Potash Salt Tailings Threaten Colorado River Water Resources
In October 2010, I had an opportunity to view the Intrepid Potash Cane Creek Facility from the air. After a Redtail Aviation scenic flight over Canyonlands National Park, we turned back towards the Moab airport at Canyonlands Field. As we flew north along the Colorado River, our pilot banked the airplane around the place called Potash. Since the sky was hazy, my near-vertical shots turned out the best. If my earlier ground-level views had been disturbing, they did not prepare me for what I saw from the air.
Disclaimer
- Aerial photos are often difficult to interpret. From the distortion
of the window glass, to the interplay of light and shadow, the viewer
might mistake one thing for another. The following conclusions are mine
alone, and are based on the various visits and perspective views that I
have experienced at Potash. If Intrepid Potash, Inc., the State of Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining or the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (Moab Field Office) disagrees with my conclusions, they might still want to verify the facts for themselves.
When viewed as a unit, an in-situ recovery (ISR)
potash mine, the evaporation ponds and the processing and storage
structures comprise the Cane Creek Facility. Sitting on what looks like
the central bulge of the ancient Cane Creek Anticline, the facility
encompasses hundreds of acres. At its highest elevation are the
injection sites. While many in-situ mines require both injection and
pumping, the salt structures beneath Potash appear to spontaneously
eject brine at the surface. From there, wet potash salt tailings run
freely to the evaporation ponds. Terraced across the bench land is a set
of eighteen large ponds. A smaller set of six ponds extends almost to
the edge of a precipice. Surrounding those ponds on both sides are side
canyons that empty into the Colorado River.
If
all goes well, the produced water and fine tailings are retained by the
evaporation ponds. A plastic lining on the bottom of each pond is
designed to prevent groundwater seepage. However, several of my photos
showed what appeared to be brine running down from the evaporation
ponds. It was most clearly visible in the stream beds leading to the
Colorado River. My first thought was that concentrated brine was somehow
leaking from the evaporation ponds. As likely as that scenario might
be, I quickly thought of an alternative. Perhaps forty years of
hydraulic injection mining in this complex of fractured rock had created
springs that flow with brine-laden water. If water has interpenetrated
subsurface rock formations, it could undermine the ponds or cause a sinkhole.
If the underlying structure of the rock is compromised, a large seismic
or weather event could destroy the integrity of the earthen dikes that
retain the concentrated brine within the ponds. Could the current
seepage of brine re-manifest as a salt and fertilizer flood? Directly
below that mesa, unprotected by any catch basin lies the Colorado River.
Looking
down at the processing and storage structures from the airplane, I saw
potash spilled around it like recent snowfall. Along the roadways
surrounding the structures and at the loading area, finished potash and
salt spill freely. From there, wind, water and gravity move it down
toward the river. When properly applied, potash is an excellent
fertilizer. If millions of gallons of concentrated salt and potash were
to enter the Colorado river, it could threaten the agricultural and drinking water supply for over fourteen million people.
If
the Intrepid Potash Cane Creek Facility represents the current state of
the art in potash mining, what can we expect from the upcoming Passport Potash, Inc. mine in Arizona's Holbrook Basin?
If the proposed Holbrook Basin ISR potash mine goes into operation, it
would immediately become one of the top ten water users within the Little Colorado River Basin. Today, it is rare to find wind-powered water wells anywhere in the Four Corners.
Historical use of wind-driven pumps for cattle watering and cattle
fodder was pumping enough to dry out most Four Corners aquifers. With
regional water tables at historical lows,
most water sources are now too deep to tap with wind power. No one
knows exactly how much the Holbrook Basin aquifer may hold. One can only
hope that it is enough.
Most
of the water used at the Cane Creek Facility soaks into the ground as
brine-laden slurry or evaporates from the settling ponds. In this
desert-style solution mining, there appears to be little recycling or
reuse of produced water. If not for a steady supply of Colorado River
water, the Cane Creek Facility
would not be sustainable. If the proposed Passport Potash Holbrook,
Arizona Project utilizes solar energy to dry fine tailings, there will
be little remaining surface water there to recycle. A gallon pumped from
the Holbrook Basin aquifers could be a gallon gone forever.
Before potash mining is approved at the Holbrook
Basin play, the public deserves straightforward, honest and complete
answers regarding the intentions of Passport Potash and its partners.
Here are my questions:
-
Is Passport Potash proposing a conventional mine or an in-situ recovery (ISR) mine in the Holbrook Basin?
-
If it is to be a solution mine, what water sources do they plan to tap?
-
How much water will their one-to-two million tons per year (1-2 mtpy) mine require?
-
If produced brine is injected back into rock strata below, could it raise the salinity of the aquifer?
-
Is there sufficient seasonal inflow to the aquifer, or will the mine require a net annual withdrawal from the aquifer?
-
If there will be a water deficit, what environmental impact will there be on the Holbrook Basin and the Little Colorado River Basin at large?
-
Is the economic development created by ISR potash mines in the Holbrook Basin worth the risk of environmental degradation?
Before
full-scale ISR mining accelerates all over the Four Corners, we need an
honest and independent appraisal of its environmental impact. Not
bothering to conduct an environmental impact study, the Utah BLM Office
recently downplayed the impact of potash mining in the Sevier Valley, Utah.
In fact, they published a statement that mining there would have "no
impact". With solution mining in the Four Corners, there is always an
impact, not the least of which is a trade-off between mineral yield and
water usage. Plans are currently underway by both Ringbolt Ventures
and Mesa Exploration for ISR potash mines in the Lisbon Valley, Utah.
Uranium Resources, Inc. has approval for an ISR uranium mine on the
Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Although still contested in court, plans
go forward for extraction of oil sands from the Uintah Basin, Utah.
With so many plans underway to divert or pump water into mineral
processing, we can no longer ignore the issue of regional water usage.
There is not, after all, an unlimited supply.
As a child, I would often share a milkshake with a
friend. From the word, “Go”, we would each suck on our straw as fast as
we could until the glass was empty. Shall we now stand by and watch as
the quest for oil sands, uranium and potash production dries every
aquifer in the Colorado River Basin? Continuing on our current heedless path guarantees a future with water shortages for all.
Author's Note: Article updated 9/2/2017.
Read Chapter One – The Little Colorado River Basin
Read Chapter Two – Holbrook, Arizona Basin - Potash
Read Chapter Three - Holbrook Basin Water CrisisBy James McGillis at 01:16 PM | Colorado River | Comments (1) | Link