Markey: Reforms Needed to Protect Taxpayers from Paying for Uranium Mine Cleanups

Markey: Reforms Needed to Protect Taxpayers from Paying for Uranium Mine Cleanups

New GAO Report Finds Weaknesses in Federal Oversight of Uranium Mining

WASHINGTON (May 24, 2012) – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released a report that found weaknesses in how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other responsible agencies oversee uranium mining on federal land. The report found that taxpayers are at risk of picking up the tab for mine cleanups that can stretch into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the congressional sponsor of the report, sent a letter to BLM in conjunction with the report’s release calling for quick adoption of GAO’s recommendations to improve oversight and protect taxpayers from having to pay to clean up uranium mines.

Operators of uranium mines are supposed to set aside funds, or “financial assurances,” to pay for eventual cleanup costs. However, GAO found that BLM and other agencies lack the information needed to be confident that enough money is being set aside.

The urgency of these concerns is high due to the increasing number of uranium mines that use a process called in-situ recovery to extract uranium ore. That process involves injecting oxygenated water and carbon dioxide or sodium bicarbonate hundreds of feet underground, which can contaminate groundwater with toxic chemicals and make cleanup of the site more expensive.

“With an increasing number of uranium mines using similar techniques to fracking, the possibility of damaging groundwater supplies has only increased, and so has the risk of cleanup costs to the taxpayers,” said Rep. Markey, the senior Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. “There are now three operations on BLM land that use this technique, and the two largest—Smith Ranch and Highland in Wyoming—have financial assurances totaling $213 million, or 86 percent of all financial assurances for uranium operations on BLM land combined. The increased risks to groundwater, and the increased risk to the taxpayer both require better oversight by the government.”

Seven more operations also set to use in-situ recovery are now approved by BLM or are awaiting approval. Their current financial assurances range from $180,000 to $6.8 million, but these amounts could be too small if the Smith Ranch and Highland operations provide any guidance. Required financial assurances have jumped significantly at both operations, from a combined $160 million in June 2011 to about $213 million in December 2011, even though the operations have not significantly expanded.

The full text of Markey’s letter is available here.

The GAO report is available here.

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