South Texas Opposes Pollution has been educating citizens and actively contesting uranium mining and milling by Uranium Resources Inc. in Ricardo, near Kingsville, Texas for over twenty years. Contact: Ann Ewing, 361-687-4805, stop@southtexasopposespollution.com or Mark Walsh, 361-595-1265

Kleberg County STOP Update
May 2009

Kleberg residents and county officials continue their unending debate and struggle with
environmental issues related to uranium mining being conducted by Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI) southeast of Kingsville, Texas. According to Dr. Mark Walsh, Treasurer of South Texas Opposes Pollution (STOP), the debate about the safety of uranium mining has been very active since May of 2008 when Richard Abitz, PhD, Geochemical Consultant, conducted a workshop in Kingsville for concerned local residents. It attracted about 75 people. An article about the workshop written by Walsh appeared in the Rio Grande Guardian and published in the Kingsville Record on May 28, 2008.

Ever since May of 2008 there have been news reports from KIII TV Channel 3 in Corpus Christi and frequent articles in the Kingsville Record from both the opposers and supporters of uranium mining. Most recently there was an exchange in the Kingsville Record between Ms. Shannon Lucas, Executive Director of Texas Mining and Reclamation Association (TMRA) and Richard Abitz, a geochemical consultant. In her article, Ms. Lucas repeats the often heard statements that there is “naturally occurring uranium in South Texas groundwater” and “recent claims that groundwater in Texas has been contaminated by uranium mining activities are not accurate.” (Kingsville Record, April 19, 2009). On May 3, 2009, Dr. Abitz responded in the Kingsville Record with an article entitled TMRA Propaganda is Shameful. He stated, “…uranium concentrations in groundwater are generally below the EPA drinking water standard. This is due to the insoluble nature of uranium ore minerals in the low-oxygen environment that favors the formation of the ore deposit. If oxygen is returned to the groundwater contacting the ore deposit, uranium ore minerals begin to dissolve and the uranium concentration in the groundwater will increase.”

In January of this year Mr. Mark Pelizza, URI vice president, announced in the Kingsville Record it was scaling back its operations at Kingsville Dome mine due to depressed price of uranium yellow cake. He said they laid off two thirds of their workforce. In 2007 yellow cake was selling for $135 per pound but dropped to $75 later the same year. Then in 2008 it declined to $45 and remains at the same price for 2009. Pelizza further stated they were terminating the mining operations but promised to continue restoration of the groundwater. STOP and the Kleberg County officials are very skeptical about the restoration promises made by URI for the past 25 years because URI has failed to deliver on any of its many past promises. To this date, URI has not met its obligation in their TCEQ mining permit to restore the water, stabilize the aquifer, and reclaim the surface in any of their three production areas.

Finally, Kleberg County Commissioners have had a long-term struggle with URI as regards a Settlement Agreement contract signed in December of 2004. Since URI was not living up to its permit regulations and since TCEQ would not enforce said regulations, Kleberg County decided to enter into a contractual agreement with URI. Of the various conditions of the contract, the most important one was that as mining proceeded from one production area to the next, URI was supposed to mine the first production area then move to the second to begin mining and at the same time completely restore the first area. This was not done. Consequently, in a meeting on January 29, 2007,Kleberg County Commissioners declared that URI could not proceed to mine the third production area because URI had failed to restore Area One. Later that same day, URI sent a letter to the County Commissioners stating that they disagreed with the Court’s decision and that they were going to start mining regardless. They stated they would go to District Court for a judicial interpretation of the Settlement Agreement. After more than two years, the issue remains unresolved with no decision rendered. The reasons given by both the County Commissioners and URI for the ongoing delay is that the lawyers and the District Court are dragging their feet. This impasse seems to be an example of the saying that “the gears of justice grind slowly”.