New Mexico uranium mine can move ahead

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A company says the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the last legal challenge to its license to mine uranium at an aquifer that supplies drinking water to Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico.

Supreme Court justices Monday decided not to review a decision that allows Hydro Resources Inc. to leach-mine uranium at the aquifer used by 15,000 Navajos in the Church Rock and Crownpoint areas.

The mining company said it will move forward with the project, but opponents said they'll keep fighting in other venues.

Opponents turned to the nation's highest court in September after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for a rehearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.

The Denver court had concluded the NRC took the "hard look" at the project required by the National Environmental Policy Act and adequately considered the cumulative impact of airborne radiation in granting the license to Hydro Resources.

Lawyers have said the case was the first-ever challenge to NRC approval of licenses for in-situ uranium leach mining, a process that injects chemicals into the ground to release uranium, then pumps the solution to the surface.

The Supreme Court's decision puts the project on track to begin production in the first half of 2013, said Rick Van Horn, senior vice president of operations for Hydro's parent firm, Uranium Resources Inc. of Lewisville, Texas.

An attorney for the opponents, Eric Jantz of the Santa Fe-based New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said they were disappointed but it wasn't the end of the road.

Jantz said the project still needs a permit from the state Environment Department, and opponents will be involved in that process because of water quality concerns raised by in-situ leaching.

NRC regulations require restoration of groundwater quality after mining ends, but Jantz said in-situ leach operations elsewhere in the nation have not done that.

"This technique has never restored ground water to pre-mining quality," he said.

The project's environmental impact statement acknowledged no operation had fully restored groundwater quality after in-situ mining. The 10th Circuit said, however, the NRC was convinced Hydro could restore groundwater, based on pilot demonstrations and small-scale tests.

Eastern Dine Against Uranium Mining, the Southwest Research and Information Center and ranchers Grace Sam and Marilyn Morris filed the original challenge, contending the NRC violated federal law in approving the permit.