Homestake mill site ‘public health hazard’

By Cheryl Montoya, Special to The Observer

CIBOLA COUNTY n Milan was once known as the carrot producing capital of the world. The discovery of uranium by Navajo sheepherder Paddy Martinez in 1950 turned the area into the uranium capital of the world. On May 19 the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry released a public health consultation that stated that the Homestake Mining Company mill site is a public health hazard.

In 1958 the Homestake Mining Company built a mill about five miles north of Milan to process the U308 ore. The company milled the ore for 30 years. What were left behind were two tailings piles.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency placed the mill site on the National Priorities List in September 1983. The agency was concerned about emissions from the tailings piles. Also at this time monitoring wells on the site and some residential wells in the area showed contamination.

“In 2007 the state of New Mexico changed its drinking water standards to meet the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 30 parts per billion. Before that year the state standard was 5,000 parts per billion,” said Andrew Dudley of the ATSDR and the lead scientist for the report.

Before 2000 there was no drinking water standard for uranium.

Since 1977 Homestake has been working on ground water remediation at the site. The company will continue this effort until 2015.

Al Cox, Homestake’s operations manager after the report was issued, that he had not had time to read it, and therefore couldn’t comment.

In 1983 the mining company agreed to provide an alternate water supply to nearby residents of the mill. Homestake also paid for the water usage for ten years.

There are five main recommendations in the registry report:

Advise residents who have moved to the area since 1995 of the contamination in the wells. Also advise those who are using well water to have their water supply tested before using the water for household purposes.

Advise residents who are not using the alternate source of drinking water to have their well water sampled. Residents should use bottled water if concentrations are greater than the maximum contamination level, or arrange for connection to the Village of Milan water supply.

Advise residents who have vegetables gardens to wash vegetables thoroughly before cooking or eating them. This is especially important for root vegetables because roots absorb uranium at a greater rate.

Determine why uranium concentrations are increasing in the Middle Chinle aquifer.

Because of the increasing concentrations of uranium in the Middle Chinle aquifer, anyone who has a well in this aquifer should refrain from using the well.

According to the report the groundwater cleanup has decreased the level of contaminates in the water but even after 2015 the levels of uranium and selenium will be above drinking water standards.

A copy of the health consultation is at the New Mexico State University-Grants and available for review and comment. July 3 is the last day to review the report.

The report was prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Division of Health Assessment and Consultation.