Cotter cleans up toxic Colorado uranium mill as it considers future
By Bruce Finley The Denver Post CAÑON CITY — Cotter Corp. crews this week jack-hammered concrete foundations and ripped apart contaminated remaining buildings at their uranium mill, pushing to consolidate all waste in a massive impoundment pond by year's end. Next year, workers will dig out toxic soil 4 feet deep and bury that too, said John Hamrick, Cotter's vice president for mill operations, outlining a dismantling project that he said has cost $3.5 million so far. The project eventually will include construction of a new evaporative waste pond to store water pumped from a potentially contaminated creek that flows near Cotter's property, Hamrick said. "We're meeting all public standards and worker standards. No harm is being done," he said. "We're not dragging this out." Ten new groundwater-testing wells are to be built in a nearby urban neighborhood to monitor toxic plumes, along with additional wells west of the mill, where the latest underground plume of cancer-causing trichloroethylene was discovered last year. State regulators have determined, based on data supplied by Cotter, that toxic leakage from the 90-acre waste impoundment is minimal. State health department spokeswoman Jeannine Natterman on Tuesday confirmed her agency's recent assessment of "no significant leaks or seepage." Cotter's dismantling activities are happening at a turning point where licensing requirements may force a decision on the future of the mill. For more than three years, Cotter officials have stated they may try to reopen the mill to process ore mined in New Mexico. Such a revival would only happen, Cotter Corp. president Amory Quinn said recently, "if the economics are there." Those economics include the price of uranium, currently $52 a pound, well down from the surge above $100 a pound several years ago that prompted Cotter to investigate possibilities for rebuilding. Another factor may be the ability to supply booming nations such as China that seek fuel for nuclear power plants. State health department regulators have let Cotter deliberate on whether to reopen or embark on total cleanup and restoration of the site. But now Cotter's operating license is about to expire. Cotter must decide by January whether to renew or to move toward reclamation and closure. "Whether we go into production again or whether we go into final reclamation, what we are doing now is what we would have to do for either option," Hamrick said Tuesday. Federal authorities during the Cold War backed creation of the mill to process uranium for nuclear weapons. In 1984, the mill was deemed a Superfund environmental disaster. Toxic metal waste contaminated residential wells near Cañon City. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eventually entrusted state officials with oversight. Now, Fremont County officials and community activists are questioning permanent storage of waste at the mill. EPA spokesman Richard Mylott said, "The impoundment needs to be protective of human health and the environment and must comply with all relevant requirements, both in the near term and when it is closed as a repository for the site." Fremont County Commissioner Mike Stiehl said he is "still uncomfortable" with permanent on-site storage and that his understanding was that state officials will require Cotter to consider removing waste from the impoundment pond. Stiehl also isn't comfortable with the health department practice of granting a halfway "stand-down" status that lets Cotter keep an operating license without embarking on total reclamation. "Every five years, they can buy another five years. That's disingenuous, and it's hard for the community to live with," Stiehl said. Colorado lawmakers have put up regulatory barriers that could hinder Cotter's ability to process uranium, Hamrick said. New development of uranium ore in New Mexico could generate $50 billion worth of economic activity, he said. "All that economic activity won't happen in Colorado, but it would be nice if we got our share," he said.
Read more: Cotter cleans up toxic Colorado uranium mill as it considers future - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19293998#ixzz1dGlZcR00 Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Read more: Cotter cleans up toxic Colorado uranium mill as it considers future - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19293998#ixzz1dGlMRYYh Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
BLR Price at posting:
1.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
