Belle Fourche rancher Tom Davis said Wednesday afternoon that he was better educated but still worried about his water supplies following a state Water Management Board meeting about in situ uranium mining.

Davis said his ranch, parts of which have been in his family for 107 years, is far from the uranium exploration near Edgemont but close to similar work near Aladdin across the border in Wyoming. That makes Davis worry about the three wells he counts on for drinking and livestock water.

“We’re down in the Lakota aquifer, and what happens if that stuff gets into the Lakota?” he said after a day-long meeting of the South Dakota Water Management Board. “Is it going to end up in our outfit?”

That’s unlikely to occur, according to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources resource specialists who spent most of Wednesday explaining Black Hills hydrology and planned uranium mining to the water board and citizens. The board is working on amendments to existing rules that uranium companies would need in South Dakota to extract the valuable mineral through injection-and-recovery well systems.

Those systems must be permitted by both the water board and the state Board of Minerals and Environment. The rules must be in place before the permitting process can begin.

About 100 people gathered for the meeting at the Radisson Hotel. Many testified before the board.

Board members will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 3, to work on the rules amendments. Water board chairman Jim Hutmacher of Oacoma said the amended rules will be just part of the extensive state and federal network of regulations designed to assure that uranium mining will be safe.

“It’s just getting started,” Hutmacher said. “Our board has been given this authority as part of the rules process to protect aquifers and the environment and make sure it is all done right.”

Powertech USA, a Colorado-based company owned by Powertech Uranium Corp. of Vancouver, B.C., is already exploring in the Edgemont area, with plans to mine uranium with the injection-well process. Powertech also is exploring across the Wyoming border from the Edgemont project as well as in the Aladdin area in Wyoming.

In South Dakota, the company would have to adhere to state water board rules as part of its injection-well permit and also meet stipulations under a mining permit from the state Board of Minerals and Environment. Both permits have rules designed to reduce environmental damage. Each board also can require uranium companies to post financial surety bonds to cover the costs of reclamation of the mining operations, remediation of environmental damage and years of aftercare.

Hutmacher said the water board wants to update the 27-year-old rules to protect the environment while still allowing a mining process that has been approved by the state Legislature to proceed.

Mining engineer Mike Cepak of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Pierre said the in situ leach mining process in South Dakota will involve a solution of well water, oxygen and carbon dioxide that is injected into wells to collect uranium from permeable geologic seams, such as sandstone. Those seams are in between more impermeable formations, such as shale.

More water is withdrawn from the well field than is pumped in. That creates negative pressure, and the uranium-saturated solution is recovered in another well without the “pregnant solution” escaping the mining field, Cepak said. Test wells will watch for signs that it has, he said.

“This creates kind of a cone of depression, where the water in the aquifer will be moving toward the mine unit, minimizing migration away from the recovery field,” Cepak said.

Mark Hollenbeck of Edgemont, area project manager for Powertech, said the board gave citizens ample opportunity to express their concerns and learn more about the in situ leach mining process.

Edgemont Mayor Jim Turner, a group of students and other residents attended the hearing. Hollenbeck said they have a deep personal investment in the outcome of the rules amendment and permitting process to come.

“People in Edgemont want to see the water resources protected, as I do,” Hollenbeck said. “And they also want to see responsible mineral development.”