By KRWG News
New Mexico – A company says a U.S. Supreme Court decision has cleared away the last legal challenge to its license to mine uranium at an aquifer that supplies drinking water to Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico.
Supreme Court justices on Monday decided not to review a decision that allows Hydro Resources Inc. to leach-mine uranium at the aquifer that supplies water to 15,000 Navajos in the Church Rock and Crownpoint areas.
The mining company says it will move forward and expects to begin production in 2013.
Opponents, however, say they'll keep fighting in other venues.
The opponents had turned to the nation's highest court in September after the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver denied a request for a rehearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.