(January 27, 2009)

RICARDO--In Kleberg County, the economic downturn is leading to a slowdown at a uranium plant that's been around for two decades. In fact, the company plans to shut down temporarily over the next month and start working on restoration.

The uranium mining plant opened up in 1988. Ever since then, critics have asked how the company plans to clean up. With a slow down expected soon, workers have started that process.

Uranium Resources Inc. (URI) workers showed us yellowcake i.e. uranium that has come from the Area 3 mines at the Kingsville Dome. They said the price of uranium plummetted by nearly $100 since July 2007 and they'll soon stop mining. 

"We'll mine those," said Rick Van Horn, who is the COO for the Uranium Resources Inc., in Ricardo. "When we're done with those, we'll probably sit down and wait for the price to come back."

Word about the mining coming to end concerns opponents of the uranium mines. South Texas Opposing Pollution leaders said these mines need to be cleaned up.

"They have been in the process of cleaning up in the last 20 years," said Mark Walsh, a member of STOP. "They have not cleaned out any area yet; Area 1, 2 or 3."

URI officials said Area 1 and 2. areas that were mined in the past, are nearly all cleaned up.

"We still have two oil fields that we need to clean up," said Van Horn . "That's 11 and 12 that's just south of 1118. Basically all of the areas have been cleaned up except for those."

Aouut ten workers have put these drainage pipes out in the fields to test the ground water. They're bringing about 20 million gallons of water a month through this $600,000 reverse osmosis machine.

"Basically what this is doing removing all the constituents in the water, cleaning the water," Van Horn said, "This is restoration. All of our water goes through this."

Opponents say that's a step in the right direction, but they're worried about what will happen to the 1,500 production wells in the area.

"Then they have to reclaim the surface, plug the wells, take out all the pipes and have to return it to its original state," Walsh said. "That's a big job."

"After the state signs off on the ground water cleanup, we would plug and abandon the wells," said Van Horn. "Fill them from bottom to top with concrete."

Company officials hope to have these mines cleaned up within the next couple of years.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com