Holbrook Basin, Arizona
The Environmental Cost of Mineral Exploitation
Located south of the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona, the Holbrook Basin is wholly contained within the larger Little Colorado River Watershed. The heart of the Holbrook Basin rests in a triangle of land created by the confluence of the Little Colorado River
and its main tributary, the Rio Puerco. On its eastern flank, the
Holbrook Basin overlaps the fragile environment of Petrified Forest
National Park. Over the years, the Holbrook Basin has been a hotbed of
mineral exploration, if not major exploitation. Oil, natural gas and
uranium ore are but a few of the resources prospected or extracted from
the Holbrook Basin.
The City of Holbrook is the County Seat for Navajo County,
Arizona. Interstate I-40, Historic Route 66 and the Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) all pass through Holbrook. In addition,
Holbrook hosts the only golf course along I-40 between Gallup, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona. Water from the adjacent Little Colorado River makes that amenity possible.
Upstream and to the east of Holbrook, the confluence of the Rio Puerco and the Little Colorado River creates a larger, seasonal flow. Radiochemical contamination
is present in the alluvial aquifer along the Puerco River. The elevated
levels of gross alpha and gross beta are caused by the movement of
uranium-, radium-, and thorium-rich sediments from the 1979 Church Rock uranium mine tailing pond spill
in New Mexico (Webb and others, 1988) and discharges of mine dewatering
effluent, which ceased in 1986 (U.S. Geological Survey, 1991b).
Movement
of existing radionuclides is due to discharges from the
sewage-treatment plant in Gallup, New Mexico (U.S. Geological Survey,
1991b). This area is considered one of the principal water-quality
problem areas in the state (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality,
1990). After learning late about prior nuclear contamination along the
Rio Puerco, the Navajo Nation outlawed uranium mining on its reservation
in 2005. In 2010, despite Navajo objections, Uranium Resources, Inc.
(URI) received approval to restart uranium mining within the
contamination zone created by the 1979 spill.
Strathmore Minerals Corp.
(purchased by Energy Fuels Corp. in 2013) is also listed as controlling
640 acres adjacent to the URI site. The ninety-four million gallon
Church Rock Spill was the largest release of low-level nuclear radiation
in U.S. history. Despite that, in-situ recovery (ISR) mines are now
being planned for the area. With the use of hydraulic injection and
subsequent pumping, both groundwater depletion and produced water are of
concern to the Navajo Nation.
Subsequent to the 1979 spill, the Navajo were not told that surface
flow along the Rio Puerco was caused largely by uranium mine dewatering.
Pre-ancestral memories run deep. To this day, cattle and domestic
animals rely on the alluvial aquifer of the Rio Puerco to quench their
thirst.
According to mining industry sources, the
Holbrook Basin is located in an area with excellent infrastructure and
is known to contain a 600 square mile potash bed in its Permian Supai Formation
(Arizona Geological Survey Open File Report 08-07). The potash bed was
drilled and delineated in the 1960s and 1970s by Duvall Corporation and
Arkla Exploration. Due to low potash prices in the 1970's the Holbrook
Basin potash bed saw no development since its discovery.
A recent AZJournal article
quotes the Arizona Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AZOGCC) as
saying, "There are now 38 core holes permitted in the Holbrook Basin.
While Passport Potash holds the permits to 19 of those holes, HNZ
Potash, also known as HNZ Holding, LLC,
a joint venture of Hunt Oil and NZ Legacy Resources, holds the other 19
permits. Efforts to contact the company have gone without response, but
according to its now defunct website, HNZ Potash is the largest private
owner of the Holbrook Basin deposit with a reported land position of
74,000 acres." The former HNZ website was so secretive that it required
the visitor to defeat a log-in request before accessing their Home Page.
Drilling applications filed with the state indicate that HNZ now controls the old Arkla Exploration properties, first explored over fifty years ago.
In March 2011, Ringbolt Ventures entered into agreement with Passport Potash, Inc. for the exploration and development of Ringbolt Holbrook Basin potash property. Ringbolt
Ventures (and now Passport Potash) has been granted fifteen State
mineral exploration permits in the Holbrook Basin. On their website,
they say, "If compared to the
Saskatchewan, Canada mines that operate at far greater depths, the
relatively shallow depths of these occurrences should lend its self
towards a much larger recovery of the potash ore”. At the time of this writing, Passport was continuing negotiations with the Karlsson Group Inc.
on the terms of a Definitive Cooperative Agreement (the "DCA") in which
Passport and Karlsson outline plans to jointly develop their potash
resources. By combining holdings, Passport and Karlsson control over 120
sections of state and private lands which total nearly 80,000 acres.
On
the Passport Potash website, they once displayed an image of
conventional (shaft mining) and a diagram of in-situ recovery (solution)
mining. There they say, “Potash
deposits in the Holbrook Basin are considered shallow by industry
standards, with deposits ranging at depths of between 800 and 1300 ft.,
which is a major advantage for Passport.” Nowhere on the website do they
indicate a preference for one mining technique over the other.
To what extent Passport Potash will pump ground water from the aquifer adjacent the Little Colorado River remains to be seen. In discussing their recent exploratory drilling program, Passport said, “This
hole represents the first exploration for potash within the boundaries
of the Twin Buttes Ranch (on their Holbrook Basin property) in more than
forty-five years. Potash was intercepted in this hole and has been
confirmed by both visual inspection and by downhole geophysical
logging”.
Further,
they said, “Upon completion of drilling and logging, the hole has been
converted into a producing water well. Water is present in the well and
will be used in the ongoing drill program at a considerable cost saving
to the company. The company has also set up a field office at the well
site and this area will now serve as a base of operations from this
point forward.” Although water wells are necessary to explore the location and extent of potash 
reserves,
the public is left to believe that Passport Potash might use
conventional shaft mining for their Holbrook Basin project. Was their
“producing well” intended only for exploration, or did it foreshadow
full-scale hydraulic injection mining throughout the basin? If not, why
does the current Arizona Geological Survey map show forty-five wells
permitted in the Holbrook Basin by the state since 2009?
With her Pulitzer Prize-worthy reporting, Linda Kor
was first to break the story that Passport Potash plans an in-situ
recovery (ISR) mine on their Holbrook Holdings. In a March 18, 2011
AZJournal article, Kor interviewed Passport Potash mine engineer Allen
Wells. Wells was quick to point out that while other types of mining use
cyanide or acids to flush out minerals, in mining potash, the only
solution that will be used is salt and water. When asked where the water
would come from for the project, Wells referred to the aquifer that
runs beneath the earth’s surface. “With the current drilling that we’re
doing the aquifer is pumping 200 gallons per minute. We would be pumping
2,000 gallons per minute to provide the solution for the mine,” he
stated.
Prior
to the granting of a full mining permit, the public has a right to
know, once and for all, if Passport Potash plans to operate a
conventional mine or a solution mine in the Holbrook Basin. If Passport
Potash plans a conventional mine, then I say, “Bravo”. A conventional
mine at Twin Buttes Ranch should not place significant additional burden
on the water table of an already overstressed regional aquifer. Their
stated intention to pump up to 2,000 gallons of water per minute in
support of an in-situ potash mine does not bode well for the indigenous
cultures of the Little Colorado River Basin. Only by retaining a steady
state in the regional aquifers can the Navajo and the Hopi avoid seeing their wells go dry, thus ending over 4200 years of continuous cultivation on their sacred tribal lands.Author's Note: Comment by Carla Padilla on July 30, 2016 12:25 PM.
My
great grandfather was Juan Padilla. He was the first to settle by the
confluence of the Lift Colorado River & the Rio Puerco. My father
told me he had Spanish land grants & he settled this area because
there was plenty of water and the grass was as tall as his chest. It is
so very sad to see that this precious commodity has now been
contaminated by human negligence.
Email James McGillis
By
James McGillis
at 03:48 PM |
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right.
When she built there in 1998, remoteness from sources of
electromagnetic radiation and other sources of environmental sensitivity
were her main goal.
right.
When she built there in 1998, remoteness from sources of
electromagnetic radiation and other sources of environmental sensitivity
were her main goal.
Although
she admits that the design of her home might be “overkill” for the
problems she then faced, she designed a state-of-the-art “safe house”
for herself. From its concrete-block construction, steel roof and steel
panels inside all interior walls, to ceramic tile floors and walls, she
attempted to eliminate all sources of chemical and electromagnetic
pollution. If there was a logical theory on how to ameliorate any of
those issues, she employed it in the construction of her home.
Although
she does not consider herself a radical environmentalist, Kathy does
monitor potential threats to her sanctuary. Over the years, she has
helped keep giant wind turbines away from residential areas in
Snowflake. From a atop her tiny travel trailer,she allowed the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to facilitate air quality monitoring on her property. When the subject of emissions from nearby Arizona Public Service (APS)
coal-fired power plants in the area comes up, Kathy attends every
meeting. When she and I met, it was to discuss the possible impact of in-situ potash mining planned near Holbrook, Arizona. As of this writing, she was in Tucson, Arizona for a meeting of the Arizona Legislative Mining Caucus. She hoped to meet the potash fellows, as well as the state geologist, state oil and gas administrator, and others. 
Over
a decade after her departure from the rigors of software engineering in
Silicon Valley, I am pleased to report that Kathy Hemenway is well,
safe and happy in Snowflake Arizona. If you contact her, please be aware
that she lives in two worlds. One of her worlds connects to all via
telephone, the internet and visits with friends and neighbors. Yet, the
address of her house does not appear on Google Maps, MapQuest, Yahoo or
Bing. If you follow any of their directions, you will end up on a dirt
road to nowhere. All of that is acceptable to Kathy Hemenway. Visits to
her unique world are by invitation only.
