New Mexico, Homestake agree on water hook ups

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

GRANTS — After several years of complaints about contaminated drinking water, the owners of 16 residences near the Homestake Mill Superfund site are being offered free connections to the village of Milan’s water system.

New Mexico Environment Department and Homestake Mining Co. of California have entered into a memorandum of agreement in which the company voluntarily agreed to connect residents.

Members of NMED and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, in Dallas met with residents at the Cibola County Building in Grants for more than two hours Wednesday evening to explain the agreement and listen to their concerns.

“Our primary goal is to ensure residents in the area are protected and have access to clean drinking water,” New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said. “This agreement will ensure that residents have access to clean drinking water as soon as possible.”

The village’s water system is regularly monitored by the department’s Drinking Water Bureau to ensure compliance with federal drinking water standards.

Homestake will notify 10 property owners with private wells, including residents in La Siembra Estates and Valle Verde Estates, of their opportunity to be connected to the village’s water system.

Homestake also will offer to reimburse six property owners, including two in Valle Verde Estates who previously were on a private well supply for domestic drinking water but since 2004 have paid for their own connections to the village water system. The company additionally will plug any existing wells at the request of the property owner.

Potable water for the owner of a lot in Elizabeth Marie Estates will be addressed by the parties in a separate document no later than Nov. 2.

“Homestake has been in discussions with NMED for approximately two years on this issue,” said Homestake Project Manager Alan Cox. “We are pleased to have reached an understanding with the state to voluntarily assist in providing a safe drinking water source to several residents in the valley.”

The department has notified residents in the area of the potential health impacts from using private well water in the area.

Homestake has 60 days from the execution of the agreement to notify property owners, and property owners have four months from being notified to agree to be connected. Other property owners can contact Homestake for information on whether their property is also eligible.

Homestake will begin discussions with the village of Milan regarding the connections within 30 days of the agreement and is expected to have the financing portion of the project in place within 160 days. The company also is expected within 60 days to reimburse property owners who already have paid for their connections.

Homestake mill was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List at the request of the state in September 1983. In November 1983, the company and EPA entered into a consent decree and Homestake provided connections to the village water supply for property owners living in affected subdivisions at that time.

Other residents in the area notified the department of well water problems at a public meeting in August 2005, after which the department and Homestake mutually agreed to sample residents’ water in the vicinity of the mill site in response to those concerns.

The regulatory agencies approached Homestake in May 2006 to express their concerns that several private residential wells within the area of concern, which are used as primary drinking water sources, contain contaminants that exceed federal maximum contaminant levels and should not be used for drinking water purposes.

NMED is in the early stages of investigations within the San Mateo Creek Basin near the Homestake Mill site to better understand, and potentially address, possible ground water contamination from past uranium mining and milling activities.

Recent ground water quality data from samples collected in and near abandoned uranium mine shafts in the Ambrosia Lake area also indicate the occurrence of ground water contaminants in concentrations exceeding maximum contaminant levels and state drinking water standards within this area of the basin.

For copies of the agreement or more information, call Dana Bahar with NMED at (505) 827-2908 or Al Cox with Homestake at (505) 287-4456 or visit:

http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/gwb/New_Pages/public_notice.htm.