Threat To Tribe Seen In Imported Waste Further Contamination Of Streams Possible

Dawn Mining Co.’s plan to import tons of uranium wastes to fill an old milling pit near Ford, Wash., is an example of environmental racism, says a group of Spokane opponents.

The mildly radioactive wastes might further contaminate streams on the nearby Spokane Indian Reservation, they said at a press conference Wednesday.

A dozen local Democrats, environmental activists and elected officials, including Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley and Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, called on business and religious leaders to support the Spokane Tribe in its fight against Dawn’s import deal.

They hope to derail Dawn’s state import permit by 1999, when it’s up for renewal.

“This is a public health and safety issue. It’s also a moral issue,” Rodgers said.

Dawn also mined uranium on the Spokane Reservation under a Cold War contract with the tribe. The operation left a huge open pit full of radioactive water that’s seeping down the mountain into tribal streams that eventually flow to the Columbia River.

The Spokane Tribe welcomes Spokane’s help, said tribal attorney Shannon Work.

Dawn’s project “presents unacceptable risks to the tribe and its resources,” Work said.

There’s no environmental racism involved in Dawn’s plan, a company spokesman said.

“It’s an interesting charge, but totally ridiculous,” said Jim Kneeland of Pacific Public Affairs in Seattle.

“The Dawn plan is to try to get the mill and the mine site closed properly, as soon as possible. It’s exactly the opposite of environmental racism. It’s trying to be environmentally responsible and get a closure in place,” said Kneeland, who served as press secretary for former Gov. Booth Gardner.

Dawn hopes to get government contracts to import about 30 million cubic feet of uranium rubble from the East Coast to fill and close its old uranium mill at Ford.

Dawn says it needs $20 million from the import deal to finish closing the mill - and start the mine cleanup on the reservation.

But critics say Dawn shouldn’t get public money when its parent company, Newmont Mining Co. of Denver, is one of the nation’s leading gold producers.

Spokane County commissioners and the Spokane City Council approved resolutions this year opposing Dawn’s plan, which would bring the wastes through Spokane en route to Ford. They’d be unloaded from trains in Spokane and trucked the rest of the way.

The company already has an import license granted by the Lowry administration, and Gov. Gary Locke recently said he couldn’t legally rescind it.

The company has until at least February 1999, when its license is up for renewal, to sign import contracts for private or government wastes. The federal government has set a 2019 closure deadline for the mill site.

The tribe is opposing the plan because it would bring more radioactive wastes to the border of the reservation, and also would endanger people dodging waste trucks on State Route 231 between Reardan and Ford.

“The loss of life or injury to anyone traveling SR 231 is too great a price to pay,” said Work.

According to Dawn’s estimates, up to 38 trucks a day, each weighing 68,500 pounds, would travel that highway 260 days a year for five to seven years.

, DataTimes