Comment: What do you think about the first sentence in the article: "Is contamination from past uranium mining well or bad for New Mexico??” Well, duh, it is bad for the people unless you are in the Uranium Mining Corporations pockets? The article may be Virginia's future if the lawmakers of this state allow uranium mining! Demand our Virginia leaders to ban uranium mining and milling now before our future look like New Mexico's polluting past uranium mining! Oh, what is this secret study: "Dine Kidney Study"?
Posted on September 10th, 2009
by tdingmann
Is contamination from past uranium mining good or bad for New Mexico?
Apparently, some members of the New Mexico State Legislature’s interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee aren’t so sure.
The committee held a hearing today at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to discuss the legacy of past uranium mining in New Mexico.
Members spent much of the day-long meeting hearing grim reports from local, state and federal officials about uranium mining in New Mexico and the deep and lasting contamination it has left behind in the water, air and soil. Reports included recaps of the extensive efforts to measure and manage hundreds of contamination sites in New Mexico – and an accounting of many more than have yet to be remediated or reclaimed.
As part of the meeting, the committee heard recommendations from the legislature’s Uranium Policy Subcommittee, which, as co-chair Sen. Lynda Lovejoy (D-Crownpoint) noted, recently held a two-day hearing to gather the input of “all the stakeholders” in the uranium contamination issue, whether they be policymakers, mining companies, landowners or people who believe they’ve suffered from health concerns because of contamination.
The subcommittees’ recommendations, as listed in a report drafted by the Legislative Council Service, included such measures as enlisting Gov. Bill Richardson’s help during the next legislative session; enlisting the state’s congressional delegation’s help in asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to help free up federal money for uranium cleanup; ordering a National Academy of Sciences study for the reclamation of uranium mines and remediation of groundwater contamination caused by uranium mining and milling – all fairly innocuous and long-overdue measures to address an industry that’s been proven to be responsible for an enormous amount of contamination in New Mexico.
But the subcommittee’s recommendations were stopped in their tracks when subcommittee member Sen. Vernon Asbill (R-Carlsbad), said he didn’t remember the subcommittee reaching consensus on all of the recommendations.
Two of the items in particular drew the most discussion. The first was “continuing to seek the enactment of S.796, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009.” A bit of background on this federal bill – it would update the federal Mining Act of 1872 by adding uranium mining to the list of mining industries regulated by federal authorities. The uranium industry claims updating the bill would shut down new uranium mining completely – advocates, many in Congress and many state officials say it would simply make uranium mining subject to the same federal standards that apply to the mining of any other natural resource.
The second item in dispute was asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review cleanup and groundwater plans and the background levels of aquifers affected by uranium mining and seeking to make sure that current and long-term plans for reclamation and maintenance provide protection from containment on a level “equivalent to or more stringent than” than that currently required by federal EPA standards.
After much discussion about the two items – led mostly by Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, who said he was “concerned” about the lack of consensus by the subcommittee on all of the items as well as the “prejudicial” language of some of the items regarding uranium mining – the subcommittee agreed to delete the two disputed items. The Legislative Council Service was directed to re-draft the report and resubmit it to the subcommittee, who will meet again and then present it to the larger committee for approval.
So, by delaying the report, the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee effectively called into question the point of everything that had already been established in the reports it heard all day during its own hearing – that is, New Mexico has a huge uranium contamination problem with serious health effects on its people and needs an enormous amount of national attention and federal help to get it cleaned up.
That’s the report so far, and the committee hasn’t even gotten to half of the items on the agenda yet.
This afternoon the committee will hear more detailed reports on the health effects and legacy of uranium mining, including the never-before-released Dine Kidney Study, the results of which is scheduled to be revealed near the end of the meeting.
http://www.clearlynewmexico.com/?p=2578
Posted on September 10th, 2009
by tdingmann
Is contamination from past uranium mining good or bad for New Mexico?
Apparently, some members of the New Mexico State Legislature’s interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee aren’t so sure.
The committee held a hearing today at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to discuss the legacy of past uranium mining in New Mexico.
Members spent much of the day-long meeting hearing grim reports from local, state and federal officials about uranium mining in New Mexico and the deep and lasting contamination it has left behind in the water, air and soil. Reports included recaps of the extensive efforts to measure and manage hundreds of contamination sites in New Mexico – and an accounting of many more than have yet to be remediated or reclaimed.
As part of the meeting, the committee heard recommendations from the legislature’s Uranium Policy Subcommittee, which, as co-chair Sen. Lynda Lovejoy (D-Crownpoint) noted, recently held a two-day hearing to gather the input of “all the stakeholders” in the uranium contamination issue, whether they be policymakers, mining companies, landowners or people who believe they’ve suffered from health concerns because of contamination.
The subcommittees’ recommendations, as listed in a report drafted by the Legislative Council Service, included such measures as enlisting Gov. Bill Richardson’s help during the next legislative session; enlisting the state’s congressional delegation’s help in asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to help free up federal money for uranium cleanup; ordering a National Academy of Sciences study for the reclamation of uranium mines and remediation of groundwater contamination caused by uranium mining and milling – all fairly innocuous and long-overdue measures to address an industry that’s been proven to be responsible for an enormous amount of contamination in New Mexico.
But the subcommittee’s recommendations were stopped in their tracks when subcommittee member Sen. Vernon Asbill (R-Carlsbad), said he didn’t remember the subcommittee reaching consensus on all of the recommendations.
Two of the items in particular drew the most discussion. The first was “continuing to seek the enactment of S.796, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009.” A bit of background on this federal bill – it would update the federal Mining Act of 1872 by adding uranium mining to the list of mining industries regulated by federal authorities. The uranium industry claims updating the bill would shut down new uranium mining completely – advocates, many in Congress and many state officials say it would simply make uranium mining subject to the same federal standards that apply to the mining of any other natural resource.
The second item in dispute was asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review cleanup and groundwater plans and the background levels of aquifers affected by uranium mining and seeking to make sure that current and long-term plans for reclamation and maintenance provide protection from containment on a level “equivalent to or more stringent than” than that currently required by federal EPA standards.
After much discussion about the two items – led mostly by Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, who said he was “concerned” about the lack of consensus by the subcommittee on all of the items as well as the “prejudicial” language of some of the items regarding uranium mining – the subcommittee agreed to delete the two disputed items. The Legislative Council Service was directed to re-draft the report and resubmit it to the subcommittee, who will meet again and then present it to the larger committee for approval.
So, by delaying the report, the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee effectively called into question the point of everything that had already been established in the reports it heard all day during its own hearing – that is, New Mexico has a huge uranium contamination problem with serious health effects on its people and needs an enormous amount of national attention and federal help to get it cleaned up.
That’s the report so far, and the committee hasn’t even gotten to half of the items on the agenda yet.
This afternoon the committee will hear more detailed reports on the health effects and legacy of uranium mining, including the never-before-released Dine Kidney Study, the results of which is scheduled to be revealed near the end of the meeting.
http://www.clearlynewmexico.com/?p=2578
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