Uranium mining rears its head again in South Dakota's Black Hills, posing threat to our already

Uranium mining rears its head again in South Dakota's Black Hills, posing threat to our already taxed water supply


The scrappy railroad town of Edgemont, in South Dakota's southwest corner just outside the Black Hills, has been known for its nearby uranium deposits for decades.

In the 1950s and '60s, uranium from the Edgemont area helped to power nuclear reactors for the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1979-80, as uranium prices soared around the world, there was a renewed interest in exploration and mining for uranium in the southern Hills. However, after the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, a strong anti-nuclear movement developed in South Dakota through the Black Hills Alliance, which brought together Native and non-Native activists (as pictured above in an image from Environmental Justice Atlas) to oppose what was seen as an existential threat to the environment of the sacred Black Hills.

As uranium prices dropped and construction of new nuclear power plants did not proceed, the threat abated, and Edgemont focused on other projects, including a proposed nuclear waste dump and a huge multi-state garbage dump, neither of which materialized.

In recent years, there has been an ongoing smoldering controversy over a proposed uranium mine in the Dewey-Burdock area northwest of Edgemont. Unlike the uranium mines of the past, which left behind unsightly, contaminated open pits, the plan by Powertech (a Canadian-owned corporation) envisions an in situ leaching operation, in which chemicals are injected into the water table to bring uranium to the surface. Powertech plans to use up to 9,000 gallons of water per minute, tapping aquifers that are already strained by drought. By contrast, Rapid City's 80,000 residents only use about 6,500 gallons of water per minute. Powertech is also seeking permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to dispose of hazardous waste created by the in situ process, by pumping it into the Madison or Deadwood formations.

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