BY BRIAN MAFFLEY
A few years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed formulas for predicting the amount of radon emitted by radium-laden uranium mill ponds.
When Ute Mountain Ute tribal officials plugged data from the nearby White Mesa Uranium Mill into one EPA formula, the numbers were alarming.
Predicted emissions for radon-222 were up to 50 times the cap set to protect the environment — and downwind communities in San Juan County — from the odorless cancer-causing gas.
Tribal leaders went to the EPA for answers. But EPA air-quality regulators have yet to step in.
So the tribe and environmental groups took their case to the state Wednesday. In a presentation to the Utah Air Quality Board, Uranium Watch program director Sarah Fields blasted what she considers the federal agency's indifference to community concerns...