A uranium mine has spilled nine million gallons of toxic well water near Arizona’s Grand Canyon since it opened last year, a new study has revealed.
The Pinyon Plain mine, located 10 miles from the park, claimed its project would not contaminate the pristine landscape when it began operations in December 2023.
But new research revealed Monday found high levels of uranium, arsenic and lead in an evaporation pond six miles from a Grand Canyon site that feeds others, potentially contaminating local drinking water used by thousands of people.
Grand Canyon Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding 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, the Pinyon Plain mine has pumped 66 million gallons of toxic water into the pond since 2016.
Environmentalists say uranium mining contaminates groundwater and air
Energy Fuels, the owner of the mine, stated that there is no drinking water for the mine to impact, the report found that contaminated flood water from the mine can leak from one aquifer to another, ultimately contaminating local drinking water.
When Energy Fuels proposed the mine, “at first they promised they wouldn’t find groundwater,” Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust, told DailyMail.com.
‘That evolved over time, and they said maybe they had hit some water.
“Then they said that a drilling test showed that the layers of the mine were going to be saturated with water.
“But we’ve never seen them acknowledge that history has changed.”
Energy Fuels had pitched the project in 1986 as a dry mine, manually removing ore from the site and extracting uranium at a nearby conventional mill.
An environmental report submitted by the mining company that year stated: ‘The possibility of significant contamination of groundwater 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, in addition to the low possibility of finding groundwater at the mine, effectively eliminates the possibility of contaminating 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 United States was the world’s leading 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 produce electricity, but the way the process is done can pose ecological and health risks.
Since 2016, the mining company has continually pumped toxic water out of the mine shaft containing dangerous levels of arsenic, lead and uranium that far exceed levels considered safe to drink.
Curtis Moore, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development at Energy Fuels, told DailyMail.com: The water referred to in this report is part of normal mining operations and is not a cause for concern.
‘It is contained within the mine site and safely stored in a lined warehouse. It poses no threat to groundwater or drinking water.
‘These systems are subject to strict regulatory oversight and are implemented to capture and store water encountered during normal mining operations. ‘
The Grand Canyon Trust report found that uranium in mine water increased 150 percent in 2023, but the biggest jump was arsenic, which increased 4,700 percent from 2022, and lead increased 8,100 percent.
The EPA detection limit for lead is 200 parts per million, uranium is 30 micrograms per liter, and the maximum contaminant level for arsenic is 10 parts per billion.
Although the mine is located approximately six miles from the Redwall-Muav aquifer, which supplies drinking water to locals, faults and fractures in the rock allow contaminated water to drip from the upper Kaibab and Coconino aquifers into the natural spring.
“What this shows is that all this time they are exposing the uranium ore to the water and increasing the likelihood of contaminated water coming out of the mine because the amount of contaminants in the water is increasing,” Reimondo said.
Grand Canyon Trust reported that water from the Pinyon Plain mine contained uranium that was six times the maximum level of contaminant 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 impact it.”
However, “according to a recent interview According to scientist Dr Laura Crossey, there are so many faults and fractures in the rock in the region that it is simply not realistic to say that water cannot migrate downwards,” a Grand Canyon Trust spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
“The importance of faults is that they provide a vertical path for water to move in search of a lower level because ultimately the water seeks sea level,” said Crossey, professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of New Mexico. in an interview on Monday.
Sam Stookesberry, a senior associate at Energy Fuels, has claimed that the reports are nothing more than “fear mongering” and a “coordinated fear campaign waged by activists.”
However, after studying the rock’s natural tracers, Crossey found that “there is a risk of downward migration across faults” in less than 10 years.
The Grand Canyon is home to 1.3 percent of the United States’ uranium reserves.
“The more mineralized rock that is exposed during mining operations, the greater the long-term risk that contaminated groundwater could reach surrounding aquifers, especially when the mine closes and the company is no longer present to manage water flow.” Reimondo said.
‘The mine is depleting valuable groundwater and the risks to vital water sources, especially for the Havasupai Tribe, are not well understood. “This is the wrong place for a uranium mine,” he added.
The company has previously denied allegations that the mine will pollute springs, calling them “unscientific” and saying 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 impact,” spokesman Curtis Moore said in January.
“Despite the unscientific claims of anti-nuclear NGOs, there is really nothing to worry 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 into the mine before sealing it, meaning groundwater will still be exposed to the dangerous minerals.
‘(Energy Fuels) will say they will plug the groundwater flowing into the hole, but that is impossible,’ he continued, clarifying that water will always find a way to seep into faults and fissures in the surrounding rocks.
“When that happens, they will no longer be there to actively pump groundwater, so the water will flow through the exposed rock and become more contaminated over time.”
Even if the Pinyon Plain mine were to close tomorrow, the contaminated groundwater is already at the point of no return, according to the Grand Canyon Trust.
“At this point it would be impossible to clean the aquifers,” Reimondo said. ‘You have to know what you are facing and be able to control the environment.
“But you can’t do that if you don’t know where the groundwater flows.”
The only solution is to perpetually pump groundwater out of the mine and into the evaporation pond, which is “a huge waste of valuable groundwater and immensely expensive,” he said.
The mine sits on 17 acres of land and has distributed 66 million gallons of contaminated water since 2016.
The Havasupai tribe protested the Pinyon Plain mine, saying it would contaminate local drinking water and damage their religious sites.
The Havasupai tribe had repeatedly tried to prevent the mine from opening, 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 lie directly beneath the Pinyon Plain Mine,” the Havasupai Tribe told DailyMail.com in January.
“The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the federal EPA affirm that there is no danger to us, that we will have no harmful effects from this supposed source of ‘clean energy,'” the tribe continued.
“But how can they make such a claim with such confidence when Energy Fuels has already contaminated one of the two aquifers while digging the mine shaft?”
“I don’t think a reasonable response is to say ‘let’s wait and see,'” Crossey said, “because cleaning up an aquifer that’s miles deep in the earth is just not going to happen. It is a one-way street.