human rights, have been much closer to Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas.

The Obama/Biden administration is clearly different than a
McCain/Palin administration would have been. Obama has set a different
tone worldwide, but he has not substantively altered the Bush-Cheney
doctrine. And rather than investigate former administration officials
for their roles in carrying out an illegal war, Obama unilaterally has
given them “get-out-of-jail free” cards. Worse, he’s embraced most of
Bush’s extra-legal policies in court. The only substantive difference
has come in relation to Guantanamo. For conservatives, Guantanamo is
Nirvana – a place outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. While he
has moved swiftly to close it down, he has not repudiated its most
reprehensible feature: indefinite detention of suspects without
charges.

The context of the 2008 election was a clear repudiation of all things
Bush-Cheney. Bush argued that September 11, 2001 had given him the
right to ignore the U.S. Constitution, Congress and the U.S. Supreme
Court, and international law. Beyond that, he crafted a circular
argument for his assertion and exercise of dictatorial powers; we were
a nation at war. That assertion depended upon a condition of permanent
worldwide war.

That’s why people had hoped for an MLK figure. That instead we got a
Clarence Thomas is not hyperbole. Time and again, the Obama
administration has upheld virtually every Bush war policy in and out
of court, including the notion of an all-powerful unitary executive,
the right to permanent worldwide war, the right to hold prisoners
indefinitely without charges and to rendition them and to illegally
spy on Americans.

At home, Obama has bungled his electoral mandate, especially on health
care, the economy and immigration. Rather than govern with a clear
moral authority, he has instead governed weakly from “the middle,” as
a naïve politician, appeasing the same right wing opponents that
detest his every move. Ironically, Bush did not receive a decisive
electoral mandate, yet he governed decisively. Contrarily, Obama was
given a massive electoral mandate, only to govern timidly as though he
owes his victory to the sore losers Tea Party Movement.

There are several precedents for governing from the middle. One came
in the early 20th century in Mexico after the ouster of dictator
Porfirio Diaz. The naïve new president, Francisco Madero, thought he
could reconcile the nation by ignoring his own supporters while
appeasing Diaz’s allies. He left them in power where they soon deposed
him.

Hopefully Obama will not suffer the same fate. However, unless and
until he begins to act upon his stated convictions, he will continue
to find himself proverbially in the middle of the political highway as
roadkill. He doesn’t have to be Mandela; the 2008 Obama will suffice.

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be
reached at: XColumn@gmail.com