Oregon Report; Uranium: The Lakeview Story

The. From the Oregon Network. Good evening. I'm Don Stellges. Tonight, we have a special report on Lake County. There have been charges that the uranium mining there in the late 1950s is linked with what some have said are rising cancer rates. We hope to show the complexity of the whole scene. [intro music] [intro music] When uranium was discovered in these hills almost 25 years ago, Lake County celebrated. It was uranium fever. And when word got out that uranium claims

were free for the taking, 40,000 uranium prospectors and mining equipment salesman descended on Lakeview. Geiger counters sold like hotcakes. The Rebecca Girls Club sold popcorn up in the hills. From 1958 to 1960, uranium mining and milling was a six million dollar industry in Lake County. More than 130,000 tons of uranium was taken from the White King Mine and about 10,000 from the Lucky Lass. But the mill closed unexpectedly just two years after it had opened and, a year later, both mines. And that was just the beginning of the controversy. Today, Lake County is split into two camps: those who would like to see the uranium business start up again and those who are adamantly opposed. There are few undecideds in Lakeview when the subject is uranium. Diane Adams is one Lakeview resident who has had second thoughts. She's had pre-malignant breast disease since she was a teenager. I'm 39 years old now. I had my first one when I was 19 years old and I've had a dormant period of, perhaps, eight years. Something

like that or, almost ten years. When I was 19, I had a series of about three operations. From the year 19-, when I was 19 and then 20 and then 21. And in one of those years, I had two operations. And I've together had 25 fibroadenomas removed from that period till now. I think that maybe being raised here in Lakeview during that time possibly could be something that my system absorbed. Out of the Air or the environment here. Either though air or maybe water. We've also had water problems in this town too, that the town tended to ignore for a long time. Phyllis Kerr is another Lakeview resident who was asking questions. Her mother-in-law is dying of bone cancer. They strongly believe that hereditary factors contribute to cancer. The other fact is that they have lived here since 1947. She's been a very

outdoorsy person. She, probably, was exposed to much of the dust. Can we say that? And other things that had been blowing around here for the last 20 years in our vallehy from the tail-end side [inaudible]. Well, I feel I could just go through the phonebook. Between my mother who is a person who has lived in Paisley, was raised in Paisley, and lived here in Lakeview most of her life. Really all of her life. And between she and I, we could go through the phonebook, I think, and pick out, just about, longtime families that have been here. There's been some cancer in their family at one time. Audrey Smith has had two bouts of breast cancer in the last eight years. Her husband Claire was a partner in the Lucky Lass. The uranium had anything to do with my cancer. And if it was anything it was hereditary because I've had it on both sides of my family.

I was taking the medicine that I was- now in. had question. Don Tracy is a long time uranium prospector and was a partner in the White King Mine. So far after 25 years in the field, I've lived with this, mined it, breathed it, practically ate it and to no real effect that I know of. Higher statistics for the incidence of cancer of the breast cancer and cancer of the pancreas in the state of of Oregon. When that was published there was a lot of controversy among, again, our own local community. Some of the doctors felt that "Hey, we don't have any more cancer than is anywhere else" and gosh, what are statistics? Well, unfortunately, statistics aren't perfect. And I'm sure that there's going to be, maybe, a further clarification. And so our first step was to ask for help

in clarifying the statistics, Our cancer incidence statistics. We really don't know what it's called by, but when we looked at possibilities about three things emerged. One, and I list these in order that I think might be important. The first one was, I became aware, that there were high arsenic levels in the groundwater there. And this was information developed from some investigators at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry Oregon State University and they found that the hot springs water, or what they call in Lake County, "warm water", had high arsenic levels. Some of the cold water there also had high arsenic level, but it was characteristically associated with the hot water from the ground. And arsenic is a known cancer-causing agent. The second point is a possible cause of that cancer excess is the dissolved radioactive

gas which is in the warm water, radon gas, and that type of material should be able to be released if the water sits awhile or if it's aerated. And I believe that most inhabitants, particularly ranchers who have large water tanks and do allow a settling time at least for the water before it's drank- drunken. The third point is the possibility that something might've developed from the mill tailing pile, which was to the north of town and from which a good deal of dust did blow around town for a number of years. That tailing pile has adequately covered now and would be expected to produce relatively recent change in cancer statistics if it had had an effect. So, I think that is the least likely of the three possibilities so far.

No one wants to claim responsibility for it. And I don't think that any government body should feel responsible about it because what we're dealing with is hindsight. We're looking backwards and, gosh, we can be so brilliant retrospectively. And I think that what we've got to do is realize now that we realize there is a problem with radiation. Some people in your uranium business say, "Hey, you know it can be due to your high arsenic levels in your community" or whatever. Sure, it could be due to the toothbrush- the toothpaste that I use also, but we know that there is an association of radiation and I don't care what they say. I think that we really are dealing with something that we really don't know anything about. But Lakeview mines were originally underground, but the uranium deposits were so erratic, the soil so unstable, and the water table so high, that they changed to open pit mining. Yet troubles continued to plague the company that had leased the mining rights from the original claim holders. The quality of the ore varied, and that from the Lucky Lass was so heavy with water that transportation costs ate up all the profits. The oil was dynamited out of the

ground and trucked to Lakeview, 15 miles away. Twenty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission had jurisdiction over all uranium mining and milling. But the commission was new at its work. It was created just a year before uranium had been discovered in Lake County and not much was known about the long term effects of radiation exposure. Today's controversy however begins even earlier. Uranium has a half life of 200 million years after billions and billions of years and chemical changes it becomes lead. But as long as it's radioactive enough to still be uranium, it gives off radioactive isotopes. Tracy and Lindsay and their supporters say, however, that Lake County uranium was and is in a state of equilibrium, that this is a very stable form of uranium with the level of radioactivity so low that it's really not dangerous. Critics say that a state of equilibrium is not the point, that as long as it's radioactive enough to still be uranium there is a danger in how it's handled.

During the time Lakeview Mining operated the plant in Lakeview, Oregon, they were under the complete supervision of AEC. They would come in and check not only the mine, but the plant. Former partner in the Lucky Lass Mine, Don Lindsey. They coulda had standards for the mining but they were more interested in just the ore that was coming out of the ground. If there was any safety standards, I don't know of any at that time. It's available for the uranium mine mortality experience. Do confirm there is an extra risk of death. And the major cause of death is lung cancer. And that's been confirmed. Four Lakeview women have formed a nonprofit corporation, the Radiation Education Council. They hope to raise

questions and resolve some of Lakeviews uranium controversy. Sally Bourgeois is the director of the REC. We're concerned about what may be happening up at the White King and the Lucky Lass mines because there's a pronto ore, which is a low grade uranium ore, quite a large quantity of it, on the surface of the ground up there. And the tests that were done, for Western Nuclear by Beacon, Incorporated and given to the Forest Service indicate that the groundwater up there fluctuates a great deal in the contaminants that are in it. So. When I talked to the hydrologist Mike Lorei. At that time he said they felt that fluctuation might indicate a real linkage between the test areas that they had tested for water and the mines themselves, and the water coming out of the White King also goes by the overburden, or pronto ore,

as it goes then into Auger Creek and comes down into the basin. So there are at least a couple different ways, that we feel, that there's real possibility of water contamination occurring above ground and then in the aquifers beneath the ground, that would later show up in, perhaps wells. Since the Lucky Lass and about three quarters of the White King are on national forest lands. the U.S. Forest Service has a responsibility for those old mine sites. But the issue of water contamination from the mines remains in question. Forest Service hydrologist Michael Lorei. Well, that's a tough question to answer. I doubt that, you can't say whether it has or hasn't. Either way. The mining activities occured such a long time ago, that they did not take any water quality samples prior to the mining activity. So you can say that we have affected it, that the mining activity has affected water quality or Auger Creek or that it hasn't. Have you tested for any uranium or the decay products up there?

We have not as yet done that. We do plan on doing that this spring, in May, we've already contacted the Oregon Department of --State Department of Health. What where the [inaudible] have to be before you do any testing of the deep aquifer that eventually feed the city wells. Well. That, I think that that would be Oregon Department of Health's problem. Our basic responsibility is for protection of national forest resources and uses in the area. And when the DEQ, and the Department of Energy, the geologist from Oregon State and State Department of Health was here, our community asked and said, "All right. Who has responsibility of the mine site? We know about

the tailings area in the mill site but what about the mine site?" Well, the State Department of Health felt that it was on federal land so it was under a federal authority. Well, the federal people felt that they really didn't have any jurisdiction on it because it was a radiation thing should go to Department of Energy. And so in Oregon we had no governmental body watching. Lucky Lass uranium was shipped to Utah, but the White King's was processed right in Lakeview, just half a mile from town. The ore was crushed and ground, and then leeched with chemicals to extract the uranium, or yellowcake as it's called. Almost 90,000 pounds of yellowcake was sold to the U.S. at $15 per pound. Incredibly the AEC and later the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had no authority over radioactive waste from uranium mills. Not until Congress passed the uranium mill tailings Act of 1978 has the

NRC had a say in tailings disposal. In it's two years of operation the Lakeview mining company produced almost 130,000 tons of waste tailings. They were first put into a 50 acre spread of evaporation ponds to dry. Later they were transferred to an adjacent 30 acre field that eventually was 10 feet high with tailings. Much of the controversy and the questions about Lakeview's cancer possibilities revolves around the handling of those tailings. For 15 years they lay uncovered, exposed to Lakeview's famous dust and wind. Two major decay products of uranium are radium and radon gas, and they have a natural electrical affinity for dust particles. In Lakeview critics say, the uncovered tailings pile provided an ideal setting for its radium to combine with eastern Oregon dust. The tailings gross gamma activity, which includes all radioactive materials as well as radon gas, was measured by the State Division of Health, that between five to two hundred times higher than Lakeview's natural background radiation levels.

Lake County Commissioner Les Scholl remembers how it was before the pile was covered with two feet of dirt. When the, before the actual tailings were covered, in the dry season, the wind would pick up that, it very fine dust. It was ground twice through the ball mill and rod mill, very fine, and naturally it'd do a lot of blowing and people living in that area, blew right into their houses. I can understand the objection. The radon gas emissions are fairly harmful to the public because radon gas collects in homes and can be inhaled. And thus cause lung cancer. What's wrong with our tailings pile is that they are not sure what is happening underneath the tailings pile. Radium is seeping down below the tailings into a clay liner. A natural clay liner but the Department of

Energy and REC are both concerned about what is happening to possible water contamination. There's contamination happening there. Also, the fencing around it we don't feel it is adequate. We feel it should be higher fence to keep the public out. And it should also have signs that warn the public of radiation, present. radiation. The evaporation ponds have not been covered at all. They blow dust across the tailings pile which adheres is to the radon gas and thus transmits it even further downwind. The cover on the tailings pile is weak. We feel that with only 18 to 24 inches of dirt cover, the taproot from the wheat penetrates the tailings thus bringing up the radio-nucleides into the head of, the kernel of wheat. And any sort of birds or animals that would go out there to eat

this would pick up the radiation in their bodies. Also there's cattle grazing around this facility that we feel should not be there. At the time it was covered. I'd say the most recent time it was covered, it was covered in conformity with the regulations that existed at the time. Matter of fact, I think I accompanied the Health Department inspectors to Lakeview on that particular visit. They had their standards sort of in hand to conform to, and they were satisfied that they conformed at the time. If there's been a 10 foot requirement since then, that makes it an additional protection. In the mill site itself. I think as far as I'm concerned. It has been adequately contained. Now, there's a question or. It's been contained by. Three feet of

dirt. What will be a really interesting would be to apply to the Oregon Department of Health to make a x-ray room and make your walls. I'd like to apply for three feet of dirt rather than lead. It's hard for me to equivocate lead shielding with three feet of dirt. And this. again this is a question that was asked to them and they assured us that there again, the proof is in the measurement. And I would rely on them, for expertise. Because of a greater awareness of the dangers of low level radiation, the State Health Division has monitored the water on the mill site since 1972. Once each year at five different places the surface water runoff and one test well is checked for uranium decay products. Radium has been found at 0.5 part per million far below the standard set by EPA of five parts per million. But some Lake County residents dispute those findings. They say the Lakeview water supply, its creeks, groundwater and deep

aquifers are likely to be in the same danger as those in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. They point to EPA studies of groundwater and tailings piles there and claim that radium and thorium are highly soluble in water. They would like further testing of Lakeview's water supply. However, George Toombs, who heads up the state health division's radiation surveillance team, says the Lakeview water and tailing situation are not the same as those in other states. That their are radium and thorium are highly resistant to leeching with chemicals, and impossibly so with water. So much so, that Toombs says his chemists groan when he brings in water samples to be tested. He says it's just not accurate to compare Lakeview tailings with those in Colorado. Standards have a way of becoming obsolete and the new NRC standards for the uranium industry don't reassure the REC and others. They wonder whether in another 20 years these standards will be declared inadequate too. And they fear the

consequences if they are. Well-intentioned people have tried to understand the controversy about uranium in the preceding 20 years in Lakeview. But instead of answers, they've been given the bureaucratic shuffle. We're unable to secure financial backing for the study that we propose to do. There doesn't seem to be a good source of financial backing for research studies on environmental health problems in the state of Oregon. We probably can get, eventually get some support from federal agencies but it takes a long time and there really needs to be a local source of funding for this kind of activity. That will deal with these problems. For example, the response that we got from the national agency that we did consult, oh, it's having to be headquartered in New York City, was that a number of people involved

was so small that it wasn't worth studying. What we asked for we asked for, firstly from the State Department of Health, we asked for a statistical analysis of our data and see whether it's really a true thing. We were able to get assistance through them. Dr. Morton, who is with the Department of Environmental Medicine, Division of Public Health, at the Medical School, applied for a study was turned down. We asked the American Cancer Society to help us in the funding and whatever and was turned down. We met with Dr. Ralph Benson who was then chairman of the Oregon Division of the American Cancer Society, and it was explained to us that truly all American Cancer Society does is to fund research oriented programs, not environmental research and this

wasn't under their categorization. And so we could not get any assistance in evaluating what we had and what we didn't have. And so what I asked our county commissioners to allocate funding for a statistician. Much of the frustration of those who question the past and the future of uranium mining in Oregon is the result of simply not getting answers to what they see as valid questions. The only data available in Oregon to explain the possible cancer increase in Lake County and now as well, the highest death rates in the state for infants during their entire first year of life, comes from death certificates. And death certificates signed by some lake county doctors don't say much. Some doctors don't list the contributing causes of death. For example, people that have had leukemia or lung cancer for years before they finally died, have been listed as having only died of heart failure with no mention of the contributing malignancy. Death rates alone cannot show the real state of cancer incidence

in Lake County. Only data that reflects the actual number of cancer cases can show whether a trend exists. And at this time no cancer incidence studies are planned in Lake County by any agency, state, regional or federal. When uranium fever was in its most contagious form in Lakeview, all the AEC and the state asked was, "How much uranium have you produced?" Now when there are possible problems, Lakeview is left to face them alone. Well, I don't believe this problem has been brought directly to the legislature's attention yet. But the legislative restrictions imposed on the State Health Division have seriously impaired our ability to deal with these kinds of problems in general. And that is that the legislature does not provide any state money, budgetary support for research and development, for analysis of vital statistics. And that should be happening. The state of Washington sees

fit to invest money in the research on the health of its citizens. But Oregon does not. And the situation has been steadily getting worse. Personally I don't. I think that they should get off our backs, as I wrote to Gov. Atiyeh. But, it's very probable that there is a higher cancer rate here than there is in the rest of the state, just as Dr. "Bones?" and County health officers pointed out. Something of a study was made a few years ago. It was not completed. And he's basing his remarks on that. positive study. And I don't doubt that this is true. The doctor is a very honorable man and certainly a good doctor. And he's certainly sincere in his wish to find out just what is causing it. And for that reason they had during their requests, Dr. "Bowman's?" request and the local hospital. County commissioners did put in the budget $2000 to complete the study. Which

is not been done yet. But. I wish they would find someone to come in and complete that study. And find out just why, if there is more cancer here, why? Personally I think that when they do find out, they'll turn out to be that there's more cancer are here because we're closer to the sun. than the rest of the state. I think it's long overdue. The fact that that some of our people have become interested enough to form groups to inform the public and to go before the state legislature, I think this is great. I think we needed this and I hope that they will feel that we are important enough to send someone down here to really do some testing and give us some some good facts. That we don't have to just wonder about this dust blowing around. And about the fact that our animals are eating the the grass that possibly is contaminated. We'd like to know. We'd like to know about our water

contamination. I think this is a real threat here because of the the milling. The mining rather. Are we drinking contaminated water? What is the reason for the high cancer rate here? There's... I don't think there's anyone that can deny Lakeview has a very high cancer rate. And we want to know why? This last April the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wrote the first standards for Uranium milling. The Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Council has made rules for uranium processing, but mining has not yet been addressed. For a look at the future of uranium mining in Oregon, join us on Tuesday, January 29, with studio guests in Salem. [inaudible] Oregon report, join us for the WEEKEND EDITION. Thank you for watching and good night. [music] [sound of water rippling] Three National Football League powerhouses

taken the New England Patriots rather lightly in recent weeks and Steve Grogan is really shot them down. He's a second year quarterback from Kansas State. He has beaten Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw and Kenny Stabler, leading the Patriots to upset wins over Miami, Pittsburgh and Oakland. PBS radio, take us with you, it's the natural thing to do. [inaudible announcer in the background]