Water from radioactive pond may have been used on fire

Published 10:33 pm Friday, July 13, 2007

SPOKANE – State health officials are testing to determine whether radioactive contamination was spread on a wildfire after the pilot of a firefighting helicopter inadvertently scooped water from a defunct uranium mine tailings pond.

The Washington Department of Health sent a representative to the site Thursday to conduct its own tests after the mining company said it found no measurable contamination in the water or bucket used to take about 440 gallons from the pond.

An official with Dawn Mining Co. quickly notified the state after the helicopter took two bucket loads from the unfenced pond about 40 miles northwest of Spokane on the Spokane Indian Reservation on July 2.

The pilot then was directed to draw water from an uncontaminated rainwater collection pond nearby, said Patty Henson, communications director for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The wildfire burned 156 acres and destroyed one structure.

The mining company conducted radiation tests the day the water was taken from the mine pond, Henson said.

“Both the bucket itself and the water was tested for radioactivity, and it was found to not have contaminants,” Henson said.

The pond is believed to have relatively low levels of radiation contamination, and the aerial drop would have dispersed the water over a large patch of ground, but a second radiation test will be conducted, Health Department spokesman Donn Moyer said.

“We’re not alarmed,” Moyer said. “We just want to make sure what happened.”

Results from the department’s first test were not immediately known.

The tailings pond, about a half-mile from the fire, holds waste from uranium ore processing by a former Dawn Mining mill at the site. Most of the ore came from the nearby Midnite Mine, which operated for about 30 years until it was closed in the early 1980s.

It is now a federal Superfund site undergoing a $152 million cleanup.

The pond was not enclosed by a security fence, Henson said. Agency firefighting helicopters do not use water from ponds or lakes enclosed by fences. “We’re not planning to use that source again,” Henson added.

The pond is “clearly marked on the ground” with warning signs, Moyer said. But the signs would be difficult for a helicopter pilot to see, especially during a firefighting mission.

“They had quick access to water. They were able to protect a house from burning down,” Moyer said.

Dawn Mining Co. has taken what officials believed were appropriate safety precautions at the site and acted “more than responsible” during the incident and through their follow-up safety testing, Moyer said.

“You wouldn’t anticipate an aerial breach of security,” he said.