Ford People Crafted A Safe, Fair Nuclear Waste Disposal Plan
The proposed plan to close Dawn Mining Company’s mill at Ford, Wash., has been subjected to sensationalism and exaggeration. Those of us who are neighbors of the Dawn uranium mill and know the most about the issues have not been heard.
Many of us in Ford have spent more than a decade learning about this uranium mill site. We opposed the original closure plans put forward by the company. Our success in blocking the first closure plan was accomplished without help from Dawn Watch or any other environmental group.
Rather than just opposing the project, Ford residents decided to be constructive and worked to develop a plan that is safe, will not burden state taxpayers and will achieve an environmentally responsible closure in a timely manner.
The mill produced uranium ore from the Midnite Mine for nearly two decades. In the early l980s, as a result of falling uranium prices, mill operations ceased. Although the company had followed the legal requirements for establishing and funding the closure, by the time the mill shut down the fund was inadequate to pay all closure costs.
In a situation such as this, it’s common for a company to declare bankruptcy, leaving state taxpayers to foot the bill. That’s what happened at Joy Mining near Colville. It isn’t happening in Ford, largely because the company felt obligated to the community.
The principle challenge in closing the mill is filling a lined area known as Tailings Disposal Area 4, or TDA-4. This is a large pit constructed to hold tailings - the byproduct of the milling process in which uranium is extracted from the ore, leaving only traces of the ore’s original radioactivity.
Since the mill stopped operating before TDA-4 was full, the site now sits nearly empty and needs to be filled before the site can be closed. The state license granted two years ago allows Dawn to bring 11(e)2 material in to fill TDA-4. What is 11e(2) material? It is virtually the same as what is already in TDA-4 - uranium mill tailings.
The federal government and some private companies have 11e(2) material that must be moved from other parts of the country to a proper permanent facility. Only two facilities in the country are licensed to take this material: a for-profit business in Utah, whose owner is currently under FBI investigation for paying $600,000 in cash, gold coins and a condo to a Utah state regulator; and Dawn. Any money paid to send material to Dawn will go to a trust fund that can be used only for this cleanup, a provision the community insisted on so that neither Dawn nor its stockholders could profit from the cleanup.
Ford residents support this plan because 11e(2) material is no more harmful to people or the environment than what we already live with every day. Under this plan, those of us who live next to the site will experience less additional exposure to radiation than people who live, work or attend school in a brick building, fly in airplanes, or get chest x-rays. We will receive 4,000 times less radiation than someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes each day. The health risk is not significant - a fact verified by the state Department of Health.
The benefit for Ford is great. The site will close in a timely manner. In addition, we have successfully negotiated an agreement that gives a committee of local citizens veto power over any material considered for disposal in TDA-4. The committee can hire, at Dawn’s expense, independent experts to check out any prospective material.
As far as we can tell, ours is the only community in the country that has successfully negotiated such an oversight arrangement. We have the last word on whatever is brought to the site.
As for transporting material to the site, it can be done safely. The community insisted on having all the material placed in sealed containers that will never be opened, even when placed in TDA-4.
We expect Dawn to pay road costs according to accepted formulas based on the volume of additional traffic the project creates.
Ford citizens learned long ago not to depend on environmentalists who don’t stick to the facts. We also haven’t relied on the word of a mining company. We want the Dawn site closed and are out of patience with those, including Dawn Watch, who are working to impede an environmentally responsible cleanup solution.
Ten year’s ago, we went to work to develop a fair solution to a complex problem with the help of anyone who wanted to join the effort. A decade of hearings, negotiations, public meetings, environmental impact statements, lawsuits and hundreds of hours of our free time is long enough.
It is time to move forward and get this cleanup done.
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