White Mesa Mill, the country's only functioning uranium mill, sits on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah. It neighbors the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's White Mesa community and was built in the late 1970s to break down rocks and process natural uranium ore.
But when the owners of the White Mesa Mill quietly changed their business plan, the mill became a commercial dumping ground for low-level radioactive wastes from contaminated sites across America and the world. Now, over 700 million pounds of toxic wastes simmer in the mill's massive waste pits.
We believe that if the White Mesa Mill wants to function like a radioactive waste-disposal business it should be regulated like one.
Around the early 1990s, the mill’s owners began pursuing a new source of revenue by processing “alternate feeds” and discarding the resulting waste at the mill. These feeds include uranium-bearing wastes from other contaminated places around the country, including remnants from the Manhattan Project and Superfund sites. It is cheaper for polluters to send their waste to the mill than to a licenced low-level radioactive waste dump. As of 2021, the mill's owner had earned millions in fees in exchange for processing and discarding alternate feeds.
The White Mesa community of the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe lives a few miles from the mill. The wind often blows from the mill toward their community at White Mesa, and groundwater beneath the mill flows toward White Mesa as well. Blanding and Bluff, Utah, are both within 20 miles of the mill.
Explore maps of radioactive wastes approved or considered for processing at White Mesa Mill ›
The White Mesa Mill's oldest waste ponds are lined with a single layer of plastic between two layers of crushed rock. If those liners crack, radioactive waste in the pits could leak into the shallow groundwater below. Today, these kinds of waste pits must have two liners with a leak-detection system sandwiched between them.
Plumes of contaminants, including nitrate, nitrite, chlorides, and chloroform have been detected in the groundwater beneath the mill site. Community members from White Mesa and surrounding towns are concerned that the contamination will seep into the underlying Navajo Sandstone aquifer, which is the main source of drinking water for southeastern Utah.
Radon – an invisible, odorless, tasteless, radioactive gas – decays into solids that cling to other airborne materials, like blowing dust. If inhaled, these particles make their way into our lungs where they remain for weeks or years, increasing the risk of lung cancer. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Exposure to these particles can cause many health problems, including birth defects and various types of cancer.
Radioactive wastes containing not just uranium but also hazardous substances and dangerous heavy metals have been shipped to the White Mesa Mill. At times, haul trucks have spilled radioactive sludge along U.S. Highway 191, the route the White Mesa community's school bus follows each morning. Local community members have, in the past, been among the last to know.
More than 275,000 pounds of radioactive materials imported from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency headed to Utah's White Mesa Mill.
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White Mesa Ute community leaders testify in Washington D.C. about how Utah's White Mesa uranium mill, near Bears Ears, affects their lives.
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"We want to have healthy lives. We want to have access to clean water," says Chairman Manuel Heart.
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