“I see the trucks that go in and out every day now,” Badback said.
And state regulators, Clow said, don’t appear to share the tribe’s interest in addressing the pollution.
Instead of answers, Kerr received a letter from Geosyntec’s attorneys objecting to his use of the request for information process and asking him to “revise or rescind” his questions.
Kerr’s company walked off the job a few months after the dispute began, leaving at least 4 acres of the cell covered in loose rock.
Division engineers, he hoped, would have documentation to prove that the mill had made significant changes to his original job specs.
The pollution predates the construction of the new tailings cells — including the cell Kerr excavated, which is not currently in use.
But the contamination is spreading toward the White Mesa community, Clow said, and concentrations of some pollutants are increasing.
And the overall increase of acidity in the water below White Mesa — that’s not coming from the waste cells, either, Goble said, because it occurs in groundwater both uphill and downhill from the cells.
A 2013 letter to Energy Fuels shows the Division of Radiation Control agreed to revise several background levels for groundwater at the site, including the benchmark for uranium.
State officials have repeatedly argued that the contaminated water is not used by the tribe — that the community of White Mesa draws its drinking water from a deeper source that remains clean.

Environmental Integrity Project assessed water pollution by nearly 100 large meat-processing facilities in the U.S., The Chicago Tribune reported .
The report found meat-processing giant JBS’s Beardstown plant released about an average of 1,850 pounds of nitrogen daily into an Illinois River tributary.
The discharges are within limits placed by the Clean Water Act.
The company said it’s inaccurate to imply that the plant makes discharges daily when it only discharged 295 days last year.
"The JBS Beardstown pork facility is well within its permitting requirements and has achieved improved environmental compliance since our acquisition of the facility in late October 2015," the company said in a statement.
"Those pollutants include nitrogen, which is a chronic water pollutant across the U.S., especially in rural areas."
The wastewater typically goes through a treatment facility, but residual nutrients such as nitrogen can stimulate algae blooms that deplete oxygen levels as they decompose.
This can suffocate fish and create dead zones.
Schaeffer said the report’s findings indicate a need to revisit the limits on slaughterhouse waste, which were last modified in 2004.
"What we’re seeing is that permit limits are too relaxed."

More than a quarter of illnesses in Gaza are caused by water pollution, a new study has said, noting that this is the main cause of mortality in the coastal enclave that has endured an Israeli siege since 2007.
The study, which the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a copy of, was carried out by RAND Corporation, an American NGO.
It said that it reached these findings four years ago and that “since that time these numbers have continued to grow”.
Based on the report, Haaretz said that the collapse of water infrastructure has led to a sharp rise in germs and viruses such as rotavirus, cholera and salmonella.
The report said the situation is worsening due to repeated Israeli operations in Gaza which started in 2008.
READ: Lifting the siege means bringing Hezbollah to Gaza, says Lieberman “Today, 97 per cent of drinking water in the Strip is not drinkable by any recognised international standard,” Haaretz reported.
“Some 90 per cent of residents drink water from private purifiers, because the larger installations have been damaged by fighting or have fallen into disuse since they couldn’t be maintained,” the Israeli paper continued.
Not enough water supplies The study concluded that the current situation is that “Gaza is incapable of supplying enough water for its 2 million inhabitants”.
“Gaza schools have one toilet per 75 pupils and one sink for washing hands per 80.
Most of this water is either recycled or from a reservoir.

Home | Environment Union Leader Correspondent MERRIMACK — Residents will be updated this week on the state’s ongoing investigation into perfluorooctanoic acid in southern New Hampshire.
Representatives with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES), as well as town officials, will be hosting a public informational meeting on Wednesday to inform the community of ongoing efforts to combat the water contamination.
“DES now has some real tools, some real teeth to work with companies like Saint-Gobain,” said town councilor Bill Boyd.
A new law that went into effect on Sept. 8 allows the department to require controls for air emissions of certain PFAS compounds that impact soil and water.
Wednesday’s meeting will provide agency officials the opportunity to review results from recent tests taken from Saint-Gobain’s smokestacks at the Merrimack plant.
DES has already stated that the local facility is still releasing small amounts of polyfluoroalkyl chemicals from the stacks, which could be contributing to local groundwater contamination.
DES will update residents on the site investigation, ongoing water remediation projects with private wells in Merrimack and nearby communities, the air emission tests and Merrimack Village District’s work to improve public wells.
A question and answer session will be held, and break-out conversations with smaller groups will also take place at the meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at James Mastricola Upper Elementary School, 26 Baboosic Lake Road.
“I absolutely am thrilled that DES is coming to Merrimack.
I think that since we started dealing with this issue some two-plus years ago, the opportunity to get up to date information related to water quality, air quality and legislation is critical,” said Boyd.

When Kelly Anderson learned about water testing in Hillsborough and Leon counties during a Florida PTA convention in July, she naturally wanted to share her findings with parents and staff at Foster Elementary School for the upcoming school year.
According to Anderson, the facilities department contacted and informed her afterward that the school district would install filters in Foster Elementary as a preventative measure before any water testing was done.
Records show Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) began installing filters in August, having purchased 1,300 filters for its 36 public schools at an approximate cost of $30,000.
The school board’s pilot installation began Aug. 8 at Foster Elementary – Alachua County’s third-oldest school (built in 1952) – and finished on Aug. 18, six days into the school year.
District spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said the school board plans to have filters installed in all district schools by March.
The process began more than a year after WUFT reported the school board had begun working with GRU to develop a district-wide protocol for lead testing.
That email also confirmed: GRU and the school district established an initial protocol to test lead in school pipes; GRU would only test schools to which it provided water; GRU would not test inside school buildings without permission from the school board; GRU water testing in Alachua County’s public schools was expected to cost $300,000.
Why Filters Over Testing Johnson said there is no issue between the utility and school district, only that the school board was determining the best way to approach lead testing.
He emphasized: “We have not found lead in the water, but we’re just not taking a chance.” Still, Anderson felt as if her plan to inform parents of concerns about water testing prompted the school board’s response to quickly install filters at Foster Elementary.
He said school districts need to install filters as soon as possible to protect the health of children.

Traces of banned toxic chemical compounds, found in firefighting foam, have been detected in water samples drawn from close to an Auckland air base.
A New Zealand Defence Force spokeswoman said three selected bores tested positive for PFAS, but this result was below interim drinking water guidelines.
* Shell to remove fire foam chemicals from sites * Testing shows surface water and soil contaminated near Palmerston North Airport * Are fire foam chemicals the tip of the iceberg?
* Bores thought to be ‘unaffected’ by toxic chemical, say Defence Force No PFAS was found in three further deeper bores, she said.
A Government investigation, coordinated by The Ministry for the Environment, was launched in December 2017 when PFOS and PFOA were found at Ohakea and Woodbourne air bases in higher levels than health guidelines allow.
The West Auckland air base was in the second ‘tier’ of sites to be tested, as early work by NZDF suggested the risks of contaminated drinking water were less than that at Ohakea or Woodbourne, according to the Ministry for the Environment.
However, preliminary testing at the base showed low levels of PFAS in stream sediments close the air base boundary which spurred on further investigation.
They have been offered advice relative to their confidential results, she said.
Nearby Hobsonville, a former NZDF base, was cleared of concerns for soil contamination in March.
PFAS compounds have been commonly used since the 1950s in household products such as floor wax, furniture protectants and non-stick cookware.

The independent report released on Tuesday, said the water department withheld information for seven months from senior managers – including the council’s chief executive – on the risk of contamination.
It said the delay in informing council chief executive, Karleen Edwards, prevented the public from knowing sooner that the water would need to be chlorinated.
Karleen Edwards fronted for media on Tuesday and laid out why the seven month delay mattered so much.
"It would have allowed…a more co-ordinated planned approach involving appropriate authorities such as the Ministry of Health and the Drinking Water Assessor to achieve a longer term programme of repair," Ms Edwards said.
"More importantly, we could have taken time to explain to our community, so that they could better understand the choices and decisions that needed to be made, so I’m really sorry that we didn’t have the opportunity to talk to our community before that decision was made."
Despite this, Karleen Edwards said the head of Three Waters, John Mackie, was safe in his job.
My expectation is that people would raise issues of concern and risk and that’s something that we’re certainly working with [people on] across the organisation."
The council still hoped to have its $35m programme to make the water bores secure, completed by March next year.
We have elected members who represent that community.
Karleen Edwards said managers including John Mackie, had been offered training in the need to refer up when issues, such as the security of the city’s drinking water, became a concern.

La Crosse county officials are considering how to respond to growing concerns over nitrate contamination in private wells.
Last spring, the La Crosse County Health Department warned 2,000 households that their private wells might be contaminated with high levels of nitrates.
"We tested 540 wells during that time just from this particular area, the Town of Holland and the Town of Onalaska, and 30 percent of those tested at levels about the recommended levels of nitrates," said Carol Drury, environmental health and laboratory manager at the health department.
Drury said the county has between 7,000 and 9,000 private wells.
Mark Borchardt, research microbiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said La Crosse County’s findings are extraordinarily high.
In Kewaunee County, on a countywide basis, the number of private wells that exceed the 10 parts per million limit was 7 percent," Borchardt said.
Borchardt helped conduct a study of private wells there last year that found widespread contamination from farms and private septic systems.
So, it’s not something to be taken lightly," Borchardt said.
So in the short term, we want to do what we can."
Drury said the department is focused on educating the public about the risk and helping those with contaminated wells.

As Bristol’s water utility plans for repairs, a well that tested positive for E. coli last week will remain out of service, officials said this week.
The water department emphasized that the public water supply was never compromised; the test showed contamination only in one supply of raw water that hadn’t been treated yet.
“People should know their water is perfectly safe and always was,” Superintendent Robert Longo said.
Longo said that’s what happened in Bristol.
“All water from our wells is treated and disinfected with chlorine before entering the distribution system in order to eliminate bacteria,” the utility said in a statement.
Even so, Well 3 is out of service until staff and contractors can determine what repairs are necessary.
Well 3, near Mix Street, provides some of the supply for homes and businesses east of Route 229 and south of Maple Avenue.
Well 3 normally yields about 300,000 gallons of water daily.
The city uses 6 million to 6.5 million gallons daily, and the chilly temperatures and wet weather mean demand is at the low end of the usual spectrum, Longo said.
So taking Well 3 offline isn’t a problem, Longo said.

Illness caused by water pollution is a leading cause of child mortality in the Gaza Strip, says a study by the RAND Corporation, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz.
Some 90 percent of residents drink water from private purifiers, because the larger installations have been damaged by fighting or have fallen into disuse since they couldn’t be maintained.
The current situation, according to the study, is that Gaza is incapable of supplying enough water for its 2 million inhabitants.
In Gaza, a third of monthly wages goes toward the purchase of water.
Another factor in the rise of Gaza’s morbidity is the poor condition of its infrastructure.
Efron, who led the research, says the amount of sewage water flowing from Gaza into the sea toward Israel and Egypt on a daily basis equals the contents of 43 Olympic-size swimming pools.
A potential humanitarian disaster Despite the high risk for a cholera outbreak in Gaza due to the polluted sewage system, researchers at first estimated it wasn’t possible to determine when and if such an epidemic would occur, since the residents are immunized.
“If the situation isn’t dealt with, it may unfortunately be just a matter of time before Israel and Egypt find themselves facing a health crisis because of Gaza.” Efron says this is a resolvable crisis and the obstacles are mainly political.
With regard to the Gaza electricity crisis, the researches propose the use of solar energy.
They also recommended that the diesel fuel that does get into Gaza be supplied straight to the hospitals, where it should be used for examinations and life-saving treatment.