Homestake-Barrick Gold (Barrick), is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to approve Alternate Concentration Limits, or ACLs, that would allow it to end its groundwater remediation project at the at the former Homestake mill site, now a Superfund site.
Barrick’s current remediation program consists of reverse osmosis operations to treat contaminated groundwater and a hydraulic barrier consisting of injection and extraction wells that work in tandem to prevent contaminated seepage from the mill tailings at the site from moving further downstream toward Milan municipal water supply wells.
Reverse osmosis has successfully decreased uranium levels in the groundwater at the Homestake site over time.
The ACLs that the company is proposing would allow levels of uranium and selenium orders of magnitude above drinking water standards to migrate towards the San Andres-Glorieta aquifer (SAG) subcrop area where the contaminated alluvium and SAG aquifer meet.
If Barrick gets its way, the company would not only be relieved of its ongoing groundwater remediation operations to remove uranium and other harmful elements from the contaminated alluvial and Chinle aquifers, it would also be able to avoid responsibility for any contamination that eventually reaches the region’s drinking water source in the San Andres-Glorieta aquifer, a relatively shallow drinking water source downgradient from the Homestake site.
A Case of Diminishing Returns?
After reaping enormous profits from mining and milling uranium in the Grants Uranium District for decades, groundwater contamination caused by the company’s mill operations persists, threatening the drinking water source used by Milan and Grants.
Homestake claims the continued operation of the groundwater treatment system is providing diminishing returns while consuming water resources but dismantling its network of injection and extraction wells could result in a loss of hydraulic control, resulting in a rebound of contaminants from its unlined mill tailings.
Barrick complains that it has “tried everything” to clean up radon contaminated soil and groundwater at the Homestake site, but it refused to consider removing its uranium tailings to a lined engineered pit with a leak detection system and an engineered cover that could isolate the contaminated material for at least 200 years. HBG refused to consider this option because it is “too expensive.”
Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) and Blue Valley Downstream Alliance (BVDA) have also suggested that RO treatment continue for another 35 years, roughly equal to the time that Barrick has prolonged successful groundwater treatment by its experimentation with novel approaches (zeolite treatment) and failure to use best management practices – like flushing the large tailings pile after it had been dewatered (15 years), and offsite spray irrigation of contaminated water (12 years).
Barrick’s ACL application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is coupled with a request to to expand the current Homestake site boundary, or “long term care boundary”, by almost 3 times down to the railroad ROW, encompassing the SAG subcrop area that contributes to Milan’s municipal drinking water wells and possibly San Mateo Creek and Rio San Jose. The enlarged area would be “off limits to the public.”
Barrick’s goal is to convince both federal regulators, the NRC and EPA, that it is too expensive to continue groundwater remediation and to turn the Homestake site over to the Department of Energy Legacy Management (DOELM). A transfer of the Homestake site to DOE, however, presumes that the remediation chosen has been successful, which is simply untrue in this case.
Federal and state regulators, however, must continue to hold Barrick accountable for groundwater pollution at
Ave Curtis, MASE
the Homestake site and mandate continued RO treatment to EPA’s revised background standards. A multinational corporation’s bottom line should not be the sole basis for deciding whether groundwater pollution is cleaned up. Proximity to drinking water sources should be the overriding factor.
Join us at a public meeting on Barrick’s revised ACL application at the NMSU Grants Campus on September 9, 2026. Make your voice heard and send a message that clean water is our most valuable resource. Attend this public meeting to find out more about how Barrick will protect our scarce groundwater resources in the San Mateo Creek Basin and how it is proposing to manage contaminated groundwater at the Homestake site.