Citizens Call on Governor Daugaard to Protect Their Right to a Fair Hearing
SD Board of Minerals & Environment Ignores the Public in Favor of Powertech Uranium Corp.
Dakota Rural Action members and allies call for the hearing date and location for the Large Scale Mining Permit for Powertech Uranium Corp. to be moved until after the water permit hearings scheduled in October and be held in the Black Hills where nearly all individuals impacted by the proposed Dewey Burdock uranium mine reside.
The South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment held a pre-hearing conference on May 23 in Rapid City for the mining permit Powertech Uranium Corp. is seeking in order to mine uranium in the Black Hills. The conference was intended to solicit public input and to set a date and location for the hearing. When interested intervenors arrived, however, they found their input fell on deaf ears. The Board had already made a decision about when the hearing will be held.
“I felt unrepresented,” says Cheryl Rowe, one of the permit intervenors and Dakota Rural Action member. “There was no regard for the people who took time off work and lost pay to go there. It seemed obvious that they had picked their date regardless of what the public had to say.”
The Large Scale Mining Permit is only one of several Powertech Uranium Corp. will have to get in order to mine uranium for the proposed Dewey Burdock project. A hearing for two others, both water permits, are already scheduled for two weeks in October. The SD Board of Minerals and Environment decided they will hold their hearing September 23-27, making it nearly impossible for intervenors to adequately prepare for, or attend, both.
Additionally, hearing chair Rex Hagg stated the Board will likely hold the hearing in Pierre, rather than in the Black Hills, where the water permit hearings will be held and where nearly all interested parties live. Mr. Hagg also made several references to statutes requiring a hearing be held by a certain date after the permit is requested. The statutory date for the hearing has already passed, however, and a representative from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources stated the pre-hearing met any statutory requirements.
“I was disappointed about the obvious concern by the chair about the statutory date,” says Rebecca Leas, a health professional and Dakota Rural Action member also involved in the permit hearings. “Where is the concern about our representation? Since virtually all the intervenors are from the Black Hills, the location needs to be accessible to those people and take into consideration families and ranchers who need to stay here.”
The Black Hills Chapter is a community-based affiliate of Dakota Rural Action members. The Black Hills Chapter organizes around local food, community, renewable energy, natural resources, sustainable agriculture and land preservation issues. The Chapter’s current campaign is to stop uranium mining in the Black Hills and has recently submitted letters to South Dakota Governor Daugaard calling on him to ensure the democratic process is upheld and maintains its validity regarding the permitting process.
ACTION
We need your voice to insist fairness in this democratic process! Please personalize the letters below and mail it to Governor Daugaard today before it is too late – before more decisions are made without public input on this eminently critical matter. There are two versions, one for those who have intervened and filed to be a party in this case, and the other for those of you who did not.