Homestake area residents grill regulatory officials

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

GRANTS — The parent company of Homestake Mill, Barrick Gold Corp., has placed a $9.2 billion offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Placer Dome Inc., No. 2, in Canada, making it the industry leader in gold production.

While Homestake's family is building its portfolio, a number of families living in subdivisions next to Homestake's former uranium processing site are hoping the company will buy them out of what they perceive to be a no-win situation.

Candace Williams, 27-year-old mother of four, timidly inquired during a recent meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, New Mexico Department of Environment and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about results from well water samples taken in September.

"I was wondering how long its going to take before we get our water reports back. The reason I'm so interested is all I have to drink and all my family has to drink is the water. I have four children. Three of them are very sick. My oldest son has two different kinds of cancer. I can't wait for months to get this water report. I have no other source of water, so I need help. All of us need help," she told them.

"We can't sell our houses because nobody wants to live out there. They know we're sick. They know we're having problems. They know our livestock's dying it's a small community. I can't in good faith sell my house to somebody else and know that they're going to get sick," she said.

"But I can't move somewhere else without selling where I live. So, I'm stuck. And I don't know if it's going to take 20 years to clean it up if my kids can make it 20 years."

Like many residents at that meeting, Williams lives in the pathway of a plume of contamination coming from Homestake Mill. Now Homestake says it can't clean up the contamination to meet state and federal standards and is asking the cooperating agencies for a less harsh cleanup goal.

No choice
"If you look at the way the plume goes, it goes right under my house," Williams told oversight officials from NRC. "I have no city water. When I checked into getting city water, they said they wouldn't run it because it's not cost effective.

"You've spent billions of dollars on trying to clean up Homestake. My kids are being poisoned and there's nothing that I can do. I had a healthy child when I moved in there. He's sick now. Really sick. I don't know what you people are doing I don't even understand all of this but I do understand that it's not getting better for any of us. We have no choices," she said.

NMED's Jake Ingram said representatives from his agency and EPA went out into the field, took samples from the wells of those residents they were able to catch at home, and are awaiting laboratory analysis. "At this point, we are kind of at the mercy of the lab," he told Williams. "But we can try to expedite and get yours back from the lab."

Williams made it a point to tell officials, "When EPA came to my house to test my well and he asked what we used it for, I said, 'Well, we do everything,' his jaw dropped and he was just shocked. I told him, 'We don't have an option for city water because they won't bring it down.' "

William Von Till, NRC project manager for the Homestake site, said the company entered into a settlement agreement with area residents in 1985 and agreed to give them an alternate water supply.

"What we wanted to do here recently after the last public meeting that we had in December, was we wanted to make absolutely sure that everybody who would be in contact with contaminated water from the site would be given a new water supply and not be exposed to contamination.

"If we find anybody who is potentially drinking contaminated water, we're going to do something about it immediately," he told the packed room.

To Williams, he said, "I can't say whether your problems have anything to do with contaminated water yet or not. If they do, then we'll take action on it. There's lots of things that can cause health problems."

Trading places
Frustrated, Williams asked Von Till, "If you change these levels (proposed by Homestake) to the less stringent level, would you feel comfortable bringing your kids, your grandkids, your families, and living where we live for a whole year? Is it something that you would subject your family to? If it is, then OK. If it's not, then why should we?"

Von Till said the NRC was under the impression that everyone whose wells might be impacted was hooked up to an alternate water supply.

Suzi Wilcox, one of Williams' neighbors, spoke up. "You're ignoring her question though. Would you bring your family to live where we live, anywhere out there?"

Von Till responded,"If I was one of you who had a well that has not been hooked up, that may be potentially contaminated, I would contact us and let us handle it and see what's in there. And if there's something in there that you shouldn't be exposed to that's from this mill site, we'll take action."

Wilcox press on. "You're still ignoring her question. Would you bring your family to live where any of us live?"

Von Till said, "I'm answering your question."

"No," Wilcox told him. "You're ignoring our question. You're ignoring her question. Yes or no. Any of you people right here," she said, pointing toward regulators, "Would you bring your people, your family, your children, your wife, your grandkids, your mother, your father to live anywhere in those sites that you talked about? Today. Right now. Even if they're not drinking the water, would you bring them out there to live? That's what she's asking you."

Von Till told her, "Actually, I would. I think it would be great."

Wilcox countered. "You would? OK. Because the next meeting, I'm going to bring you a sample of our water and I want each one of you to drink it. OK?" A wave of laughter went through the crowd.

"In fact," she said, "if you want me to, I'll call my daughter right now and she can pull you a sample out of our well. Would you drink it? Would you take a drink of it?"

NRC facilitator Chip Cameron asked Wilcox, "Are you drinking it?" to which she responded, "No, sir, I'm not drinking it."