The Saskatchewan Environmental Society is among the interveners for a public hearing into the long term plan for land from a former northern Saskatchewan uranium mine and mill operation.

Cameco is asking the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to transfer the maintenance of 20 sites from the Beaverlodge Project to the province of Saskatchewan.

The society feels despite decades of work more clean-up is necessary.

Ann Coxworth says limited environmental regulations in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s resulted in tailings being dumped into area lakes and some property remains contaminated because of leaky pipes.

She says some of the land earmarked for provincial maintenance requires further cleanup and is hard to get at because of vegetation that has grown over the years.

Coxworth says the society feels leaving this land as is because it’s not likely to be used publicly is a short sighted assumption and points out it is accessible to wildlife.

The society is also concerned about the projected financing for expected work needed in the distant future.

Coxworth says one example is leaving money aside now for the replacement of a mine cover in about one-thousand years not knowing how the markets will affect the long-term investment.

The society is among 10 groups who will make presentations about the plan during the commission’s hearing in early October.