Texas Family with Contaminated Water Fighting Uranium Mining

The extended Garcia family has lived for five generations in a cluster of frame and trailer homes here that now has a sad distinction: Their water is contaminated with uranium at levels so high the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration has told them to stop drinking it and see their doctors.

State environmental officials and the company that has been mining uranium in the area for much of the last 20 years say the contamination is natural seepage from a vein of the radioactive material that runs near their well.

But the Garcias and other Kleberg County residents don’t accept that explanation and are fighting to prevent further mining.

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Demand for uranium has increased recently, and URI has proposed two new mines. Global stockpiles of uranium are dwindling and several countries, including China and India, have plans to build nuclear power plants.

STOP members, who number about a dozen, say an engineer mapped the underground for them in the mid-1990s and accurately predicted that contamination from the mine field would migrate first to the Garcia wells. They now fear poisoned water will seep toward the water supply of nearby Kingsville, population 26,000.

ENN