Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Regulators in Colorado are allowing a mining company’s leaky disposal ponds to house radioactive waste, even after decades of complaints from state and federal environmental officials.
Cotter Corp.’s tailing ponds near Cañon City (population 16,000) has been described by the state’s health department as “unusable” for hazardous waste since 2004. But the controversy began long before that.
In 1958, the State Land Board leased more than 600 acres to Cotter, allowing it to dump uranium, molybdenum and other contaminants in unlined ponds for two decades. The result was some of the waste leached into the groundwater and migrated towards local communities.
A solution was crafted in the 1980s in which two new lined impoundment ponds were constructed to take on waste from the old ponds. But then state inspectors found tears in the ponds’ lining, which meant more contamination was occurring. In 1984, the area was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Many residents of Cañon City remain uncomfortable with the idea of 4 million cubic yards of radioactive waste lying just one and half miles from their homes.
Last week the EPA approved the construction of tailings ponds for the Piñon Ridge Uranium and Vanadium Mill, a proposed project to be carried out by Energy Fuels of Canada in Colorado’s Montrose County. If a uranium mill is built, it would be only the second in the nation. The other is in nearby southeast Utah.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Cotter Mill's Ties to Colorado Regulators May Have Become Toxic (by Karen E. Crummy, Denver Post)
Cotter Legacy Continues to Linger over Modern Uranium Mining, Milling Proposals (by David O. Williams, Colorado Independent)
Timeline: Cotter's mill mine history in Colorado (Denver Post)
Colorado Uranium Mill Clears an EPA Hurdle (by Nancy Lofholm, Denver Post)
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