Decision on uranium permit due in January, page-2

Interesting read srood - thanks for posting.

My gut feel, after reading some of the hearing documents, this document and the transcript of the limited hearing session held before the Hearing (to give members of the public a chance to state their issues and concerns), is that the unplugged bore holes will be the key issue for the ASLB.

As identified during the Hearing, there are 1,382 holes the company is responsible for plugging, and they have apparently only found 1,265 and plugged 55. As also argued by the intervenors' expert witnesses and several of the limited appearance speakers, these unplugged bore holes are what make it possible for contaminated water to travel both vertically (or 'uphill' as hangseng puts it) and horizontally.

Strata’s currently issued permit requires that it "make a good faith effort to find and plug and abandon any open bore holes inside the ring of monitor wells"

I get the feeling that ASLB will beef up this requirement - to specify what Strata must do rather than rely on its 'good faith'. They will realise that that is consistent with best practice and will likely ago a long way to appease the environmental lobby.

If this is the extent of it, there will be time and cost penalties, but the license conditions will otherwise be confirmed.

Having said that, there are, of course, many other potential scenarios.