What would you do if you were totally dependent upon a single monthly check of $250 to cover all your living expenses from rent, heat, electricity to food and then your check suddenly ceased arriving in your mail box without any explanation? What if you live on a reservation where there is 80-85% unemployment and your tribe is $60 million in debt? Add to the context the highest rates per population of child suicide in the world. Now imagine what goes through your mind when your single source of income becomes “invisible” and you already know you don’t have the gas to drive off the reservation to search for employment, you have no funds to find housing off the reservation, and you are the sole adult caretaker for your grandchildren. What is now going through your mind at this point?
The following information is directly from Anne Fields who has been in direct contact with people on Pine Ridge Reservation who are currently in precisely the situation presented above.
Anne Fields:
There is a new situation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota (and presumably on other reservations) that is very dire and perhaps life threatening.
I am a white grandmother who has spent a total of 18 months on the reservation, including four months teaching in the Early Head Start program. I have friends who are directly affected by the problem and who are growing more desperate each day. So far my efforts to find information or help for them have been unsuccessful.
Each month the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been providing General Assistance grants (see below) to many residents who are desperately needy. On Pine Ridge approximately 940 people receive monthly checks of up to $250. These checks are often their only source of income and their lifeline.
In December 2012 no checks came. I spent several hours on the phone with officials at the local, regional, and national levels trying to find out what had happened. Eventually I ended up at the BIA Division of Human Services in Washington where I spoke with Bevette Hern at 202-513-7608. She told me that there had been new software which had a glitch that was holding things up. She said it was now fixed and that the Treasury would get a file transfer shortly and that the Agencies should have the money by the end of that week. This did indeed happen.
But then in March 2013 again no checks ever came and there were no notifications to the recipients. The Post Offices were besieged by people looking for their money. No checks have arrived for April 2013 and folks are seriously cold and hungry. They do not know if the money will ever come again. They have had no information from the BIA.
In an effort to try to get some information regarding these crucial funds, I tried to call Bevette to see if this is a permanent situation, only to find that she is no longer working there (even though her answering machine still uses her name). I spoke with someone who would only give her name as “Roberta” and who said that she knew nothing about the details, only that the money available for “Welfare” has been cut back. She told me that I needed to talk to the BIA Great Plains Social Services in Aberdeen, SD. I called them at 605-226-7351 and spoke with “Patti.” She told me that Central Office has not received any funds so they have nothing to give out. She recommended that I talk to the folks in Washington–the same people who directed me to call her office.
I have written to South Dakota Congresswoman Noem and Senators Johnson and Thune for clarification, but as of now I have heard nothing back from any of them.
BIA Human Services handles 6 components of Financial Assistance, which consist of:
1. General Assistance
a) An applicant must meet the criteria contained in 25 CFR 20.300 (Who qualifies for Direct Assistance)
b) Apply concurrently for financial assistance from other state, tribal, county, local, or other federal agency programs for which he/she is eligible;
c) Not receive any comparable public assistance, and
d) Develop and sign an employment strategy in the ISP with the assistance of the social service
worker to meet the goal of employment through specific action steps including job readiness and job search activities.
So, what should Anne Fields and these 940 people on Pine Ridge Reservation DO to get some information from the BIA and/or the Federal Government? Any suggestions? Even if you have no notions about how to deal with this continuing situation, please take a moment to send this information via your favorite internet social network sharing options.
Okay, here are a few information items from the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance of South Dakota regarding their ongoing effort to stop uranium mining in the Black Hills by Powertech. Take note that donations of ANY amount are requested by the Clean Water Alliance in order to enable the hiring of expert witnesses concerning the dangers of uranium mining. There is a link to an expert example. Take note that Powertech (p.31) wants water for FREE. Now if anyone else is using water we pay for it. Why should a uranium mining company get water at no charge? Oh and NO accountability or responsibility for any environmental damages either. What do I know? Not much. But Lilias Jarding of CWA knows a thing or two:
Last Friday, we had the prehearing on Powertech’s application for two water permits and a ground water discharge permit (to spray waste water on the ground). The good news is that the actual hearing on the applications before the state Water Management Board will not occur the week of March 18. It will be postponed, which gives us more time to prepare.
However, hiring the experts we need for the hearings costs money — lots of money. Our experts will talk specifically about how Powertech’s proposed project would damage groundwater and the land. We have to have experts to oppose Powertech’s applications effectively. We know who we want to hire, and it will cost over $15,000. So we need both small and large donations to help us raise that money.
We also need general operating funds. Clean Water Alliance is an all-volunteer organization, so your donations go directly to work against uranium mining in the Black Hills region. Every bit helps. Please give what you can.
Please CLICK HERE TO DONATE and pass this message along to others who might be willing to help.
Your support is gratefully received.
For anyone who hasn’t seen them, here is the link to the comments by Dr. Robert Moran on the draft Supplemental Impact Statement prepared by Powertech. These are the type of comments we would like our experts to do for the water permits hearing. And this is why we are raising money –
The next Heartland Film Society screening will be “Flow” on Monday February 25, 2013. It will be at the Elks Theatre in Rapid City at 7 pm. Admission is $7.00. The screening is co-sponsored by the Black Hills Chapter of Dakota Rural Action. The film is about water and how important it is to protect it from corporations, both in the U.S. and internationally. It documents how local grassroots organizing can be effective. There will be a panel discussion afterwards with Debra White Plume, Bruce Ellison, and Becky Leas. They will be discussing the proposed uranium mining by Powertech in the Southern Black Hills.
Please come out and support this very important event. Bring a friend or three. Thank you very much. Clay and Mary Ellen Uptain and your Heartland Film Society Committee. http://heartlandfilm.wordpress.com/
*******
Greetings –
The next Clean Water Alliance meeting will be held on Saturday, March 2, at 10:00 a.m. We’ll be meeting at Seattle’s Best coffeeshop’s meeting room again, as the library is not available. The coffeeshop is located at the corner of 6th Street and St. Joseph Street — on the first floor of the Alex Johnson Hotel in downtown Rapid City.
Powertech to raise $1.5 million from secret “strategic” investors
Posted February 18, 2013
Once again, Powertech CEO Dick Clement has saved the Canadian penny stock company from bankruptcy by convincing “strategic” investors to buy up to 15 million shares for $0.10 each, according to a February 12 news release.
The unidentified strategic investors would purchase units consisting of one common share of Powertech and one share purchase warrant. One warrant entitles the investor to purchase one additional share for $0.20 for a period of three years.
The gross proceeds of the proposed private placement are only $1.5 million, but would allow Powertech to survive for another four months, assuming a cash burn rate of $400,000 per month.
Unlike financial investors who invest solely to realize a return on their investment, strategic investors are typically operating companies in the same or similar industries that seek to create synergies with their investments.
Strategic investors often expect to assume a degree of control over the investee company, and in many cases intend to acquire the company.
Since Powertech is in the midst of seeking multiple federal and state permits for the proposed Dewey-Burdock uranium mine, one would think that the disclosure of the potential future management of the company would be of interest to affected landowners, regulators, and investors.
But in typical fashion, Powertech has chosen to conceal the identities of the strategic investors.
Interestingly, Powertech has changed the description of the company that appears at the end of its news releases. After repeated challenges on this website to provide supporting evidence, Powertech has removed the following statement from its news releases:
“The Company’s key personnel have over 200 years of experience in the uranium industry throughout the United States, and have permitted more than a dozen in-situ operations for production.”
The February 12 news release includes the new language:
‘The Company’s key personnel have in-situ uranium experience throughout the United States and worldwide.”
Young Indigenous women are some of the most invisible and unrepresented people on Earth. That is one reason to read Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog, nowBrave Bird, with Richard Erdoes even though it was published in 1990. Another reason is that it won the American Book Award in 1991. Yet another reason is for the insight it provides into some of the tough issues young women on reservations continue to confront: violence, rape, alcoholism, drug abuse, racism, exploitation, poor education, grinding poverty. This is not a calm, quiet memoir of a certain time and place written by a woman looking back in nostalgia with some polite veneer of wisdom gained by mature hindsight. Lakota Woman offers the perspective of a very candid, blunt spoken, tough, and passionate young woman who makes no apologies for anything. This is a woman who now knows who she is, where she came from, and why. Part of her story includes giving birth to her first child during the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973 after refusing to leave in spite of the increasing danger. While Lakota Woman does not offer any in-depth analysis of the American Indian Movement, the Trail of Broken Treaties or the Native American Church, it does offer a no punches pulled, first person female perspective based on direct experiences with all of them– a young Lakota female perspective seldom encountered in the mainstream American culture.
I am a iyeska, a breed, that’s what the white kids used to call me. When I grew bigger they stopped calling me that, because it would get them a bloody nose. I am a small woman, not much over five feet tall, but I can hold my own in a fight, and in a free-for-all with honkies I can become rather ornery and do real damage. I have white blood in me. Often I have wished to be able to purge it out of me. As a young girl I used to look at myself in the mirror, trying to find a clue as to who and what I was. My face is very Indian, and so are my eyes and my hair, but my skin is very light. Always I waited for the summer, for the prairie sun, the Badlands sun, to tan me and make me into a real skin. (p.9)
Such are the words of Mary Brave Bird of the Brule Tribe from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Consider the memoirs current teenaged women of Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Standing Rock and the Cheyenne River Reservations might share–if anyone dared put them into print. Lakota Woman might offend some, might make some very uncomfortable, and distress others. It certainly won’t bore anyone. It definitely offers a great deal to think about regarding women, culture, family, history, spirituality, politics, and values.
Maze of Injustice, the failure to protect Indigenous Women from sexual violence in the USA, PDF file of Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/MazeOfInjustice.pdf Perhaps this report offers one explanation for the legistative difficulties faced by the VAWA. Why would non-Native men want to start allowing arrest and prosecution of the non-Native men who rape Indigenous women on reservations? No rocket science required.
Most of us enjoy some positive news to break up the monotony of all the negative malarky–don’t we? The following update from the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary offers a glimpse of what humans can do to help our animal relatives. In this case it’s Mustangs. It’s a labor of love to give wild animals the opportunity to live and thrive in a world which currently seems to be all about destroying nature in so many ways.
February, 2013
SANCTUARY OFFERS
SAFE HAVEN FOR STARVING MUSTANGS
Saturday was a busy day at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. For the past three weeks the Sanctuary has been host for several horses that were recently rescued by local authorities. We allowed these horses time to rest and regain their strength before it was time for them to move onto new lives.
As part of our mission to provide freedom for unadoptable wild horses, we are devoted to giving unwanted horses a “quality of life”. We are proud to have served as temporary hosts for these horses.
Truck and Trailers
Trucks and trailers lined up near the corrals in preparation to receive their precious cargo and take them to their new homes.
Time to load
After being sorted it was time to load the horses onto the trailers. The horses seemed to know better things awaited them down the road. Everyone loaded calmly and quietly in preparation for the ride to a better life.
Is hay served on this ride?
Noses and faces peek out of the trailer as everyone is secured for the ride.
Down the road..
To new lives! The owners anxiously wait as the trucks leave the Sanctuary.
Still Waiting
We have six horses still waiting for their turn to begin new lives. This coming Saturday will be the day for them. Some of their “horsey friends” have left them and they seem unsure of what to do or where to be. We continue to provide clean water and hay as they grow stronger daily. Soon they will be in the hands of caring new owners.
Terri
Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary
605-745-5955
Won’t you help us continue to help Mustangs in Peril?
This post concerns ”Much Ado about in-situ leach uranium mining, Powertech, clean water, mine bonds, the environment and Bills.” No, not tax bills, not Mr. Bill, but bills of legislative import in South Dakota–the land of Powertech Potential Profits without accountability. Well, Lilias Jarding, who plays very nicely with the Clean Water Alliance of South Dakota, has a few activist proposals for the citizens of South Dakota concerned about the potentially nasty toxifying effects of in situ uranium mining touted by Powertech and their other foreign–and American grown–cohorts. Without further ado, please take a gander at Lilias’ list of not to be missed Bills.
From the cyber-desk of Lilias Jarding, Clean Water Alliance of South Dakota,
Senate Bills 148. 149, 150–and 141.
Greetings –
There are now three bills in the S.D. Legislature that we need to work to support! This is great news, but now the work begins. This message contains information on how to contact your legislators to say you support the bill and information on each bill. Please read to the bottom and take action today.
The first bill, Senate Bill 148, would return state regulatory authority over in situ leach uranium mining. This is the authority that was taken away in 2011 by the bill that Powertech Uranium authored. We are FOR this bill. We want the state to regulate this type of dangerous mining, not just some distant federal officials. And we want regular monitoring of the construction, operation, and water quality at ISL mines. Without state monitoring, this regular oversight will not occur.
The second, Senate Bill 149, would change the current law. The current law gives uranium companies 30 days to report environmental violations without any penalty. Instead, under this bill, the companies would have to report environmental violations within 24 hours. We are FOR this bill. We want companies who do this dangerous type of mining to be responsible for their spills and leaks. We want problems to be reported quickly, so that corrective measures can be applied quickly.
The third bill, Senate Bill 150, is the longest. It provides additional protections that: (1) require uranium companies to return water to baseline conditions after they mine, (2) let the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources determine if it is feasible to mine safely in a particular place, (3) allow a mining permit to be denied if the company cannot demonstrate that restoration of water will work, and (4) require full restoration of water quality after mining. We are FOR this bill. We want full protection from the problems that in situ leach uranium mining has caused in other places. The mining companies say they can mine safely and without contaminating groundwater. This bill simply holds them to their word.
These are important bills, and we are lucky to have strong supporters like Senator Bradford and Representatives Heinert and Killer, who introduced these bills and will work to support them. So please take a moment to thank them. And plan to support these bills by going to Pierre, when they are up for hearings. This could happen with only a couple days’ notice, so have your gas money set aside! We’ll help arrange carpools, when the time comes.
Right now, please contact your area’s legislators and urge them to support each of these bills. You can find out who your legislators are at http://legis.state.sd.us/who/index.aspx
You can e-mail legislators at http://legis.state.sd.us/email/LegislatorEmail.aspx You only have to write a message once and change the legislator’s name at the top and in your “Dear ___” line. If you have more than a few minutes, please contact every legislator and ask for their support.
We will be targeting the members of specific committees, as soon as the bills are assigned to committees. So watch for that.
Thanks for all you do. As usual, let me know if you have questions
Senate Bill 141
Here is another bill we need to support. It’s Senate Bill 141. It would increase the bond requirements for mining companies and would apply to Powertech Uranium’s proposed mine. The text of the bill is here: http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2013/Bill.aspx?File=SB141P.htm. Before they start mining, companies have to post a bond to insure that the mine is cleaned up, especially if the company goes bankrupt or leaves the state. These bonds are usually way too low. This bill would require a higher bond.
Please contact the bill’s sponsors — Senators Adelstein, Rampelberg, Kirkeby, Lucas, and Tidemann and Representatives Sly, Kopp, Hunhoff (Bernie), and Shrempp — and thank them for sponsoring the bill.
Please contact your district’s legislators — and as many others as you have time to contact — and tell them you support this bill. We support this bill because we want to be sure that the state’s natural resources are protected and that South Dakota taxpayers are not left paying to clean up messes left by mining companies, as has happened so often in the past.
Oh and everyone please take notes for when Powertech Uranium Corporation–or some version thereof–comes to visit your state sniffing for uranium and such.
I don’t blame anyone for wondering just what stew is simmering in my brainpan after the my post regarding the big fan of uranium mining aka Richard F. Clement of Powertech fame. Dropping dots is perfectly understandable when juggling like crazy.
Some Dots:
dot–uranium is a radioactive and toxic metal used for nuclear energy and weapons.
dot–Powertech Uranium Corporation wants to extract uranium from the Dewey-Burdock area in South Dakota.
dot–Richard F. Clement is CEO of Powertech Uranium Corporation.
dot–Mr. Clement has previous experience working for other uranium mining operations in places like New Mexico.
dot–Many Navajo, and non-Navajo, uranium mine workers have died and/or experienced serious health complications.
dot–Marie Curie died from cancer as the result of exposure to radioactive materials during her scientific research.
dot–The Dewey-Burdock uranium extraction project is located about 20 miles from the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary.
dot–Powertech intends to use In-Situ mining in the Dewey-Burdock Project.
dot–In-Situ involves forcing water into sandstone to dissolve uranium in order to bring it to the surface for extraction and then sending the fluids back into the “wellfield”.
dot–Massive amounts of table water are required for In-Situ mining. The Clean Water Alliance has done the math for how much water Powertech’s uranium mining would consume : http://www.sdcleanwateralliance.org/
dot–The uranium mined will be exported out of the USA for the energy interests of OTHER countries.
dot–Powertech is a Canadian Company.
Who will benefit from uranium mining in the Dewey-Burdock area? Not Americans. The “product” and the profits will leave America. This project will not reduce unemployment in the area. This project will consume valuable water resources. This project has the potential to contaminate several major sources of water with a single spill/leak/accident.
Sorry for such a narrow focus, but my curiosity about Powertech knows no boundaries. I can’t quite figure out why anyone would want to deal with uranium extraction in any manner. Oh yes the nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons industry and some other poor sods who think nuclear energy is so sweet even though there’s NO way to clean up its toxic waste. Well, I so need to get past this uranium compulsion so I’m just going to drop the “dots” here and let the lines be what they are–visible or invisible to any inquiring minds. When I find some wonderful visual that connects it all, like the water cycle illustration, I will gleefully share it. Haven’t found one for uranium mining/extraction–yet. There’s got to be one out there somewhere. Do share if you have a link to one. For now your ears may have to take the lead. So many “dots” and only so much brainspace for juggling them all. Whose got a pencil/pen for lines between dots? Reading and listening necessary for inking–unless you’re following in Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize winning footsteps.
Trivia tidbit, Marie Curie’s cookbook and scientific papers are radioactive-per Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie . Working on the cutting edge of science at her time, Curie had no foreknowledge of the health dangers connected with radioactive materials.
Yes, Mr. Richard F. Clement is a very busy fellow. But don’t worry about him being overworked and underpaid at $249,500 (stock options included) per year as of 2011. Clement is a long time fan of uranium mining according to his profile on the Bloomberg Businessweek page. He likes mining uranium in the United States for Powertech, a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. (wave!). Mr. Clements has been playing with uranium in the USA (and Australia) since about 1967 as far as I can currently tell from his profile. Yep, he served Mobil Oil for starters as operations manager for uranium exploration in the USA. I wonder if he explored the uranium mines that some Navajo are rather concerned about in regard to health issues? Who knows? I’m sure Richard F. Clement Jr. knows for sure. But I don’t think he’s going to tell me. Maybe Uranium Resources in New Mexico can clarify this point? Probably could–but not likely to do so.
On Powertech’s website potential health issues regarding radioactive isotopes are downplayed to make uranium mining seem safe:
Uranium and its decay products primarily emit alpha particles that have little ability to penetrate through membranes, such as skin or even paper. Lower levels of both beta and gamma radiation also are emitted.
Long-term studies of regions with uranium recovery show no increased risk of cancer mortality from living nearby such facilities.
If uranium extraction/recovery is harmless as Powertech wants folks to think, then I am a Great White Shark.
OOPS! Am not! Bummers.
More from Clement’s profile on Bloomberg Businessweek:
“He [Clement] served as a Senior Vice President of Exploration of Uranium Resources from 1983 to 1996 and subsequently as President of Uranium Resource’s New Mexico subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc., until 1999 where he oversaw the securing of all necessary mining permits for ISL development of Hydro Resource’s uranium deposits.”
Obviously Mr. Clement has moved on in search of fresher uranium pastures in South Dakota and Wyoming per the Dewey-Burdock Project, Powder River Basin, Centennial and other proposed mining projects.
Lena Morgan describes “divide and conquer” uranium mine developer’s style –along with some other interesting tidbits to the tune of tailings waste. The other fellows’ comments ought to give anyone pause.
Video from Democracy Now!
More information fun about uranium mining from If You Love This Planet with Dr. Helen Caldicott –Medical Effects of Uranium Mining on Population & Native Peoples. This program is well worth your listening time because of all the information it presents.
Yes, I’m being very literal with this diagram and the Wikipedia article. But we literally “are” the land and the land is “us.”
Just in case anyone is uncertain about the uranium mining issue in the Black Hills here’s Christopher Crosby’s film, ”We Are The Land, Uranium Mining in the Black Hills.” Sit back, relax, enjoy the music, horses and scenery while Susan Watt, Barbara High Pine Peltier, Tom Ballanco, Virgil Red Cloud Goode, Dayton O. Hyde, Windwalker and others fill in the blanks. Enjoy!
The letter following my comments is from the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary pages on Facebook. Please help spread the news. I think they could use some major support. They’re fighting uranium mining. This post is my tiny effort to raise awareness. Thanks to Earth Tribe for its support.
Powertech Exposed –and the difficulty of commenting via a malfunctioning website: http://www.powertechexposed.com/ The uranium mining industry is not playing “fair”–because they know their mining is not wanted in the Black Hills -or anywhere else where the population is informed about the dangers of uranium mining and the environmental dangers it produces. Clearly some people learned nothing from the Fukushima disaster.
Please consider the dangers and consequences of the Dewey-Burdock project – From the desk of IRAM Program Director, Susan Watt
From the desk of IRAM Program Director, Susan Watt
January 1, 2013
Please, I would ask all of you to read and understand what is going on in the arena of the Uranium Mining.
This proposed project affects all of us. Please support our efforts by joining us and the community on Thursday Night, January 10, 2013 at the American Legion in Hot Springs, So Dakota for a Community Meeting at 6:30 pm.
- SW
# # #
REPOST – December 30, 2012
Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch
Division of Administrative Services
Office of Administration, Mailstop TWB-05-B01M
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
Docket NRC-2012-0277, the proposed Dewey-Burdock project, comments on the SEIS
Dear Ms. Bladey,
Twenty five years ago I founded the Institute of Range and American Mustang (IRAM) a 501 c 3 non-profit corporation. IRAM’s Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary is home to more than 600 wild horses on 13,000 acres of private range in South Dakota.
On this location one can find; 60 million year old remains from the Pleistocene era of plants and animals, Ancient Petroglyphs that date back hundreds of years, Native American Ceremonial Sites, Historic Pioneer homesteads, and hundreds of native species of plants and animals. IRAM is supported by the thousands of visitors that come to South Dakota each year to see the natural history of the local area. Besides a Wild Horse Sanctuary the historic significance of this region brings people and scientists from all over the world.
For hundreds of years, the Cheyenne River that runs through the Sanctuary was the first source of water for the wildlife that lived on the grassy prairies. Ancient man and the dinosaurs of the past traveled this waterway. Native Americans hunted the buffalo and then held their sacred ceremonies on this land.
Along with IRAM’s Board of Directors, I am greatly concerned over the proposed Powertech Dewey-Burdock project that is located within twenty miles of the Sanctuary. We feel that the SEIS was issued before all the relevant information was available.
The Cultural and Historic impact that will result from this proposed project have not been considered properly. The relevant information is still not available. The SEIS should not have been issued until a thorough study of the cultural and historical sites on the proposed project area was completed.
The SEIS “dilutes” impacts by saying that the impacts are “small” because only part of the project area is involved. The impacts are large to the affected areas, and that is what should be considered. The Cheyenne River and its water shed are within a few miles from the proposed mining area. Our house wells and livestock wells all share the same aquifer that is to be used to inject the waste water from the project.
The SEIS only includes the impacts of a 100-year flood, and some facilities are allowed within the 100-year flood boundaries. A 500-year flood should be considered. No facilities should be allowed within the 100-year flood boundaries. Vigorous, overland and stream flooding is common in the Black Hills.
The SEIS says that impacts are “small” in a number of instances because Powertech Uranium has said it will do certain things if problems develop. The SEIS should not consider only the “best case” impacts, but should consider impacts if the problems found at other ISL projects develop. The public and the environment should be protected from worst case impacts.
Besides over 600 wild horses, IRAM also has a herd of Red Angus Cattle and over 100 domestic horses, chickens, turkeys, and peacocks. We are greatly concerned over the potential exposure to radiation for all of these animals.
The SEIS lists a number of things that Powertech should do before it starts its operation, such as air dispersion modeling, livestock radiation sampling, pump testing, creating well field operational plans, and setting up emergency procedures for truck accidents. These activities should be completed before a SEIS is issued, so that the public can have full information on which to base its comments, and so that the NRC can have full information on which to base its ratings of various impacts.
Due to the high desert environment, this area is very susceptible to lightning strikes and wild fires. This summer alone there were months of fires in the local area of the proposed mining.
The environmental impacts of wildfires, which are common in the immediate area of the proposed project, should be considered, including potential impacts if a fire strikes mining, pipelines, overhead power lines, and processing buildings.
The SEIS does not acknowledge environmental justice, cultural, and historical concerns that include Lakota treaty rights to the proposed project area and the fact that a number of Native American tribes consider the Black Hills to be sacred.
Bald eagles, sage-grouse, whooping cranes, and black-footed ferrets are all threatened or endangered wildlife species that could be negatively impacted by the proposed project. Wildlife is simply expected to disperse and go elsewhere. This creates undue hardship on sensitive species.
All ponds, including radium settling ponds, and areas where wastewater is applied to the land are threats to wildlife, particularly birds.
Public hearings should be held after full information is available on the proposed project. Hearings held elsewhere during the writing of the NRC’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement are not adequate to this specific project.
Because the state no longer has regulatory authority over ISL mining, the federal government’s plans for monitoring the project should be clearly explained in detail, so that the public can determine whether monitoring will be adequate.
All data provided by Powertech Uranium should be independently verified. It is not in the public interest to have the proposed project’s benefits and problems judged based almost entirely on data provided by the company seeking a permit.
The applicant has never mined uranium. They do not have anything close to the resources necessary to create a mine. The inexperience of the company and its lack of funding are important variables in the company’s ability to manage the environmental aspects of the proposed project and should be discussed in the SEIS.
The SEIS indicates that 30% of the water treated through the reverse osmosis process will become waste. The impacts of the removal of this water from local aquifers should be discussed much more clearly.
All of the above facts about the Dewey Burdock project and the SEIS clearly affect the Institute of Range and American Mustang Programs and Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. The Uranium Mining would endanger the wildlife, the mustangs, the water supplies, the land and all the people that are on the land.
This matter of allowing Uranium Mining and using the water from an already delicate ecosystem must be considered and analyzed from all dangers and risks. Science tells us what a situation is but it is up to the humans involved to make the decisions. Once this area is exposed the Uranium Mining there is no turning back the clock to undo the mistakes.
Our policy at IRAM is that man is the caregiver of the Earth and all of its beings and no one has the right to contaminate or pollute the environment. There are no second chances at life if the water, land, wildlife, people and history of an area are destroyed by Corporate Greed.
There is something very great at stake here in the Black Hills of South Dakota and we ask you please to consider the dangers and consequences of the Dewey-Burdock project of what it can and might to do to the very water we drink and the land we live on.
Sometimes in life the risk is just not worth taking. Please help us keep our land and water safe.
Violating copyright births bad karma---imagine a mad hacker you'll never see coming--nor catch going. Respect = my work is my work and your work is your work.
Everything posted here is my work, copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. Comments aside. Om
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