Tomorrow is not soon enough for a massive cleanup of old, cancer-causing uranium mines south of Bowman.
But Randy Feist, who lives near open uranium pits where signs warn that more than one day exceeds recommended exposure, said he'd like the process to go faster than the half-life of some of the toxins breaking down out there.
The mines have been there for 50 years and abandoned for 40.
In the meantime, though, they've put him and other nearby ranching families at grave risk for cancer and other illnesses related to the exposed uranium, byproduct gases and heavy metals like arsenic and thorium.
"It should have been done yesterday," Feist said.
About a half-dozen ranch families have odds as high as one in 25 for cancer because of exposure and because they routinely eat meat from cattle that graze pastures around the mines.
Deer hunters and Plains Indians who come to the hills for religious ceremonies also are at high risk.
The uranium was mined during a big nuclear push by the Atomic Energy Commission, which died off as quickly as it had started. Mine operators at that time were under no legal obligation to reclaim or cover up the mines.
The Forest Service talked to about 25 local men and women at a meeting in Buffalo, S.D., Thursday night. About half were the same people who showed up late in the spring to hear the bad news from an environmental risk report that led to the plan for a cleanup.
Agency personnel showed them detailed plans for each of the mine pits, some acutely contaminated with uranium byproducts and heavy metals.
Besides Feist, two others at the meeting have had brain cancer. Another woman said her family is loaded with thyroid problems. An attorney, who passed out business cards after the meeting, accompanied one of the brain cancer victims.
The cleanup will cost at least $22 million and take several years. It's possible work could start next year, the Forest Service said.
The process requires some procedural work before it will get final approval and funding.
The meeting in the Buffalo community hall was held so locals could comment on the cleanup plans. The Forest Service also is taking steps to get Kermac Corp., formerly Kerr-McGee, to help share in the cost of the cleanup. The company mined eight of the 12 pits back in the late '50s and early '60s.
Bill Rotenberger ranches near one of the pits on Forest Service land, which has eroded onto his land.
"It scares the heck out of me," Rotenberger said. "I know for a fact where the sediment from the mines has moved a mile."
In what was news to the audience, the Forest Service said it and the Environmental Protection Agency recently started work on an agreement to survey where and how much toxic contamination has moved from the mines onto private land.
Locals, like Feist, said sediment from the uranium mines has moved down drainages, which empty into local rivers and dams.
"They can't wipe up the whole floor," Rotenberger said. "How do you leave your home?"
The mines are scattered across several sections and 225 acres of Forest Service land in the Custer National Forest. The Forest Service said the mines would be graded over with dirt spoil piles that were heaped up during the original mining. The toxic soils will be buried as deep as possible.
In some cases, sediment ponds will be constructed to contain run off. In others, where the contamination is acute, the soil will be removed to deeper mine pits for burial.
Harold Smolnetaar, a local rancher and former coal miner, said he wanted assurance the spoils soil used to cover the mines also isn't contaminated.
He said other cleanups have had to be redone because toxins remained at the surface.
The agency said it will verify contaminants while the work is in progress, control any dust and make sure the contractors wear proper safety gear.
One resident said the mine pits have had 50 years to "heal up and now you're going to stir it all up again."
Dean Wagner, a Harding County Commissioner, said Kermac should not be held responsible for a mess on government land that was mined for the government.
The Cave Hills' mines aren't the only old uranium mines in Harding County.
There's a large abandoned mine near Ludlow, S.D., north of the Cave Hills, that's on a hilltop right above the school.
Harding County Commissioner Bob Johnson said the county and probably the state of South Dakota can't afford to clean up other mines in the county.
Johnson said the county will watch how the Forest Service proceeds.
"There are a lot of questions here. This is all new," he said.
Feist, whose cancer is gone for now, and who claims to be feeling good a year after treatment, said it doesn't matter to him in what order the uranium pits are covered up, even if it takes years.
"I don't care where they start -- just start," he said.
South Dakota uranium mine cleanup costs tagged at $22M