Court: Mine on Indian Country land

10th Circuit Court ruling means EPA permit required

Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has upheld a 2007 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior decision that Hydro Resources Inc.’s Churchrock Section 8 mine site is located in “Indian Country.”

HRI challenged the decision last May before the Court of Appeals. The decision means that HRI will have to obtain an underground injection control permit from EPA rather than the New Mexico Environment Department before it can move forward with its plans for in-situ leach uranium mining in Section 8.

Navajo Nation Department of Justice, Churchrock Chapter, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Southwest Research Information Center and Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining all participated in the matter, filing comments on the proposed determination in 2006.

“This is a huge victory, and if upheld on further appeal, will set precedent for regulating non-Indian activities on non-Indian lands inside dependent Indian communities,” Chris Shuey of SRIC said.

Rick Van Horn, chief operating officer for Uranium Resources Inc., parent company of HRI, said the court decision has been 11 months in coming. “We are reviewing it. We haven’t had time to review it. I think the one thing we need to re-emphasize is regardless of the ruling, we are committed to going forward with mining and doing business in New Mexico.

“We’ll just see what our options are and go forward from there.”

The Navajo Nation imposed a ban on uranium mining and milling within Navajo Indian Country in April 2005. That same year, New Mexico Environment Department received a request from HRI for an underground injection control permit to operate a uranium in-situ leach mine in Section 8. As a result, the state Environment Department formally requested EPA make a decision on the Indian Country status of Section 8 land, with the underlying issue being which was the appropriate agency to consider the permit application.

On Feb. 6, 2007, EPA found that Churchrock Chapter, which includes Section 8, is a “dependent Indian community” and that EPA was the proper authority to issue the permit. HRI contended that the EPA ruling was delaying its plans to begin operations and asked the court to set aside the decision.

Approximately 70 million pounds of uranium reserves are known to exist on the Navajo Reservation, Van Horn said.

In a previous interview Van Horn said that HRI applied for and was issued an underground injection control permit by the state, but that the project couldn’t proceed without the court’s decision on who has the authority to issue the permit, the state or EPA.

“We have our NRC license. The only permit we’re lacking right now is the underground injection control permit. We have been issued one but we couldn’t act on it,” he said.

Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe and aided by Southwest Research and Information Center of Albuquerque, is the first community group ever to fight the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a source materials permit for an in-situ leach uranium mine.

http://www.gallupindependent.com/2009/04April/041809courtmine.html