Timeline: Uranium mining and Midnite Mine

June 5, 2011

Timeline: Uranium mining and Midnite Mine

Staff research
The Spokesman-Review

Tags:Midnite MineUranium mining

1946: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission is created. The commission offers contracts at generous prices to spur development of a domestic uranium industry.

1954: Brothers Jim and John LeBret discover uranium on the Spokane Reservation. They and their partners form Midnite Mines Inc.

1955: Newmont Mining Corp. joins with Midnite Mines to develop the deposit. Dawn Mining Co. is formed. Ownership is 51 percent Newmont and 49 percent Midnite Mines.

1955 to 1965: Dawn Mining Co. sells uranium to the Atomic Energy Commission, the only buyer at the time.

1958 to 1965: Dawn provides an average of $1 million a year in dividends to Newmont.

1969: After a four-year shut down, Midnite Mine reopens to sell uranium for nuclear power production.

1981: Operations cease at the Midnite Mine.

1988: One of the mine’s open pits has hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated water. Federal government raises concerns about water overtopping the pit.

1991: Dawn ordered to operate a water treatment plant to prevent Pit No. 3 from overflowing.

1997: Federal government starts negotiations with Dawn and Newmont for study and cleanup of the site in compliance with environmental laws.

1999: Spokane Tribe sues to prevent storage of radioactive wastes from other sites at the Midnite Mine.

1999: Midnite Mine proposed for Superfund listing.

2005: Federal government sues Newmont and Dawn for cleanup costs at the site.

2008: U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush rules that the U.S. government, Dawn and Newmont are each responsible for one-third of the Midnite Mine’s cleanup costs.

SOURCE: Staff research, federal court documents

HISTORY

Uranium mining began on native lands in the 1950’s and continued until the market dropped in the early l980’s. Tribal members worked in the mining industry for three decades with little or no information about the toxic conditions of the workplace.

Two open-pit mines were launched on the Spokane Reservation. Midnite Mine began in 1953 and became a Superfund Site in 2000. There are complex difficulties with the Midnite reclamation due to aquifer penetration during mining operations, creating perpetual seepage evolving into two lakes of standing contaminated water which flows into Blue Creek and the Spokane River after undergoing a dated water treatment process.

Sherwood Mine was operated by Western Nuclear from 1978 until 1984 and has since been reclaimed. However, an estimated 1200 workers at Sherwood Mine and Millsite were never provided sufficient information about the detrimental impacts of radiation and by-product toxins associated with the uranium mining.

The residents of this reservation suffer disproportionate health impacts as a result of radiation and heavy metal contaminant exposure. There has never been a baseline health study conducted to determine health impact. Risk exposure to the community is especially high due to the subsistence lifestyle and cultural/spiritual practices, including hunting, fishing, gathering roots and berries, logging, sweatlodge and medicinal plant use.