Historic groundwater quality of in situ recovery (ISR) uranium mines, Texas

In situ recovery (ISR) uranium mining is a technique in which uranium is extracted by a series of injection and recovery wells developed in a permeable sandstone host rock. Chemical constituents (lixiviants) are added to groundwater injection wells to mobilize uranium into groundwater. Before mining, baseline water quality is measured by sampling groundwater from the aquifer intended to be mined and over and underlying units over a geographic area that reflects the proposed mine location. After mining, groundwater is restored using a variety of techniques intended to return groundwater quality to as close to baseline as practicable. After groundwater has been restored, groundwater quality is monitored to determine if the groundwater chemistry has stabilized. The impact of ISR mining on groundwater is poorly understood because records archiving these impacts are difficult to locate. The USGS collected as many historic records describing ISR well fields as they could locate between 2008 and 2014. This data release summarizes historic records from ISR mines developed in Texas and compiled into spreadsheets by USGS mostly from records maintained by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.