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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Opponents of proposed uranium mining in Church Rock and Crownpoint are suing the state Environment Department, claiming it wrongly gave the go-ahead for mining-related activity while a groundwater discharge permit application is pending.

The complaint filed Friday in state District Court in Santa Fe alleges that the department sidestepped the normal regulatory process in the case of Hydro Resources Inc., which plans a uranium leach mining operation on lands bordering the Navajo reservation.

The organization Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining asked the court to block any mining-related activity until the department makes a decision on the application.

Opponents of the mine allege the department is in error by treating the application as a renewal of a currently valid permit. They say the company’s permit has expired and a new one is required.

The company says that although its permit was last renewed in 1996, it has been in limbo since then because of federal litigation that just ended last year, and that the permit can be renewed.

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And although the department’s groundwater bureau chief at first told the company it could not begin mining until the renewal was approved, the bureau reversed course after the company said that would interfere with getting financing for the project, the complaint says.

Deputy Secretary Raj Solomon ordered the bureau in late May to make the change while the groundwater bureau chief was on vacation, according to documents the New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed with the complaint.

Department spokesman Jim Winchester, citing information from General Counsel Ryan Flynn, said, “The department believes that the facts on which the lawsuit is based are erroneous.”

Hydro Resources “submitted a timely renewal application, which the department is currently reviewing,” Winchester said.

The agency declined to comment on Solomon’s actions.

— This article appeared on page D2 of the Albuquerque Journal