Uranium Mining Boom Echoes in the
Radioactive Valley of Ambrosia Lake
Field Report by Diana Drake
A spectacularly spent valley north
of Grants, New Mexico, was once one of the largest uranium
industry sites in the country. Now it is a haunting,
debris-strewn landscape, with massive mounds of radioactive
tailings.
Though uranium was mined from
sites all over the Southwest, half the uranium oxide in
the country came from Grants area mines, and the Ambrosia
Lake district was one of the most productive. The highest
concentration of ore at Ambrosia Lake (just a name, no
lake in the area) was mined from a four by seven mile
part of the valley, which was completely undercut with
layers of mine shafts. The only visible indication of
what lies below are numerous vents emerging from the ground,
which once expelled radon, diesel smoke, and other toxic
gases that would accumulate in the mines while they were
being worked.
One
of numerous exhaust vents that once expelled noxious
fumes from the hundreds of miles of mine shafts
below the surface of the Ambrosia Lake district.
CLUI photo
The atomic era created a mining boom, rivaling that
of the Gold Rush. The first boom took place in the 1950's
when thousands of prospectors flocked to the southwest
with Geiger counters, searching for deposits of "yellowcake,"
the richest form of uranium ore, spurred on by the Atomic
Energy Commission (AEC), which offered thousands of
dollars in reward money to successful prospectors. In
the 1960's major mining companies bought out much of
the individual mines around Grants, and established
huge complexes of open pits or subterranean tunnels.
Four uranium mills were built in the area, operated
by companies such as Kerr McGee, United Nuclear, and
Anaconda.
At the industry's
peak in the 1970's, thousands of people worked in the
mines and mills in the valley. But the booms bottomed
out in the late 1970's, as the public's enthusiasm about
nuclear power diminished, and the Ambrosia Lake district
turned from an economic asset, to a toxic liability. The
era of closure and clean-up had begun, and continues to
this day.
The
Quivera Company's Ambrosia Lake mill, the only mill
left in the district, is adjacent to "the largest
uranium tailings pile in the free world"
CLUI photo
The only
mill in the area that has not been torn down is the Quivera
Mill, which employs 34 people. The mill still processes
uranium, but in a manner fitting for a post-boom industry:
conducting what is called "solution mining," the old underground
mines of the valley, once full of miners, are now flooded
with water to flush out some of the remaining uranium.
Quivera is also involved in remediation of the region,
especially in stabilizing the tailings pile next to the
plant, said to be the largest uranium tailings pile in
the free world. The company expects to keep the mill intact,
even if they stop producing, in case uranium is needed
again. Originally built by Kerr McGee, ownership of the
mill was transferred in 1989 to the Rio Algom Company,
of Toronto, when Kerr McGee sold off all of its uranium
operations.
Sign
and carved, granite "headstone" at the Department
of Energy's 196 acre Ambrosia Lake Tailings Pile,
which is visible in the background.
CLUI photo
After initial remediation by the mining companies, the
Department of Energy (which, as the AEC, was largely
responsible for creating the mad rush for uranium) becomes
the owner of the uranium sites for long term monitoring
and storage, as the sites are a radioactive hazard for
thousands of years into the future. North of Grants,
in the Ambrosia Lake region, several large piles are
being prepared, including the mound at Quivera's mill.
Across the highway, what is called the Ambrosia Lake
Tailings Pile is already entombed in the standard casing
of coarsely crushed stone, a sort of perpetual pyramidal
monument to a short-lived and wild industry.
