Uranium mining in Wyoming – the state with the largest known uranium ore reserves – embraces traditional methods like open-pit and underground mining alongside in-situ recovery (ISR), a less intrusive technique involving solution injection for uranium extraction. Historically, traditional mining contributed substantially to the State's economy, providing jobs and revenue. However, ISR's emergence signifies a shift toward more environmentally friendly practices, aiming to reduce surface disturbance and environmental impact. Despite its overall efficiency, one of the most expensive and time-consuming issues facing in-situ uranium recovery today is the legal and regulatory requirements for groundwater restoration. To potentially enable the future utilization of groundwater found in the mining vicinity, after completing in-situ recovery (ISR) mining operations, as per the regulatory guidelines of groundwater restoration, the operators must restore the water quality in the mining area to its original levels for various elements such as metals, metalloids, anions, and total dissolved solids. However, we argue that in-situ uranium recovery wellfields operate within an exempted portion of an aquifer and therefore, pose a low potential health risk. In this paper, we will develop an analytical model with a representative mining operator as the agent. Focusing on the four active mining operations in Wyoming, we use a primary survey instrument to collect data on various cost parameters and calibrate the remaining parameters of interest. Feeding our analytical model with the primary survey and the calibrated data, we perform a cost-benefit analysis of the legal and regulatory groundwater restoration framework in Wyoming, taking account of the current as well as the potential future uses of the groundwater. The findings could have potential policy implications as a reduction in the regulatory burden related to groundwater restoration could lead to cost savings and social welfare gains.
