The reopening of this mine aligns with Trump administration push to expedite the development of U.S. nuclear energy capacity.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
I recently wrote about the numerous positive developments related to the mining and processing of critical minerals, such as rare earths, outside of China, which were supported by two key executive orders from President Donald Trump.
I can now report even more success in domestic mine expansion. The Trump administration recently approved the reopening of the Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium mine in southeastern Utah, marking the first mining project to be permitted under a new, dramatically accelerated environmental review process.
The decision, executed by the Department of the Interior, was made in just 14 days…a stark contrast to the months or years such reviews typically require.
“This approval marks a turning point in how we secure America’s mineral future,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement. “By streamlining the review process for critical mineral projects like Velvet-Wood, we’re reducing dependence on foreign adversaries and ensuring our military, medical and energy sectors have the resources they need to thrive. This is mineral security in action.”
The Velvet-Wood mine, near Utah’s Lisbon Valley, will produce both uranium and vanadium. The former can be processed into fuel for nuclear reactors, while the latter is commonly used in steel alloys.
The announcement comes 11 days after the Interior Department ordered the Bureau of Land Management to review the mine’s environmental impacts within 14 days, as opposed to the prior timeline of months or years.
The fast-tracking follows a January executive order from President Donald Trump declaring a “national energy emergency.”
The mine is set to be reopened by Canadian company Anfield Energy. Anfield Energy’s main business is the development of energy metals, with a particular emphasis on uranium and vanadium resources. The company aims to become a top-tier supplier of energy-related fuels, positioning itself as a key player in the emerging nuclear energy sector in North America.
The company’s website heralds the astonishing potential of the Utah mine.
Acquired alongside the Shootaring Canyon Mill in 2015, this project holds significant historical mineral resources. With measured and indicated categories containing 4.6 million pounds of U3O8 ([uranium oxide] 0.285% grade) and inferred categories holding 552,000 pounds of U3O8 (0.320% grade) and7.3Mlbs of V2O5 ([Vanadium Oxide] 0.404% grade), Velvet-Wood demonstrates its potential.
From 1979 to 1984, the project yielded significant results, recovering around 4 million pounds of U3O8and 5 million pounds of V2O5 from mining approximately 400,000 tons of ore with grades of 0.46% U3O8 and 0.64% V2O5. The Velvet mine retains underground infrastructure, including a 3,500 ft long,12′ x 9′ decline to the ore body. As Anfield Energy’s most advanced uranium asset, Velvet-Wood signifies a potential near-term path to uranium and vanadium production.
Of course, environmental activists are unhappy with this decision and pulling out the usual assortment of complaints….especially those associated with uranium. As an additional bonus, some “social justice” complaints are being tossed into the mix for variety.
“There’s a reason environmental reviews usually take time,” said Nancy Blackwell, policy director at the Western Public Lands Alliance. “Rushing through this process under the banner of ‘national security’ opens the door to costly mistakes and overlooked harms—especially when uranium, with its toxic legacy, is involved.”
Critics also question the need for domestic uranium and vanadium production at this scale, pointing to the global oversupply of uranium and the long lead time required to bring nuclear facilities online. They argue that the real driver behind the project may be political symbolism rather than genuine energy urgency.
Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon Trust and other advocacy organizations have called for a halt to mining near culturally and ecologically sensitive areas, citing concerns about contamination from past uranium operations still affecting Native communities.
If they’re unhappy, I am happy.
The reopening of this mine pairs well with the Trump administration’s push to expedite the development of our nuclear energy capacity. I am looking forward to writing about the construction of projects and facilities listed in the four executive orders related to the rapid deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies in this country, which Trump also has signed.
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Good post.
“If they’re unhappy, I am happy.”
This reminds me of a long-running joke in the aviation world, that the FAA’s motto must be “We’re not happy until you’re not happy.”
(Dear FAA people – Hey, it’s just a joke! Please carry on with your necessary duties. 🙂 )
Sounds like a number of Amazon drivers.
Or FedEx drivers, who insist on putting packages in the path of my electric gate.
I watch an Amazon driver in my ‘hood- the guy literally ran to and from the house- then raced down the road and ran to the next house. I asked what’s the running all about- he said it was expected of the drivers. He was a young dude so he can do it. I hope he’s well paid for that.
They had their sense of humor surgically removed, along with their ability to laugh at a Dad joke, even when it has become apparent.
My daughter never used to laugh at my “Dad” joke… just an evil stare.. or “seriously” comment !!
I was invited to join Peko-Wallsend Limited in the early 1970s soon after discovery of the Ranger deposits in the Northern Territory of Australia in joint venture with EZ Industries. It was then the largest richest uranium deposit known globally, but then quite a few more excellent mines were found in the next 5 years. Ranger One, numbers 1 and 3 ore bodies are now mined out with handsome profit. Before they were finished, I was one of the managers pushing for us to acquire the nearby Jabiluka deposit that was a lovely resource already developed to the production stage, which we did – then it was stopped because ostensibly some local Aborigines helped by greens objected to it. Meanwhile, our regional exploration effort had found ore intersections at Ranger 4 and Ranger 68 and other exploration targets, but then the international cabals stepped in to make a huge area, all of this emerging mineral province, a world heritage United Nations place with a ban on all operations for the recovery of minerals. The size of the park equals the sum of the areas of Europe’s 10 smallest countries.
Australia has gone mentally deficient in the last 30 years. I could take you to several places where new uranium mines are guaranteed to be, or highly likely to be, big and profitable. But I am banned, as are my former colleagues.
Australia could be in larger uranium businesses getting richer by the hour, but for various shonky green deals. We are out of it while other nations like US are hopping into the wagon with gusto. We even have a national law preventing us expanding our uranium activity.
Poor fella, my country. Graft, corruption, shonky deals, refusal to hear evidence, unlawful past acts hushed up, unconstitutional acquisition without any compensation, let alone just terms.
You know, weaker people than me might have got upset about these tales. I just say STUPID and move on to sleep well at night.
Geoff S
Turn up some greenish yellow rocks in Canada causes your government paperwork to be lost immediately pending resolution of aboriginal land claims….
“some local Aborigines helped by greens objected to it”
Maybe you should have hired some of them- at least relatives/friends of the local chief.
There aren’t really the equivalents of ‘Chiefs’ in Aboriginal groups in Australia.
Mostly, they have local self-appointed “big men” telling everyone what to do, and how all the taxpayers’ support welfare $$$s are to be distributed to relatives.
Back in the times Geoff refers to, there was a national council for representation of indigenous interests called ATSIC – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission.
It was eventually shut down after many scandals involving criminal misuse of funds.
(Some ‘insider’ Aborigines joked that ATSIC really stood for “Abbos Talking Shit In Canberra”)
Joseph,
We did employ local Aborigines. There was no company employment policy based on race. We provided schools, a town, sports facilities, income production from investments like a motel. The troublemakers were seldom seen or heard because whitey greens did most of the planning and talking.
Anti-uranium people are blessed with the ignorance and intensity of those with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Geoff S
Now for Congress to do something and make some laws so these advances can’t be undone with the stroke of a pen when a different administration comes along.
So it’s not a new mine, it’s an existing mine that is to be re-opened. And why a Canadian company?
FYI, Canada has very large mining industry and the companies are world leaders in the industry. Vancouver has more mining companies head offices than any other city.
(Switching to Johnny Carson voice) “I did not know that.”
Thanks Harold.
For a bit of color on this article======>
https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-proposed-utah-uranium-mine-gets-the-trump-treatment/
“Utah regulators last year tentatively permitted the Velvet-Wood Mine to discharge up to 500,000 gallons of radium, uranium and zinc-tainted water into an unnamed wash each day after running it through a treatment plant. That wash empties into Big Indian Wash, which leads to Hatch Wash and Kane Springs Creek, which then runs into the Colorado River downstream from Moab. As Sarah Fields of the Moab-based nonprofit Uranium Watch points out, state regulators have not greenlighted Anfield’s water treatment plant plans, even though the state’s water discharge permit is contingent on the facility’s approval. Fields — who has been watchdogging the uranium industry for years — noted several other deficiencies in Anfield’s operating plan. She also debunked the notion that there was any sort of uranium supply shortage or other emergency that would necessitate such expedited production.”
“tainted”, at what level?
Where do you live? Do you have any first hand experience with mine waste?
Do you own any mines?
If it goes into a “wash”- isn’t it likely much of the tainted stuff will stay there- bonding with all the sand/gravel? Just curious. I don’t claim to have any knowledge of this topic but I should think some of that stuff isn’t going to go further downstream. Perhaps Sarah Fields knows precisely how much will not go further. If she doesn’t know, then she’s not performing well.
The EPA got involved in several mine waste cleanups near me. Super Fund sites. They tested a creek several miles down stream from one site but couldn’t find any trace’s. The repository can be seen from miles away. There’s an arsenic plume under an old local smelter site that is over 60,000 times above the limit. I you drank a glass of water from the plume it would be fatal in a few hours. There are natural radioactive pollutants in some groundwater in this area. I understand that it’s possible to extract uranium from
some groundwater in this area. Mine cleanup can get messy.
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0801699
https://www.kxlf.com/news/2018/05/29/upper-tenmile-superfund-site-near-helen-still-active-after-almost-20-years/
Maybe the French need to exercise these levels of concerns about toxicity levels of the Seine River in Paris?
The French dump radioactive waste into the Seine?
Not yet.
They have to scoop out a whole lot of dog turds to make room for it 🙂
Your claim of “60,000 times above the limit” caught my attention. Inasmuch as the EPA and WHO limits are 10 PPB, it is possible. However, I could not find support for your claim in either of the links you provided. Unfortunately, the claim is also ambiguous because it doesn’t specify if it is the LD-50 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose], or just an ‘abundance of caution’ level because it is thought to cause cancer. More importantly, the actual generic arsenic
toxicity is the product of the concentration per unit volume and the total volume consumed. Then there is the issue of the chemical species; arsenates are considered to be more toxic than arsenites. Elemental arsenic is rare in the environment.
Arsenic is ubiquitous in the environment. It is a problem that many living in India live with. Just because ground water is known to be high in arsenic, it is not necessarily a result of smelting activities. While it is highly suspicious, unless it is a form that is not found in nature, it could be coincidence. Perched water tables with high arsenic concentrations are known throughout the Great Plains. Arsenopyrite is commonly found in close association with many gold deposits. Even common pyrite has variable amounts of solid-solution arsenic in it that can contribute to the 10 PPB concentration. Therefore, finding it today in former gold mining districts is not evidence that the miners were responsible for its presence.
You might find the following to be of interest:
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-08/documents/arsenic_paper.pdf
“Just because ground water is known to be high in arsenic, it is not necessarily a result of smelting activities.”
https://www.mtenvironmentaltrust.org/newsite/wpinhere/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-6-2024-East-Helena-Public-Meetingv3_Final-compressed.pdf
The plume details are on page 11 There has been a
high level of cancer cases of workers from the smelter
and nearby facilities..Not sure what was the causes but I can name names…
Loco Weed is infamous for its effect on horses and cattle. It is because it concentrates selenium. It is abundant in the San Joaquin Valley (CA) and selenium has had a profound effect on the fish and birds in the Kesterson Refuge. The original source appears to be the Coast Range and their sediments shedding into the Great Valley. There is no significant mining in the problem area. It appears that these arid areas are being leached by agricultural runoff and have become mobilized after a very long period of sequestration.
I’m not saying that mining can’t be responsible, but one shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that mining is responsible for problem areas because both arsenic and selenium can be problems where there has been no mining or smelting activity.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2004/3091/pdf/FS2004-3091.pdf
Did you look at the hydrology report on the above link? The plume
is documented and under the old smelter which has been demolished.
The effects of these local mines has been documented for over 100 yrs.
The pit in Butte is the largest superfund site in the country. Read the book The Battle for Butte by Michael Malone. The section about
open roasting the copper ore which killed over 100 people is what
led to the smelter being built in the town Anaconda by copper king
Marcus Daly. This is common knowledge in these parts. I learned
about that in grade school. Drive I-90 from Butte to Missoula
along the Clarks Fork River and note that the absence of fishermen,.
That’s because the headwaters are in a huge toxic waste site.
It is possible to extract uranium (or even gold) from sea water. But not in a cost effective process.
In other words, you don’t know. Either that, or the actuals are so low that you are embarrassed to present them.
Probably ‘tainted’ at the level of detection. Pardon my cynicism.
That was my suspicion. That suspicion is reinforced by Mr. Ed’s inability to specify the actual level.
There are some people who have a visceral reaction to the very thought of radioactivity. They seem to believe that all radiation is deadly and that any increase, no matter how small will kill us all.
There was some dude, back during the Fukushima accident, who was proclaiming that the radiation that had been released, was going to kill all marine life in the Pacific.
The reality for controlling “uranium discharge” is that there is instant feedback for a problem. Any scintillometer or Geiger-Mueller counter detector will instantly show the presence of radioactive material, even at very low amounts. On the other hand, people like Sarah Fields that get rabies, you have to wait until they start drooling and howling before itis detectable.
Ron, GM detectors sense gamma rays and beta particles from any source. They do not reveal what the source is. Anywhere on earth such a detector will click away because everything on earth contains some radioactive nuclides of many different types. Some more, some less, but always some. To determine whether or not mine drainage streams contain radioactive materials from the mines takes more than just a GM detector.
Denis: As an ex-President of a uranium exploration company, and an official representative in the IAEA Redbook Symposium in Austria, I pose this question: have you walked along a contaminated stream below a uranium mine and plant with a scintillometer in your hand? I have, and the pollution was clearly evident by the increased counts, “increased” a comment justified by having walked along the stream above the facility to determine background.
However, a gamma-ray spectrometer will tell one if it is uranium, thorium, or potassium, the most common radio-nuclides.
Ron did not claim that a simple Geiger Counter would identify the mineral(s), only that it would readily detect radioactive minerals contaminating a stream, even at low levels.
You should take your equipment to the Navajo Nation. There are over
500 abandoned uranium mines there, Uranium mining has had a very
negative effect on the people there.
https://blog.ucs.org/chanese-forte/us-uranium-mining-legacy-still-harms-the-navajo-nation/
Only one negative???—https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3222290/
Look at the RECA part. I have two cousins that are of Navajo heritage.
Because the basement rocks are rich enough to be mined, that means the surface dust and runoff has been anomalously high in uranium since before humans arrived in North America. That is how they were discovered. Can you be certain that it wouldn’t have been a problem even if there had been no mining? Assigning blame only has importance if one is searching for the money necessary for remediation or providing alternative sources of drinking water.
“Utah regulators last year tentatively permitted the Velvet-Wood Mine to discharge up to 500,000 gallons of radium, uranium and zinc-tainted water into an unnamed wash each day after running it through a treatment plant. “
I was the “operator in responsible charge” (Ohio EPA language) of a small, private waster water plant for six years back in the 80’s. We were permitted to discharge 60,000 gallons of fecal matter and other other waste “tainted” water a day. But it was only tainted when it entered the plant.
We did test upstream of our discharge and we were actually improving the water quality of the creek.
So the question is, will the water still be tainted after running through the treatment plant?
If so, will it be less tainted than the receiving waters?
These minerals are already in the area. Are they already in the water and groundwater without the mining?
(I don’t know. I’m just asking questions.)
Sewage waste water vs uranium processing waste? 500k gallons is less than 2cfs, 1cfs
is 325Kgallons-ish. A local waste water plant discharges 7-10cfs/day into a local creek
after removing the solids. Another small town does the same and both runs into a
lake that drains into the Missouri River. The nutrient load triggers a toxic algae
bloom most every summer in the lake. Nasty stuff you don’t want to swim or water ski
into that. Big Sky & Yellowstone Club ski resort makes snow from their waste water .
Radioactive mine waste vs waste water are not on the same level IMO. I wouldn’t want to eat any food grown with the mine waste water without a lot more info…but a lot of
food is grown from waste water. https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreaks/e-coli-O157.html
Taylor Farms from Salinas CA is one of the large growers. It’s not just in CA but also
in other areas.
After those 6 years doing waste water, I spent the next 32 years as an operator at a drinking water plant that averaged about 65 MGD. At times we hit about 130 MGD.
Amazing the advances in treatment I saw and was a part of (a small part) in those 32 years!
The uranium mine to be reopened and it’s waste treatment system aren’t in operation yet. You don’t think there have been advances in treatment?
I don’t know what type of treatment is used but even an RO setup would reduce the waste to H2O. The RO waste discharge would concentrate the dissolved ore. (Perhaps to the point where it could be recovered and used?)
Again, I don’t know. But you don’t either. You’re assuming the worst.
Ankle biters.
Uranium Watch has no skin in the game. They can make whatever reckless and ignorant statements they want and it costs them nothing to do it. How do you “debunk” uranium supply levels? Why frame the debunking in terms of a purely subjective measure of “supply shortage”?
Does Sarah Fields think energy is magic and just happens to appear where Leftists allow it to go (exclusively to themselves) and there is no cost to generating it? Solar and Wind require all kinds of mining and dirty activities, so Fields is OK with that, but uranium based, where the tailing are out in the middle of no where must be stopped? They bitch and moan about hydrocarbons and a hole punched in the ground and few hundred acres to refine, process and distribute it yet many people aren’t even aware of where hydrocarbons wells are found.
Here is a mine, no where near civilization, the tailing are discharged far from civilization and the fruits of it are enjoyed by tens if not hundreds of millions of people. For trade-offs, this seems like a major win. Unless of course, Fields believes that every one other than Americans can mine uranium without any discharge or any form of contamination or waste at all. Or that those people just don’t matter if they are swimming in waste.
Ankle biters??—-https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/small-reactors-at-hanford-deja-vu-all-over-again/
The uranium mining impact on the Navajo’s miners health legacy in that region is well known but for some reason it never get’s mentioned– so curious,,,
https://nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu/los-alamos-national-laboratory-uranium-mining-southwest
So Sarah Fiellds says there is no shortage of uranium. Well, what about all the new nuclear reactors that will be built in the near future. The greens need a 10x increase in toxic rare metals for their unreliable solar and wind turbines but a modest in crease in uranium is off the table. There is a future coming and we have to prepare for that. Dumb.
Why has there not been any new nuclear reactors built for nearly 50yrs? Remember Whoops (WPPSS)??? Or Gore OK. ?? There seems to be a common thread or two there…something
about Hanford hmmm. Modest increase???
There have been no new plants built because your environmentalists have tied up every attempt in court for decades, That plus ridiculous levels of over regulation and the belief that any level of radiation kills, no matter how small.
My Environmentalists?? Really now. There are veins of pitchblende in
mine waste rock in my neighborhood. I can sell you some for the right
price. John Ellis is the president of Sequoia Fuel and he grew up on a property
I own and I have known him for years… You don’t know jack****…
Everyone who doesn’t suffer from the same irrational paranoias that you do, is just ignorant. Gotcha.
Mr Ellis’s legacy is cleaning up nuclear waste sites.
He was at Hanford before he went to the old Kerr-Mcgee unit.
Hanford is the most contaminated place in the western hemisphere.
Sorry to confuse you with the facts.
None of which have any relevance to the subject at hand.
Jane Fonda.
If investors are willing to spend their own money to re-open a mine, I suspect that there is a demand, or at least a predicted future demand for these minerals.
I’m always suspicious when environmentalists attempt to do economics.
Saying you’ll sponsor some loans to Uranium mining is just throwing rose petals at a Viking warrior. You gotta finance the construction nuclear power stations.
To whom will it be sold?
“…. marking the first mining project to be permitted under a new, dramatically accelerated environmental review process…”
Projects tend to be similar to previous projects that have already gone through intense review. So, when a new one looks like an old one, the new one should go through extremely fast. But no… the “burros” want to reinvent the wheel every time. I’ve seen this happen with logging cut plans here in Wokeachusetts and many other states. Often on these logging projects, the only people earning any real money are the burros! They don’t want to lose those jobs and have to go out into the real world.
Carnotite!
Yes, but what is your point?
Call it the Bill and Hillary Clinton Yellowcake Mine.
More good news. We don’t care what you think Nancy. We know uranium can be handled safely. We know nuclear energy is clean, safe, affordable and dependable. If nuclear takes a while to come on line that means we better get started building sooner rather than later. With more nuclear online we can get rid of those useless wind and solar facilities. The sooner the better.
Critics also question the need for domestic uranium and vanadium production at this scale, pointing to the global oversupply of uranium and the long lead time required to bring nuclear facilities online. They argue that the real driver behind the project may be political symbolism rather than genuine energy urgency.
Projection.
Critics get their money from entities that either hate Western Civilization, are enemies of human flourishing, or competitors at either the industrial or national level. (eg competing businesses or nations against the US).
The mine costs money to reopen, staff, modernize, permit, insure, finance, and set up supply chains going into and out of the business. The huge input doesn’t go in unless, after risk assessment and return on investment, this makes economic sense. So when these “critics” claim that there is no economic need for this business, I recommend that they divest investment in everyone who is involved with the operation – heck, even short it if this is a reckless gesture.
The Projection comes from the fact that the New Green Deal, is not fast-tracked with permit processing, but is gifted trillions of dollars in slush fund money to piss away how ever the Party Members involved in the scam wish to live off the grants.
As someone who has an idea of the recce that goes behind opening the mine, I’m pretty sure that the “critics” don’t know a damned thing about industrial mining and make their economic prognostications purely on political symbolism. These fools believe that merely fast tracking the permit process at the Federal level is the equivalent of flipping on a switch and full scale production happens before sunrise tomorrow – why else question the need for the mine based on the cash market of Right Now?
Do these critics have deep inside knowledge of Canadian Anfield Energy’s contract negotiations with customers concerning potential delivery dates years into the future? Or is this some stupid static analysis that assumes current mines production continues exactly the same, that current demand stays exactly the same, and that these materials are never, never included into strategic negotiations between countries.
How much of the funding of these “critics” are beneficiaries of USAID money, CIA, or Chinese/Russian propaganda?
Yes, slow walking the permits is like “Permits delayed are permits denied.” It also serves to discourage other mining companies from walking the same path.
I wish they’d permit exploitation of Cole’s Hill here in Virginia. We’re sitting on uranium deposits large enough to power the entire country for decades. The Eastern seaboard states are loaded with uranium. It’s a nuisance, as anyone who buys or sells houses with basements knows. They have to have a functioning radon removal system; our current house didn’t have one, and it had to be installed as a conditio0 of sale. Radon is a radioactive gas that is a daughter of radium, and is in the decay chain from U238 and Th232. It’s much heavier than air, and thus accumulates in basements. It is also a noble gas, so it can’t be absorbed chemically – only a fan and duct system works.It has a short half life, and while breathing it in doesn’t involve it being trapped in the lungs (it’s not very water soluble), if it decays before it is expelled, the daughters are all solids, starting with polonium and winding up ultimately as stable lead.
The nuclear fuel cycle is beneficial to humanity not only for the energy it provides, but because it removes the uranium that is randomly distributed in our environment, and in the process of extracting that beneficial energy, isolates both it and its radioactive products from the biosphere. It’s a winning situation all aroujnd.
Radon can also be dissolved in water. There’s two ways to get it out. One is with an activated carbon filter. The problem with that is when the filter has caught all the radon it can, it becomes high level radioactive waste. The other way is with aeration, bubbling air through the water and venting the air outside.
Is the bedrock black shale at Cole’s Hill?
Next step? Crush the lie spewing environazis with their own lawfare tactics.
The Bear’s Ears NM is not that far from this area or Utah. One wonders what resources O’Bummer took off the table with that proclamation. And what it would take to reverse it as AFAIK, it was an Executive Order. (Was that one signed by AutoPen like so many others?)
I’m in favor of the U.S. extracting its own uranium. Re-opening mines is a start, though it looks like it will be cheaper to extract it from seawater as the technology rapidly improves. An experimental project at Hunan University extracted 100% of the uranium in seawater from the South China Sea for about $83 per kilogram, well below the cost for mining. Just like natural gas supplanted coal due to more economical extraction, I’ll bet that most uranium extraction will come from seawater in the near future. There’s a heckuva lot of uranium in the oceans; estimated to be enough to provide all human energy needs for another billion years. Yes, billion.
Watch for the mindless cultists of Her Lady of Immaculate Pre-Human Environmentalism to find all kinds of costly legal objections to seawater extraction.