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Friday, September 21, 2007
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Colorado may have a project in Texas as a case study to use before granting Powertech's application for uranium mining in Weld County. Here's an article about a proposed in-situ uranium operation there from The Texas Observer. They write:
Uranium Energy Corp., which has been drilling exploratory holes in Goliad County since May 2006, applied for a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality last month to begin mining uranium in the area. The commission has deemed the company's application "administratively complete," paving the way for the next stage of the process, which includes the opportunity for public comment. What form that public comment will take is still very much in the works -- the Uranium Research and Advisory Council, a group appointed by the county commissioner's court to investigate the issue -- has scheduled a press conference for September 26 to lay out its case against the permit. But Art Dohmann, chairman of the group and president of the Goliad County Groundwater District, said he anticipates "a lot of independent action as far as public comment is concerned." Houston environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, whom the county has retained to help with legal aspects of the issue, has already sent a letter requesting a contested-case hearing on the application, Dohmann said. As president of the groundwater district, Dohmann has participated in many of the 250 or so well tests conducted so far by the organization. He said the tests have come back showing mostly potable, "very good quality water." His concern, and that of other county residents, is: What happens once mining begins?
Adding to their concerns, the Texas Railroad Commission cited Uranium Energy in March for failing to adequately cover some 74 exploratory holes. Dohmann, however, said his group isn't reflexively opposed. "Our judgment is that in situ uranium mining cannot be done safely in Goliad," Dohmann said, based on the conditions of the aquifer on which the county sits. According to a letter mailed out on TCEQ letterhead to landowners who asked to be kept informed, Uranium Energy has applied for a "Class III Underground Injection Control Permit" to conduct in situ recovery of uranium...
Harry Anthony, CEO of Uranium Energy, rejected the claim that exploration has negatively influenced wells in the area. In an August 5 opinion piece in the Victoria Advocate, he wrote that dissenters "wrongly painted today's uranium mining methods, technology, and its effects on the community." One of those claiming contamination is Luann Duderstadt, who lives about a quarter-mile from an exploration area. Numerous tests of her well have come up negative for uranium or other radioactive material, but she said a thick, reddish mud has been clogging her filters and that she believes her future in Goliad County depends on her fighting Uranium Energy's permit. "If they get their mining permit, we're going to have to move," she said.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"2008 pres"
6:40:24 AM 
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From WIBW, "An advocacy group says the Ogallala Aquifer would be further strained by increased ethanol production. The aquifer contributes to water supplies in eight states. A scientist with the advocacy group Environmental Defense says state agencies proposing ethanol plants need to be concerned about water withdrawal. The nation has more than 100 ethanol plants with at least 80 more on the way. The group says water demands from the ethanol plants where the aquifer is depleted could reach 2.6 billion gallons per year for corn-to-fuel processing alone."
From Environmental Defense:
Biofuels are getting a lot of attention as a way to slow global warming. But not all biofuels are created equal. Whether they help the environment depends on how they are produced. A new Environmental Defense report recommends polices that will ensure that renewable fuels live up to their promise. Specifically, our study shows that we need: a low-carbon fuel standard to spur production of biofuels with low greenhouse gas emissions and better protections for water and land resources that are vulnerable to increasing production of biofuel feedstocks.
Our new report, Potential Impacts of Biofuels Expansion on Natural Resources [PDF], focuses on the second requirement, protecting land and water resources. It suggests how to avoid unintended consequences of producing more ethanol in the Ogallala Aquifer region. It uses the Ogallala Aquifer as a microcosm of the challenges we'll face as renewable fuels are developed.
"2008 pres"
6:22:54 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:27:55 PM.
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