Members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and allies marched north on Highway 191 Saturday morning to the tune of guitar strums, drumbeats and the occasional supportive honk from a passing car.Clad in mint-green T-shirts, members of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe and allies marched along Highway 191 south of Blanding Saturday morning to protest the White Mesa Mill, the country’s last conventional uranium-processing facility.
The decision to open the two mines is concerning to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, according to the tribe’s Environmental Programs Director Scott Clow. Ore produced at both mines will be processed at White Mesa, which Clow worries will worsen radiation that he said is already infiltrating air, infecting local game and seeping into groundwater.
Some White Mesa residents have long been concerned that the mill, which lies four miles north of the community, is contaminating nearby groundwater, air and wildlife with radon that allegedly blows and seeps off the mill’s tailings impoundments. Moore also pointed to the mill’s recent outreach efforts. A new foundation has distributed about $150,000 to community groups in the last year, and the mill had an open house scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday to share its work with the community.
Clow also pointed to “whopping” levels of uranium he’s measured at local springs. The CDC report didn’t monitor radiation in seeps, springs, soil or vegetation. Moore said markets are still responding to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and more recent disruptions in other uranium hotbeds. The monument made permanent a 2012 halt on new mining claims but grandfathers in approved mining operations, including Pinyon Plain.
Nearer to Moab, the seven mines that comprise the La Sal Complex last produced uranium and vanadium ore in 2012, when they were placed on standby likely due to low uranium prices, per Energy Fuels’ 2021 federal filings.