Hearing Chair Denies Venue Change Requests from Three Local Governments
Last spring’s notice of a proposed uranium exploration project near Craven Canyon, in Fall River County drew scores of public comments and nearly three dozen intervenors opposing the operation. The City of Hot Springs registered their concerns about the potential for additional region-wide water pollution and radioactive contamination that is still an issue from previous mining activities in the area.
Oglala Lakota County, situated downstream and downwind from the proposed drilling area, requested the hearing be held in Pine Ridge, Hot Springs (its off-reservation county seat), or Rapid City to provide for better access to the parties (including the Oglala Sioux Tribe and several Tribal members) and the public. In an August 2025 pre-hearing, DANR Board of Minerals & Environment Hearing Chair Bob Morris dismissed Oglala Lakota County’s request, claiming that it must come from Fall River County, where the project is sited.
But state law allowing a county to request a venue change doesn’t say the project must be sited there. It states that the county’s lands must be affected.
Following Morris’s denial, Fall River County Commissioners and the Hot Springs City Council sent their own letters supporting Oglala Lakota County’s request and the ability of local people to participate in the decision-making process. In a December 21, 2025 ruling, Morris denied them, too—this time citing the mid-May deadline for venue change requests. A deadline that Oglala Lakota County had met.
Why is the Board of Minerals & Environment set against holding its uranium exploration hearing in the affected area rather than hours (and a time zone change) away in Pierre? One reason could be that in November 2022, voters in Fall River County decided, by a 14-point margin, to declare uranium mining a nuisance. Passage of that ordinance sent one exploration company packing, but others, including the British Columbia-based company that intends to drill on its abandoned leases, claim it’s not relevant to exploration.
On the same date Hot Springs and Fall River County were denied an accessible, local hearing, Hearing Chair Morris also blocked discussion of the Fall River County uranium mining nuisance ordinance. The state’s message seems clear: we make the decisions here in Pierre, no matter what your local governments and local people have determined.
Intervenors are likely to appeal a number of rulings by the Hearing Chair to the full Board of Minerals & Environment. Despite the thirty-five intervenors–each with full rights to participation–and over three dozen witnesses declared by all parties, the final hearing on proposed uranium exploration in Fall River County is currently scheduled for only three days—March 18-20, 2026—in Pierre.
Rebecca Terk is an organizer with Dakota Rural Action who assists South Dakotans navigating state and local government processes. She lives in rural Pennington County.
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