UNC, GE agree to clean up former New Mexico uranium mine
The United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) and General Electric Company will undertake a nearly $63 million, decade-long cleanup project at the former Northeast Church Rock Mine in northwestern New Mexico under a consent decree with the United States, the Navajo Nation, and the state of New Mexico.
The agreement, which was announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on August 11, requires UNC and GE to remove approximately one million cubic yards of uranium mine waste from Northeast Church Rock Mine and transfer it to the UNC Mill site, located less than a mile away adjacent to the Navajo Nation. Both the mine and mill sites are EPA Superfund sites. UNC, an indirect subsidiary of GE, operated the mill and did most of the area’s mining under a mineral lease.
“This extraordinary cleanup agreement will improve the lives of the Navajo people, benefiting their children, grandchildren, and future generations,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Region administrator Josh F.W. Cook. “The consent decree will ensure the removal of contaminated mine waste from their community and make their land suitable for future residential use.”
The Department of Justice lodged the proposed consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. The settlement is subject to a public comment period and final court approval.
The sites: The Northeast Church Rock Mine, which is located mostly on Navajo Nation land, operated from 1967 to 1982 and served as the principal source of uranium ore for the UNC Mill. These mining operations left behind uranium mine waste piles, several former ponds, and former mill tailings storage areas. While some cleanup work has been completed at the mine site, the EPA said conditions there continue to present a risk of releases of hazardous substances to the air, surrounding soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater.
Operating from 1977 to 1982, the UNC Mill generated mill tailings containing radionuclides and other hazardous substances. Disposal of about 3.5 million tons of tailings took place in on-site impoundments. According to the EPA, studies have shown that the transfer of Northeast Church Rock mine waste to the UNC Mill site, and placement of the waste over the tailings disposal area, would improve the cover and enhance erosion controls at the mill site.
In 2023, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan by UNC to dispose of Northeast Church Rock mine waste at the UNC Mill site.
Following remediation work, the Department of Energy will perform long-term stewardship and maintenance of the UNC Mill site under its Legacy Management Program.
More thoughts: “This agreement represents extensive cooperation between EPA, the Navajo Nation, and the state of New Mexico,” said EPA South Central Regional administrator Scott Mason. “With this historic settlement, we are ensuring cleanup progress will continue at the NECR mine site while improving existing protections at the UNC Mill site.”
“Today’s settlement will achieve tangible remediation of the mine and mill sites and protect human health from radioactive wastes,” said acting assistant attorney general Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Consistent with this administration’s enforcement principles and priorities, the settlement follows CERCLA’s text, focuses on the affected locations, and assigns the cost of cleanup to the settling defendants, not taxpayers.”
