Gov. Mike Rounds says there's nothing improper about his sister and brother-in-law working as consultants for a company seeking state permits to mine uranium in the southern Black Hills.

Rounds said he knows little about the work his sister, Michele, and her husband, Randy Brich, do for Powertech Uranium Corp., through their consulting company, Diamond B Communications of Pierre. During an interview on the issue this week, Rounds had to ask to have the Diamond B name repeated when it was first mentioned.

"I've not heard that name before," he said. "Honestly, Micki told me one time that they were going to be talking to the firm (Powertech). I never heard anything else about it, until this thing popped up in the press."

The Journal reported earlier this month that Randy Brich was working as a consultant for Powertech on its proposed Dewey Burdock uranium mine near Edgemont. Since that time, Powertech officials have confirmed that Michele Brich also does consulting work for Powertech.

"Michele and Randy are principals in Diamond B Communications, LLC," Powertech governmental affairs coordinator Larry Mann said. "The company was retained for the purpose of consulting to Powertech in 2007."

When contacted by the Journal in early December, a spokesman for Rounds said the governor wasn't aware that Brich was working for Powertech. This week, the governor said he did remember that his sister had mentioned, during a family gathering months earlier, something about a possible job with Powertech. But Rounds said couldn't remember the details.

"Normally when we get together for a family event, there's going to be 65 people at our place," Rounds said. "So we normally don't talk a lot of business at family gatherings."

Edgemont rancher Mark Hollenbeck, manager of the Dewey Burdock project, said Powertech hired Randy Brich because "he's quite honestly the most qualified person for this job in the state of South Dakota."

Although listed on the Powertech Web site as a media contact, Brich won't actually do much work with reporters, Hollenbeck said.

"He does research for us," he said. "He's a phenomenal scientist."

Brich has a master's degree in biology from South Dakota State University in Brookings. He worked for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, Mann said. Brich compiled background data and interpreted science for the proposed Dewey Burdock project, which his wife organized into an informational packet for Powertech to distribute to reporters and others.

"We hired Michele because she's very good at that stuff," Mann said. "She's good at putting together the facts in an organized way."

Rounds said he doesn't worry about allegations by some environmentalists that the involvement of his relatives means special treatment for Powertech by state environmental regulators. He rejects those allegations but doesn't spend time on them.

"If you worry about all that stuff, you'll go crazy trying to eliminate connections. I just don't worry about it," Rounds said. "I will tell you that Randy is one of the most brilliant people you'll ever meet, and he has a very significant background in nuclear energy."

Rounds said that in a small state like South Dakota, it's difficult to avoid personal or family connections that some might allege as improper.

"There are very few things you can do in which you don't, some place, have some connection to some entity of government," he said.

There's another example of that in the Brich family. Sol Brich, Randy's nephew, works for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Pierre in the agency's watershed protection program.

Sol Brich said by e-mail that his duties have never included uranium permit applications.

The Brich connection to the governor troubles officials for two environmental groups who have been opposing the Powertech development, however. Both Dick Fort of ACTion for the Environment and Charmaine White Face of Defenders of the Black Hills say it is a clear conflict of interest.

White Face charged that family connections could have been the reason that the governor and state environmental officials and management boards had disregarded issues of concern raised by the group. Despite the governor's assurances to the contrary, White Face said she still believes family connections matter.

"He's the boss, you know, and all these boards are appointed by the governor," she said.

White Face is skeptical that Rounds didn't know before the Journal's coverage that his sister and brother-in-law had worked for Powertech since 2007.

"In families, everybody usually knows where everybody is working," she said. "If it was a third cousin once removed, maybe, but this?"

The governor said he doesn't advise or try to influence the state Water Management Board or the Board of Minerals and Environment on permitting issues and won't be involved in the Powertech permitting process, either.

Powertech will need a mining permit from the minerals and environment board and a special injection permit from the water board in order to mine uranium in the state. They will also need federal permits.

Powertech has been digging wells under exploration permits from the state to locate and define the uranium deposits for the Dewey Burdock projects in northwest Fall River and southwest Custer counties.

The allegations that Rounds and his family members may unfairly upset state board decisions bothers Mike DeMersseman of Rapid City, a member of the Board of Minerals and Environment. DeMersseman said he and other board members based permitting decisions on science, rules and finding a sound balance between appropriate development and environmental protection.

"As past president of the Black Hills Flyfishers and a board member of the Nature Conservancy, I sure don't intend to do anything that's going to ruin the environment out here," DeMersseman said. "I consider myself to be a defender of the Black Hills. This is my home."

Randy Brich also rejected allegations that he and his wife would expect or receive favors because of family connections to the governor.

"If this wasn't such a serious subject, I'd find the allegations laughable," he wrote in an e-mail to the Journal. "Thinly veiled ad hominem attacks indicate just how desperate and irrational the anti-nuclear activists have become."

White Face said her organization is simply trying to live up to its name and defend the Black Hills from exploitation and environmental damage.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com.