by Ava Curtis and Ann McCartney
Cibola Citizen
OpEd
September 2, 2026
What impact do community members make when an international mining giant wants to walk away from obligations to keep our drinking water safe? After making money from mining and milling uranium for decades, the groundwater contamination from those operations persists, threatening Milan and Grants’ drinking water. Homestake Barrick Gold (Homestake), an international mining company, proposes to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the company no longer be held to required groundwater standards for uranium contamination. Homestake wants to walk away from groundwater to remove uranium and other harmful elements after creating the extensive contamination. …