The White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah — the country's only remaining conventional uranium mill — is increasing production and planning to expand its waste storage capacity, prompting renewed concern from the Ute Mountain Ute community located approximately five miles south of the facility, even as state regulators and the mill's owner maintain that contamination is contained and drinking water is safe.
Uranium Mill Expansion Near Utah Tribal Community Draws Opposition Amid U.S. Nuclear Push
The White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah — the country's only remaining conventional uranium mill — is increasing production and planning to expand its waste storage capacity, prompting renewed concern from the Ute Mountain Ute community located approximately five miles south of the facility, even as state regulators and the mill's owner maintain that contamination is contained and drinking water is safe.
The mill, built in 1980 near what is now Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, is owned by Energy Fuels, which has operated it since 2012. It produced 1 million pounds of uranium yellowcake in 2024 and the company has said it plans to more than double that output in 2025.
The facility receives 10 to 15 trucks carrying uranium ore each weekday, the majority of which pass through the White Mesa community. Ore arrives from regional mines, including one near the Grand Canyon located within the territory of the Havasupai Tribe, and is trucked through the Navajo Nation.
The mill also processes radioactive waste from locations as far as Estonia and Japan, and received a $725 million conditional loan commitment from the Defense Department to expand domestic processing of rare earth elements. Company officials said the rare earths operation alone could create 100 permanent jobs, and that roughly half of the mill's 105 workers are Indigenous.
Federal policy has contributed to increased activity at the mill. A 2024 law bans Russian uranium imports by 2028, and President Trump has set a goal to quadruple U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Trump also issued orders to prioritize mining on federal lands and accelerate approval of mining projects. The Velvet-Wood uranium mine in Utah completed federal environmental review in 11 days, with local tribes given one week to submit input.
Radioactive waste from mill operations is stored in five lined tailings cells covering 284 acres. Expansion plans call for additional tailings cells positioned approximately a quarter-mile closer to the White Mesa community than the existing ones. The company said the new cells will be triple-lined according to current standards.
Concerns about water quality center on several distinct water sources. The community's drinking water comes from a deep aquifer separated from the mill's waste area by a thick rock layer called an aquitard. A shallower aquifer beneath the waste cells, the Burro Canyon Aquifer, is already affected by plumes of chloroform and nitrates, which Energy Fuels is pumping out according to state officials.
Entrance Spring, located across the highway from the mill, showed elevated uranium concentrations in the late 2000s that at times exceeded the federal drinking water standard of 30 micrograms per liter. EPA and U.S. Geological Survey fieldwork at the time suggested the uranium came from dust blown off ore storage pads rather than leaking waste ponds. The most recent 2025 test results showed uranium levels at 22.5 micrograms per liter, within the federal standard but still elevated.
A 2023 federal health assessment concluded that radiation levels recorded at the tribe's air monitor in White Mesa between 2013 and 2019 were unlikely to harm human health, but the authors said they could not evaluate the potential effect of the mill's radon emissions on neighboring properties and residents.
In December 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency found the mill was violating the Clean Air Act by failing to maintain liquid cover over one tailings cell to limit radon emissions, which the EPA described as egregious in nature and duration. The mill corrected the issue and passed its most recent air quality review in 2025, according to state regulators.
The broader history of uranium development in the Four Corners region — involving Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado — includes federally driven mining from the 1940s through the 1980s that exposed workers, many of them Navajo, to elevated cancer risk without adequate warning. Thousands of abandoned waste sites remain, including more than 500 on or near the Navajo Nation.
- The source does not provide the full findings or methodology of the University of Utah health survey examining cancer and asthma rates in White Mesa.
- The source does not specify the current legal or regulatory status of the proposed tailings cell expansion.
- The source does not detail what input, if any, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe submitted during the Velvet-Wood mine's 11-day environmental review.
- The source does not include any direct response from the EPA regarding the mill's current compliance status beyond the 2021 violation.
- The source does not report on the position of the Navajo Nation's government as a distinct institutional entity, despite the tribe's lands being used as a trucking corridor.