As I understand it, Mike Rounds’ brother-in-law (Randy Brich?) works for one of the companies that wants to mine uranium in our state. While I am not opposed to mining uranium, certain safety procedures have to be put in place so water and land is not contaminated, which I doubt SB 158 would do. Also, I often shake my head when politicos say our state is broke when we could be tapping into wind, solar, and now even uranium to make up for the budget shortfall instead of letting private companies come here and rape us of our natural resources. In Alaska, every resident gets a dividend check from the oil, South Dakotans should be swimming in money. But hey, we keep voting in the greedy GOP bastards, and we get what we deserve – not a gawd damn thing.
SB 158 passed. It now moves to the House.
Senate Bill 158 was introduced amidst a flurry of last-minute in the South Dakota Legislature last week. This is apparently an attempt to sneak a very bad bill past the public.
Bottom line: the bill would stop enforcement of state regulations on in situ leach uranium mining. Two types of regulation by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources—water management and minerals mining regulation—would be stopped.
Companies could still be issued permits to mine. But the state would not have any control over any of these mining operations. For example, there would be no state requirements for public notice, proper construction, safe operation, accident reports, or clean-up after the mining ended.