WHITE MESA, Utah \u2014 On a hot April day, Malcolm Lehi maneuvered his Jeep Wrangler over a rough dirt road past junipers and sagebrush in search of Entrance Spring on land long connected to his tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute.<\/p>\n
The cool, mossy spring lies just across the highway from White Mesa Mill, the nation\u2019s only remaining conventional uranium mill<\/a>, which produces yellowcake for nuclear power fuel.<\/p>\n For decades, the mill has sparked debate over whether radioactive contamination threatens human health by getting into the water and the air. Concerns run especially deep in the White Mesa Ute Community, where Lehi and about 200 members of his tribe live some 5 miles south of the facility.<\/p>\n State regulators and the company that owns the mill contend that any pollution associated with it is contained. That\u2019s little consolation to nearby tribal members, who \u2014 aware of uranium\u2019s deadly legacy across the Colorado Plateau \u2014 have raised questions about the potential spread of toxic waste. Many won\u2019t drink the local water, relying on bottled water instead.<\/p>\n Now the tribe\u2019s concerns have taken on new urgency as the U.S. pushes to revive domestic uranium production. A federal law, passed in 2024, bans imports of Russian uranium<\/a> by 2028, increasing pressure to develop domestic fuel supplies. President Donald Trump set a goal to quadruple<\/a> U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050. He issued orders<\/a> to prioritize mining on federal lands and fast-track approval of mining projects. The Velvet-Wood uranium mine in Utah, for instance, zipped through federal environmental review<\/a> in 11 days, to the dismay of local tribes<\/a> who were given one week to offer input.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s goal of quadrupling nuclear power capacity will be hard to meet, because it would require constructing more reactors \u2014 which are difficult to build and often meet local opposition, said David Hart<\/a>, a senior fellow for climate and energy at the Council on Foreign Relations. But data centers and rising electricity demand have intensified interest in nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source, he said. And more states<\/a> are opening the door<\/a> to it.<\/p>\n So the effort to obtain the key ingredient, uranium, is underway.<\/p>\n The White Mesa Mill, built in 1980 near what is now Bears Ears National Monument<\/a> in southeastern Utah, is a focal point of this latest uranium boom \u2014 and the tensions between local tribal concerns and national economic interests. Increased demand draws a steady flow of trucks carrying uranium ore to the mill from regional mines, including one near the Grand Canyon where the Havasupai Tribe lives. That ore is trucked through the Navajo Nation. And the mill plans to expand its waste storage, as well.<\/p>\n A former tribal councilmember, Lehi is part of a growing opposition that includes members of the Havasupai and Navajo (Din\u00e9) tribes, who are now linked by the uranium trucking routes passing through their lands. The Havasupai and Ute Mountain Ute tribes share concerns that toxic wastewater from uranium mining and milling may move through the ground and poison drinking water for future generations.<\/p>\n White Mesa Mill, 5 miles north of White Mesa, Utah, on April 21. (Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n A History of Distrust<\/strong><\/p>\n One spring morning in White Mesa, Yolanda Badback gazed out an open door not far from the highway and watched three uranium trucks drive by.<\/p>\n \u201cThere goes another one,\u201d Badback said with a tone of exhaustion. She is a Ute Mountain Ute member and leader of the White Mesa Concerned Community<\/a> advocacy group that has been fighting the mill.<\/p>\n The mill receives 10 to 15 trucks each weekday, said Curtis Moore, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development at Energy Fuels<\/a>, which has owned the facility since 2012. The majority pass through White Mesa.<\/p>\n The mill\u2019s business is picking up after a quiet 15 years, Moore said. The White Mesa Mill produced 1 million pounds of yellowcake last year; the company plans to more than double<\/a> that this year, he said. The mill has also diversified into processing radioactive waste from as far away as Estonia<\/a> and Japan, and received a $725 million conditional loan commitment<\/a> from the Defense Department to scale up its domestic processing of rare earth elements.<\/p>\n The new rare earths business alone could create 100 permanent jobs, Moore said. About half of the mill\u2019s 105 workers are Indigenous; Moore estimated that no more than two belong to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to tribes in the area, I do very much understand their skepticism of uranium,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been lied to before.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal highway 191 brings trucks carrying uranium ore through the White Mesa community (in foreground) in Utah to White Mesa Mill, about 5 miles to the north. Shown overhead from a plane on March 22. (EcoFlight)<\/p>\n A uranium boom driven by the U.S. government from the 1940s through the 1980s, much of it concentrated around the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, exposed miners to heightened rates of mortality<\/a> from lung and other cancers. Federal reviews found that the miners, many of them Navajo (Din\u00e9), were not warned about radiation risks<\/a><\/a> even after government scientists understood the dangers. Mining companies left behind thousands of abandoned waste sites that have leached contamination into surrounding soil and water, including over 500 spots<\/a> on and near the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n But Moore said things have changed a lot since the 1950s. He said workers today are exposed to 15% to 20% of allowable radiation limits, and outside the mill it\u2019s \u201ceffectively zero.\u201d<\/p>\n Government agencies and Energy Fuels officials have said there\u2019s no evidence that the mill is affecting White Mesa\u2019s drinking water supply, which comes from a deep aquifer protected by a thick rock barrier known as an aquitard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really is the perfect site for a uranium mill,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n A truck leaves White Mesa Mill. (Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n Scott Clow, environmental programs director of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said that deep aquifer does have quality issues \u2014 including arsenic, iron, and manganese \u2014 but the public drinking water is filtered and safe to drink.<\/p>\n Adam Wingate, uranium recovery manager at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality<\/a>, said he understands why some residents are concerned. White Mesa is downslope in terms of underground water flow from the uranium mill.<\/p>\n If locals hear about the plume of contamination in a different, shallower aquifer beneath the mill \u2014 even if it\u2019s not the source of their drinking water \u2014 and their own water tastes funny, \u201cthat\u2019s a scary spot to be in,\u201d he said. But based on available evidence, Wingate said, locals\u2019 \u201chealth is not at risk because of the mill.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, Lehi and Badback said that the tap water smells of sulfur and has a milky color, and that people in White Mesa typically don\u2019t drink it.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t trust it,\u201d said Badback, whose family has been fighting the mill for decades. \u201cMy main goal is to shut the mill down.\u201d<\/p>\n Yolanda Badback speaks at a No Kings rally in Moab, Utah, on March 28. (Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n An annual spiritual walk and protest<\/a> sponsored by Badback\u2019s group has grown over the past decade amid deep distrust rooted in uranium mining\u2019s history. Much of the opposition centers on the mill\u2019s toxic waste, which is stored in five lined pits called tailings cells occupying 284 acres of land.<\/p>\n Badback vows to fight expansion plans that include new tailings cells located about a quarter-mile closer to the White Mesa community than the current ones. Moore said the cells will be triple-lined per modern standards.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to expand south towards my reservation,\u201d Badback said. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason why I am standing up and doing whatever I can to stop that from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Concerns About Air Quality<\/strong><\/p>\n At a No Kings rally in March in Moab, about 80 miles north of White Mesa, Badback gave a speech and staffed a table offering T-shirts and information.<\/p>\n \u201cNo Uranium,\u201d the T-shirts read. \u201cProtect White Mesa Ute Community.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2021, her tribe passed a resolution<\/a> stating that the White Mesa Mill \u201chas had severe health impacts on the residents of White Mesa and should cease entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n Badback (second from right) of White Mesa Concerned Community and Sarah Fields (at right) of Uranium Watch run an information table about White Mesa Mill at a No Kings rally in Moab, Utah, on March 28. (Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n While their psychological stress is palpable, other health effects have been hard to prove.<\/p>\n A 2023 federal health assessment<\/a> concluded that radiation levels measured at the tribe\u2019s air monitor in the center of White Mesa from 2013 to 2019 were unlikely to harm human health. But the authors said they could not evaluate whether the mill\u2019s radon emissions could affect bordering properties or residents. They recommended that the tribe collect air samples closer to the mill, during times of heightened mill activity.<\/p>\n In December 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency found the mill was violating the Clean Air Act by failing to cover one of its tailings cells with liquid to limit emissions of radon, a known cause of lung cancer. The EPA called the violation \u201cegregious in nature and duration\u201d and temporarily barred the mill from receiving waste from Superfund cleanup sites.<\/p>\n The mill corrected the problem, according to state regulators, and passed its latest air quality review<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n White Mesa Mill\u2019s radioactive waste is stored in five tailings cells, which occupy 284 acres of land in Blanding, Utah, as shown overhead from a plane on March 22. (EcoFlight)<\/p>\n Still, some White Mesa residents remain uneasy. Badback and Lehi complained of odors, which they attribute to the mill, that smell like chemicals or rotten eggs. She has raised concerns about air quality and rates of cancer and asthma, which are being explored by a University of Utah health survey.<\/p>\n Moore denied that any odors from the mill could be smelled beyond the mill parking lot.<\/p>\n Utah air quality officials said the state does not conduct ambient air monitoring in White Mesa and does not regulate odors.<\/p>\n Watching the Water<\/strong><\/p>\n That spring day, Lehi continued to look for Entrance Spring. On the horizon lay the silhouette of Sleeping Ute Mountain, a landmark of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said to be the body of a great warrior god.<\/p>\n Along the way, Lehi pointed out a circle of stones that he thought looked like an ancestral burial site. After parking the Jeep, he walked down a faint trail through a lush grove of willows and found his way into a streambed that he reckoned would lead to the spring.<\/p>\n The tribe doesn\u2019t rely on the spring for drinking water. But it\u2019s one of the seeps and springs that the tribe, the state, and the company monitor, because they offer clues to whether the mill\u2019s waste ponds are leaking into a less protected aquifer.<\/p>\n In the late 2000s, an EPA report<\/a> found elevated contamination by radionuclides \u2014 atoms that emit radiation as they decay \u2014 at Entrance Spring. EPA water samples found that uranium concentrations at times exceeded the federal drinking water standard. EPA and U.S. Geological Survey fieldwork suggested the uranium at Entrance Spring came not from leaking waste ponds but from dust that blew off the mill\u2019s ore storage pads.<\/p>\n The latest tests<\/a> from 2025 showed Entrance Spring had uranium levels at 22.5 micrograms per liter (\u00b5g\/L) \u2014 within the federal drinking standard of 30 \u00b5g\/L but still elevated.<\/p>\n Clow said the tribe continues to keep a close eye on the seeps and springs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re concerned about the pollution of those springs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are looking towards many generations in the future here.\u201d<\/p>\n Clow is also closely watching the Burro Canyon Aquifer, which lies beneath the mill\u2019s toxic waste cells and feeds the local springs. A plume of chloroform and another of nitrates already pollute the aquifer, said Wingate, with the state. He said Energy Fuels is pumping out the contamination.<\/p>\n When contaminants increase, it\u2019s hard to prove whether they stemmed from natural causes or mill activity, since substances such as sulfate and manganese occur naturally in the local bedrock. So Clow, the company, and state officials continually debate whether the tailings ponds are leaking. What\u2019s not in dispute is that the mill produces radioactive waste \u2014 and once that exists, it can linger for tens of thousands of years.<\/p>\n Lehi followed the stream to where it ends in a curved grotto \u2014 the site of Entrance Spring. Water oozed from a rock face into a pool, offering cool relief from the desert. Lehi looked around with wonder at the dripping green moss. A descendant of medicine men, Lehi said he feels a duty to protect the landscape as his ancestors did, even if the tribe doesn\u2019t currently use this spring for drinking water.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201cWater is life,\u201d Lehi said, \u201cbecause that\u2019s where we all began.\u201d<\/p>\n Lehi touches the cool water of Entrance Spring. (Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n This article was supported by <\/em>The Water Desk<\/em><\/a>, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado-Boulder\u2019s Center for Environmental Journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHITE MESA, Utah \u2014 On a hot April day, Malcolm Lehi maneuvered his Jeep Wrangler over a rough dirt road past junipers and sagebrush in search of Entrance Spring on land long connected to his tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute. The cool, mossy spring lies just across the highway from White Mesa Mill, the nation\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}