Contaminated Midnite Mine frustrates tribe

Published 9:00 pm Friday, November 28, 2003

WELLPINIT — For nearly three decades, the Midnite Mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation was a source of paychecks and pride.

Truckloads of uranium oxide ore from the open-pit mine on a mountain above Blue Creek rolled 25 miles over winding reservation roads to the Dawn Mining Co. mill near Ford. There, the ore was processed into a key ingredient of the nuclear weapons built during the Cold War.

But when the mine closed in 1981, the paychecks stopped coming and patriotic pride was replaced by radioactive contamination, leaving Spokane Tribe members like Deb Abrahamson wondering whether it all was worth it.

"I doubt the tribe ever got back as much as went out," said Abrahamson, who helped found Saving Our Health, Air, Water and Land, a mine watchdog group. "We were marginalized and co-opted."

Three years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed the Midnite Mine for participation in the Superfund program, designed to force dirty industries to clean up their messes.

The EPA is completing studies that will lead to a preferred cleanup plan, but who will pay for the work has yet to be determined. The Midnite Mine is one of three Superfund sites in Washington state without an identified funding source for cleanup.

Shannon Work, a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, attorney who represents the Spokane Tribe, said a large portion of the reservation is off limits because of potential contamination.

"The contamination has impacted the entire Blue Creek drainage — a huge portion of the Spokane Indian Reservation," he said. "Now, that is unavailable for use by tribal members in traditional ways.

"Members can’t fish in Blue Creek. The can’t use plants along the creek for medicines, food and ceremonial purposes."

Doing so might expose them to low-level radiation that over time could cause cancer.

People weren’t so concerned about environmental contamination when the mine opened. In the 1950s, uranium was to Eastern Washington and many parts of the West what gold was to California 100 years before. The nation’s demand for the naturally occurring radioactive ore fed a prospecting frenzy unseen in the West since gold rush times.

Episodes of the popular "I Love Lucy" and "Mickey Mouse Club" television series featured episodes with actors combing the West for uranium deposits — and the $10,000 bounty the government was offering for finding them.

On a mountain above Blue Creek outside Wellpinit, Jim and John LaBret and Leo Bruce found the distinctive uranium oxide ore at Midnite Mine in 1955.

Needing capital to develop the mine, they formed Dawn Mining Co. in partnership with Newmont Mining Co., which held a 51 percent stake in the open-pit works.

Studies to determine the extent of contamination on the 320-acre site left after 26 years of mining already have cost $7 million, EPA project manager Elly Hale said from Seattle.

"We’ve notified Dawn and Newmont Gold of their potential liability," Hale said. "They know we think they’re liable, but I don’t think Newmont thinks they are liable. It hasn’t been resolved."

If the EPA is unable to make Newmont, Dawn or others pay for the mine’s cleanup, it will become the taxpayers’ responsibility.

About five years ago, Dawn and Newmont proposed importing low-level radioactive dirt and other materials to the uranium mill at Ford. Money from disposal fees would have been used to close both the mill and mine, Dawn Mining President Dave Delcour said from Denver.

The tribe, watchdog groups and the state of Washington opposed the plan.

"EPA’s made such a mess of things, I don’t know if we will ever get it sorted," Delcour said. "We had funding five years ago, but the government wouldn’t allow it."

"Because the government categorically rejected our efforts to reclaim the mine when we had funding, we simply don’t have the capability at this time to be a major participant," Delcour said.

Work, the Spokane Tribe’s attorney, said the tribe’s primary objective is getting the area cleaned up.

"Some members say Newmont made an awful lot of money off this project, then failed to leave sufficient money with Dawn … so they ought to pay," he said. "Others say uranium was unique. The only customer was the U.S. government, so perhaps the U.S. government ought to step forward and share in that."

EPA’s Hale said her agency is committed to cleaning the mine site.

The agency is nearly finished with the four-year study to determine the nature and extent of contamination and risks to human health and the environment, Hale said. But the study will not say who should pay for cleanup.

"We’ve taken our commitment to the tribe seriously," she said. "In this case, it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way."

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