EPA orders mine cleanup to continue

The federal government has ordered Newmont USA Limited and its subsidiary, Dawn Mining Co., to continue treating contaminated water at a Superfund site on the Spokane Indian Reservation at a dramatically increased cost to the international mining company.

Under the Environmental Protection Agency order, the two companies must continue operating a system that removes uranium and other metals from water at the inactive Midnite Mine before the contaminants enter Blue Creek on the reservation 50 miles west of Spokane. Blue Creek flows into Lake Roosevelt at the mouth of the Spokane River.

Dawn Mining operated the open-pit uranium mine from 1955 until 1981.

Since 1992, Dawn Mining and its parent company have disposed of sludge from the treated water at a mill in Ford, Wash., that once processed the uranium ore. EPA project manager Ellie Hale estimated the companies’ cost of disposing of the sludge at Ford at less than $100 a ton. The state will close the mill site at the end of the year, and the EPA ordered that the companies must continue disposing of the sludge at an alternative low-level radioactive waste site.

An EPA feasibility study estimated cost of dumping the sludge at the nearest licensed low-level waste site operated by U.S. Ecology in the Tri-Cities at $4,000 a ton, Hale said.

“EPA’s action will ensure that Blue Creek isn’t impacted while design of the overall cleanup goes forward,” said Dan Opalski, director of EPA’s Region 10 Office of Environmental Cleanup in Seattle.

In July, a U.S. District judge in Spokane ruled that Newmont and Dawn Mining are liable for a share of Midnite Mine cleanup costs, as well as EPA’s investigative costs.