Black Hills, get ready to get nuked. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday issued a license to Powertech to operate a uranium recovery facility in Fall River and Custer counties in western South Dakota.
Powertech, or Azarga, or whoever this Canadian-Chinese company is now, crows:
Richard Clement, Powertech's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "The issuance of the NRC's final license is the culmination of eight years of planning and evaluation and confirms again that our plan for in situ recovery mining at Dewey-Burdock is safe and will have minimal environmental impact. The robust nature of NRC's licensing process also greatly facilitates finalization of Powertech's other Dewey-Burdock permits."
"I am very pleased with NRC's decision to issue the final license for the Dewey-Burdock Project," said John Mays, Powertech's Chief Operating Officer. "The NRC and numerous other agencies that participated in the review and analysis necessary to complete licensing components are to be commended for their professionalism. Similarly, we congratulate the Dewey-Burdock team for its success in achieving the Company's foremost permitting objective, the NRC Source and Byproduct Materials License."
Mark Hollenbeck, Powertech's Dewey-Burdock Project Manager, concurred and added, "This license is a significant milestone for the project -- one made possible by not only Powertech's staff, contractors and consultants, but also local residents who have provided their vital support and perseverance throughout the NRC's licensing action. The community anxiously awaits the employment opportunities the project will bring. We thank everyone for their contributions and look forward to completing the remaining permits so construction can begin" [Powertech press release, 2014.04.08].
Powertech still needs approval from the EPA, as well as mining and water permits from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The NRC ruling is a battle lost, but folks who respect the Black Hills still have a chance to stop this predation upon our land and water.
Update 12:55 MDT: Rapid City water drinker and tourism promoter John Tsitrian snorts at Powertech/Azarga's financials and questions their assurances to investors that the permitting process will be done by the end of May.
The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Dakota Rural Action, and allies from the South Dakota reservations have been very active in the attempt to stop this in situ leach mining and to protect our water. The promise of a few jobs is to high a price to pay if our water is contaminated because of it. It will only be stopped through citizen involvement, the proposed mining seems to be of no concern to either our legislature or our governor.
Nope, our evil governor and his henchmen have no regard whatsoever for the health and well being of South Dakotans. They prove this each day that goes by with not allowing Medicaid Expansion. The documentation shows that South Dakota will loose almost 40 of our working poor due to death from not passing the expansion. If that is not pure evil, what is? Here is a case from Florida and it will happen here. http://orlandoweekly.com/news/the-perils-of-florida-s-refusal-to-expand-medicaid-1.1665144
Gee, I wonder how much dollars Powertech had to pay for that approval?
We watch XL attempt to cross our land by eminent domain and few cry out for the landowners directly affected. Now Powertech attempts to pull a similar stunt affecting the lives and future of thousands in SD. Why should we expect anything different for the Black Hills.
.
Iron Mike wouldn't allow us 2cents a barrel with a 30Mil cap for a pipeline break across SD and started nuking the Southern Hills years ago with his attack on the Black Hills Playhouse. There appears to be no concern for our state short of that which can be sold out.
.
BTW, speaking of selling out, did we ever figure out how to get Janklow's estate to cover the ongoing employee overheads for the cement plant?
Powertechs license to rape the Black Hills water resources was never in question, the legislature voluntarily gave up their right to control it years ago.
Shucks. I don't drink water anyway.
I always wondered how big the chunk was that Janklow got in that super slimy cement plant deal.
Stan! Grab a coffee and go protest! Lilias Jarding from the Clean Water Alliance sends out this call for civil action in downtown Rapid City on Saturday morning:
#######################
Greetings --
To respond to the NRC giving a license to Powertech/Azarga, we are going to stand up for our water. We will be meeting on Omaha Street in the Gap in Rapid City at 11:00 am on Saturday to "Stand For The Water."
We will gather in the parking lot where the farmers' market meets in the summer with our signs. If you have time, please make and bring a sign saying "I Stand For The Water." You can get poster board at any office supply or discount store. Use permanent markers and bring rain gear, in case it rains. If you can make one sign, please think about making two and bringing one for someone else.
We will line up along the bike path by Rapid Creek with our signs for about 15 minutes -- making a human wall of protection for the water. After that, we'll split up and meet on busy street corners in small groups to wave our signs and "Stand For The Water." Think about what corner you'd like to stand on before you get to the rally.
Wear your yellow t-shirts or, if you don't have one, wear yellow clothing or a hat or whatever you have that is yellow.
We can't let the issuance of this license go by without our voices being heard! Please pass this message to your lists and your groups! Let's have a great turnout on Saturday and "Stand For The Water." Let's stop Powertech/Azarga from getting any more permits!
See you then --
Lilias
################
I know that on this issue I have been rebuked many times and unfortunately, I am in the minority. I can't believe that there would be licenses given to do this without heavy research and proof that they will also be able to maintain a clean drinking water supply. While I am definitely conscientious about making the right decision for SD and do not want the drinking water supply to be contaminated, I also believe there comes a time when we have to realize that America needs to be energy self-sufficient. I believe we need to have the pipeline, we need the uranium, we need to have natural gas found and used right here in the U.S. so that we are no longer dependent on foreign energy sources. You can't gripe about the price at the pump, etc. and then on the other hand say no to drilling for our own. Our dependence on other nations is ridiculous. A lot of countries are forced to be dependent on terrorist countries for their energy sources because they just don't have them at home; in America that's not the case yet we have been doing the same. The money we shell out for energy to terrorist countries contributes to the money they can use to continue to terrorize the world. Take away their money and they're too poor to have a military that is anti-anycountry. I also know that although government is most definitely corrupt, even here in our great state of South Dakota, they know we won't put up with the destruction of a common beetle much less our whole clean water supply, so I am sure that there are things in place to make sure that the two operations can work together.
WestRiver....Do you think it is wise to allow foreign entities to be able to seize private property in the US?
WestRiver....How is allowing the pipeline ( and I am assuming you mean KXL ) going to make the US energy self-sufficient? Or have we recently seized Canada from the Queen?
Mr. Pay: MT @smkayser @sdsmt with industry partner RESPEC announce launch of shale research initiative, funding through state.
Bret,
To answer your first question: It depends. If the U.S. has passed laws by lawmakers who we have voted in and we haven't done anything to stop them, well, then, we've given them that right. We as Americans have stepped in and seized private property from other countries based solely on our chauvinism and nationalism but for some reason we don't think it's proper for them to do the same in return just because of our belief that we are America and the greatest power in the world.
Question 2--I specifically spoke of our dependence on terrorist countries for our energy supplies; I don't think the Queen is going to send terrorists over to destroy us, nor do I believe that Canada is an enemy to the U.S. The pipe line would make us less dependent on foreign oil sources from the Middle East, is creating and will continue to create 1000's of U.S. jobs that our people need, and bring more money into our country. We have also signed agreements in North Dakota and other states that a portion of the mineral rights remain ours and in essence make us the producer of the oil, so yes, it would make us an independent producer of our own energy supply, obtained in our own country.
Thanks for the questions. I love a good debate and one based on facts and I appreciate that your questions were thought provoking. What are your thoughts on the pipeline and the U.S. becoming self-sufficient in resourcing our own energy supply?
SoDak's newest worldwide export...thermonuclear fuel for Chinese hydrogen bomb triggers? Beats poorly marbled beef and emaciated turkeys any day. "Let 'em run wild, we don't care." - The Beach Boys 1965
The US will never EVER be energy self-sufficient. That is a ploy being used by oil companies to keep their path cleared in pursuit of the black bubbly stuff. There are two products coming out of the ground in ND. Natural gas and oil. One is being completely wasted in pursuit of the other. The natural gas being flared literally lights up western ND at night. These practices of waste have been going on forever and will continue. There is only so much of that stuff in the ground and we better prepare for the day when it is gone.
As for the pipeline I think everyone should have something taken away from them against their will. It tends to give one a bright new shiny perspective on life.......
This reminds me of a gent from eastern SD speaking of keystone 1. It's only fifteen miles from my back door and it's not either hurting a thing or bothering me. I bet it's not hurting west river, and I've been west river all my life and it's not hurting me either. Just a few.
.
Continental oil has already stated they have no need for XL at a baker on ramp since it has been delayed so long they've gotten other transport online. So no domestic will flow, just the Chinese owned tar out of Canada, slicked up in Texas for a clean shipment to China.
.
Justifying US terrorism on other countries in no way justifies it on us because we haven't voted them out. It matters not who we vote in, until the people take our country back by whatever means necessary this will go on and is in no way justified.
West River:
You've gotta do your homework, man, we live in the dis/misinformation age. You can't trust anything that comes from a company that stands to make an enormous sum of money — nor anything that comes from those connected to it/them with money or power on the line too — without investigating 1.)primary sources (in this case the complete KXL proposal itself) and 2.) independent sources to double check.
Mis/disinformation is so brutally rampant in the internet/social media/corporate journalism age that those who neglect to perform their own additional research are little more than unwitting instruments in the rape and pillage of the Constitutional American Ideal and all those who wish to uphold it.
Keystone XL
We're talking about an EXPORT pipeline. The U.S. will not receive any of that dirty Canadian tar sands oil, TransCanada is simply using us to get the oil to Texas's busy energy ports and out to the highest bidders as fast as possible. Furthermore, gas prices are expected to RISE in the U.S. with the advent of a fully-operational KXL pipeline. As for JOBZ!JOBZ!JOBZ!, we're looking at between 20-50 permanent KXL positions in the U.S.
Uranium
We're talking China here. They've got a bigger appetite for nuclear energy than any other nation on the planet and are gobbling up as many uranium development properties as they can. And let's not forget the nation's nuclear arms, which aren't too good for hugging!
Powertech is a Canadian company in the middle of a friendly takeover by their primary stockholder Azarga Resources, a Hong Kong-based company owned by an Australian who's said on record that he's very interested in selling uranium to the Chinese. Do you really think the U.S. is even on Powertech/Azarga's Top Five Countries to Sell South Dakota Uranium Too list?
And how about this Fukushima thing? We're finding out more every day how vast and devastating the fallout from that disaster is to the Pacific, the West Coast of the United States, and global food supplies (ever hear of bioaccumulation?). In the wake of this(pun implied, a sense of humor is important!), do you really think the U.S. Government's going to push nuclear energy? Even if they do, do you think the public will back it? Only if they keep their heads deep in the quicksand suck of cable "news" and reality television.
So what do we do? Well, the government could take the multiple billions of dollars it injects into the oil industry every year, force them to pay their taxes like the rest of us, and use that gigantic sum to subsidize alternative energy development right here in the United States of America to give it the chance it needs — the chance it's never been given — to truly succeed.
We have an opportunity before us to lead the world in innovation once more, to transform ourselves from a nation of complacent, voracious consumers into a Nation of Creators, a Nation of Leaders, and a beacon of hope in a crumbling world.
But we choose not to each and every day we continue to subsidize the status quo. And you better believe the status quo nor the congressmen and women in their pockets are going to make the right choice. It's up to the everyday American — people like you and me — to pull our heads out of the quicksand, look around, raise a ruckus, and demand the change we so desperately need.
Adam, you are correct in everything you have posted. There is only one problem, profit, as long as there is profit conservatives will fight tooth and nail to protect profit. If they would put as much effort into protecting the environment and doing the right things for people and country as they do protecting profit, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I agree with you, Tim, but it's not just the conservatives. Case in point: Obama and the coal industry.
We need campaign finance reform first and foremost, everything gets easier after that. If you're a registered voter in South Dakota, look into Rick Weiland and Stace Nelson if you haven't already. While Nelson's politics don't jive with most of the readers of this fine blog, there's a reason his ad appears on this site (correct me if I'm wrong, Cory). Both men understand the damage that corporate money and special interests have done to this country, how much more damage they can do, and have pledged to do their best to turn things around if elected. Even if they're merely posturing — and it doesn't seem to me that they are — it's refreshing to hear candidates actually address our country's Number One Problem with some passion.
Need renewable energy and jobs locally - then economically develop this, here:
http://www.acoel.org/post/2014/03/31/Innovative-Renewable-Energy-Project-Starts-Up-in-Wisconsin.aspx