Cotter preparing commitment letter Plant will close its 40-acre secondary impoundment pond
Debbie Bell The Daily Record
Cotter has committed to close its 40-acre secondary impoundment pond with its recent license amendment with the state, plant manager John Hamrick told the Lincoln Park/Cotter Superfund Community Advisory Group on Thursday. About 20 people gathered at Garden Park High School for the monthly CAG meeting.
Hamrick said the agreement also calls for Cotter to establish a timeline for certain actions, including a March 31 deadline for a commitment letter. That document will detail Cotter’s plans to either close its uranium plant south of Cañon City, the site of a Superfund cleanup, or retool it for continued production.
During a break, Hamrick answered the question whether Cotter is working with Black Range Minerals, the Australian company exploring a massive uranium deposit in the Tallahassee area.
“We are not talking to Black Range” about a potential partnership to process uranium mined in the area, Hamrick said.
The majority of the meeting was devoted to sometimes heated discussion on health reporting and risk evaluation in the Superfund site.
Jane Mitchell, Environmental Epidemiology Section of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, explained the process of a health risk evaluation in overall terms. Members of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic
Waste said such an assessment did not go far enough to fully identify health problems that currently exist in the Lincoln Park area.
“I guess I’m naïve,” said CCAT cochairman Sharyn Cunningham. “It would be nice if someone would come down to our town and talk to the doctors if there is a complaint, but I guess it doesn’t work that way.”
Mitchell explained much of the health data in question is gathered through a statewide cancer registry. Information on each case is submitted by the diagnosing physician at the time of diagnosis. However, CCAT cochairman Jeri Fry said the system doesn’t go far enough and asked why other epidemiological studies are not conducted.
“Tonight, we have identified that what is here isn’t working,” Fry said. “I’m asking you to put into place a procedure for citizens to talk to regulators.”
Fry said she had anecdotal evidence of illness suspected to be caused by uranium contamination, but had no method of reporting it to authorities. Mitchell responded that confidentiality requirements make it difficult to collect and analyze accurate data.
“I’m trying to help you understand what our tools are,” Mitchell said. “You need to understand how limited we are in what we can do.”
Jeannine Natterman, CDPHE community involvement, also said the problem is compounded by the confidentiality of information collected.
“This is a very complex problem,” Natterman said.
John Dalton, Environmental Protection Agency community involvement coordinator, gave CCAT unofficial advice.
“I would run around the system and go to my elected officials,” Dalton said.
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