A uranium mine has dumped nine million gallons of toxic water into nearby Grand Canyon aquifers since it opened last year, a new study has found.
The Pinyon Plain Mine, located 10 miles from the park, claimed the project would not pollute the pristine landscape when it went into operation in December 2023.
But a new study found Monday that high levels of uranium, arsenic and lead arrive in the spring and flow into other sources, potentially contaminating local drinking water used by thousands.
Grand Canyon Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the park, found that lead levels were 812 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit, arsenic levels were 243 times the limit, and uranium levels were six times the limit .
However, since 2016, the Pinyon Plain Mine has pumped 66 million gallons of toxic water into an evaporation pond.
Environmentalists claim that uranium mining contaminates groundwater and pollutes the air
Energy Fuels, the mine’s owner, claimed there is no drinking water for the mine to affect. The report found that the mine’s contaminated floodwater can seep from one aquifer to another, ultimately contaminating local drinking water.
When Energy Fuels proposed the mine, “they initially promised they wouldn’t touch groundwater,” Amber Reimondo, the energy director of the Grand Canyon Trust, told DailyMail.com.
“That evolved over time and they said they may have hit a little bit of water.
‘Then they said that a drilling test showed that layers of the mine would become saturated with water.
“But we’ve never seen them acknowledge that the story has changed.”
Energy Fuels had proposed the project in 1986 as a dry mine, manually removing ore from the site and extracting uranium at a nearby conventional mill.
An environment report filed by the mining company that year claimed: ‘The possibility of significant groundwater contamination from the mine is remote.
“Groundwater flows, if they exist, are probably at least 1,000 feet below the lower ends of the mine.
‘This, plus the low potential for encountering groundwater in the mine, effectively eliminates the possibility of contamination of the Redwall-Muav aquifer.’
Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that has been mined and used for its chemical properties for over a thousand years.
The US was the world’s largest producer from 1953 to 1980, when the government offered incentives for discoveries on American soil.
It is now mainly used as fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity, but the way the process is carried out can pose health and ecological hazards.
Since 2016, the mining company has been continuously pumping toxic water from the mine shaft that contains dangerous levels of arsenic, lead and uranium that far exceed levels considered safe to drink.
The Grand Canyon Trust report shows that uranium in mine water increased 150 percent in 2023, but the biggest jump was arsenic, which increased 4,700 percent since 2022, and lead increased 8,100 percent.
The EPA’s screening limit for lead is 200 parts per million, uranium is 30 micrograms per liter and the maximum arsenic contaminant level is 10 parts per billion.
Although the mine is approximately six miles from the Redwall-Muav Aquifer, which provides drinking water to locals, the fractures and fractures in the rock allow contaminated water from the upper Kaibab and Coconino Aquifers to trickle down to the natural source .
“What this shows is that they are exposing uranium ore to water all the time and increasing the likelihood of contaminated water leaving the mine because you increase the amount of contaminants in the water,” Reimondo said.
Grand Canyon Trust reported that Pinyon Plain Mine water contained uranium six times the maximum level of contaminants considered safe to drink – while lead was 243 times the allowable amount and arsenic was 812 times the limit.
The Canyon Plain Mine opened in December and spans 17 acres
Energy Fuels, which owns the mine, previously told DailyMail.com that “there is no ‘radioactive waste’ from uranium mining at the mine, nor is there any drinking water that could have an impact.”
However, ‘According to a recent interview Along with scientist Dr. Laura Crossey, there are so many faults and fractures in the rocks in the region that it is simply not realistic to say that water cannot migrate downwards,” a spokesperson for the Grand Canyon Trust told DailyMail.com.
“The importance of the faults is that they provide a vertical route for water to move to seek a lower level, because water ultimately seeks sea level,” said Crossey, professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of New York. Mexico. in an interview on Monday.
Sam Stookesberry, senior associate at Energy Fuels, has claimed the reports are nothing more than “fear mongering” and a “coordinated scare campaign waged by activists”.
However, after studying the natural tracers of the rock, Crossey discovered that ‘there is a risk of downward migration through faults within less than a decade’.
The Grand Canyon is home to 1.3 percent of the U.S. uranium reserves
“The more mineralized rock exposed during mining operations, the greater the long-term risk of contaminated groundwater entering surrounding aquifers, especially when the mine closes and the company is no longer present to manage the inflow of water,” said Reimondo.
“The mine depletes precious groundwater and the risks to vital water resources, especially to the Havasupai Tribe, are poorly understood. This is the wrong place for a uranium mine,” she added.
Energy Fuels did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The company has previously denied allegations that the mine will pollute resources, calling them “unscientific” and claiming that people should not worry about the effect the mine will have on the environment.
“There is no ‘radioactive waste’ from uranium mining at the mine, nor is there any drinking water that could have an impact,” spokesman Curtis Moore claimed in January.
“Despite the unscientific claims of the anti-nuclear NGOs, there is really nothing to worry about about this small, low-impact mine,” he added.
Reimondo warned that “the biggest risk is when the mine stops operating,” because the mining company will simply dump the contaminated waste back into the ghost before shutting it down, meaning the groundwater will still be exposed to the dangerous minerals.
‘[Energy Fuels] They will say they will cut off the groundwater flowing into the hole, but that is impossible,” she continued, making it clear that water will always find a way to seep into the cracks and fissures in the surrounding rocks.
“If that happens, they won’t be there to actively pump out groundwater, so the water will flow through the exposed bedrock and become more contaminated over time.”
Even if the Pinyon Plain Mine were to close tomorrow, the contaminated groundwater is already at a point of no return, according to the Grand Canyon Trust.
“It would be impossible to clean up the aquifers at this point,” Reimondo said. ‘You have to know what you are dealing with and be able to control the environment.
‘But you can’t do that if you don’t know where the groundwater flows to.’
The only solution is to continuously pump groundwater out of the mine and into the evaporation pond, which is “a huge waste of valuable groundwater and extremely expensive,” she said.
The mine is located on 17 hectares of land and has distributed 66 million liters of contaminated water since 2016
The Havasupai Tribe protested the Pinyon Plain Mine, saying it would pollute local drinking water and harm their religious sites
The Havasupai Tribe had repeatedly tried to prevent the opening of the mine, arguing that it would contaminate local groundwater and threaten cultural and spiritual religious sites.
“Our tribal community’s only water source is fed by aquifers, which unfortunately are located directly beneath the Pinyon Plain Mine,” the Havasupai Tribe told DailyMail.com in January.
“The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the federal EPA maintain that there is no danger to us, that no harmful effects will come our way from this so-called ‘clean energy source,’” the tribe continued.
“But how can they confidently make such a claim when Energy Fuels has already contaminated one of the two aquifers while digging the mine shaft?”
“I don’t think it’s a reasonable response to say, ‘let’s wait and see,’” Crossey said, “because cleaning up an aquifer that’s miles deep in the Earth is simply not going to happen. It’s a one-way street.’