TAC concerned by collaboration

Thursday, 15 January 2009
Black Range Minerals’ intent to form a joint venture with Uranium One was met with concern by Tallahassee Area Community Inc., the organization formed exclusively to oppose uranium exploration and mining in the area.

Publish Date: 1/14/2009

TAC concerned by collaboration

Debbie BellThe Daily Record

Black Range Minerals’ intent to form a joint venture with Uranium One was met with concern by Tallahassee Area Community Inc., the organization formed exclusively to oppose uranium exploration and mining in the area.

TAC President Jim Hawklee said Tuesday the group relies on the county’s land use decisions to protect residents but is uncertain that protection is infallible. Water rights remain front and center in TAC’s opposition to the project.

“A full-scale mining operation will de-water the entire region,” Hawklee said. “The loss of water to the Tallahassee Creek system is unacceptable, and would harm the State of Colorado’s in-stream flow rights along with numerous other water-rights holders.”

TAC’s water law attorney, James S. Witwer of Denver, believes at least 150 million gallons and up to 600 million gallons of water will be lost from the Tallahassee Creek system every year if the project moves forward.

“Those kinds of impacts are going to be really, really damaging,” Witwer said. He estimated the water supply of between 900 and 3,000 families is at stake. “It’s a little staggering.”

He explained Black Range plans to take water from the upper Tallahassee Creek and its tributaries, and return that water into the Arkansas River downstream. Such a system could de-water the entire Tallahassee area, he said.

“All of the depletion, every gallon of water Black Range pulls out, is lost to that creek system and not replaced until the Arkansas,” Witwer said. “That’s too late.”

Hawklee said putting the Tallahassee Creek water in danger with a full-scale mining operation, such as that proposed by Black Range Minerals, is intolerable.

“How can anyone possibly think that de-watering the Tallahassee Creek system, and the loss of from 150 million to 600 million gallons of water from the Arkansas River, is a good thing?” he asked.

Hawklee pointed to documentation from the State Water Court in the Cyprus application for water rights in the Tallahassee Creek area, circa 1980. Although that request was almost 30 years ago, Hawklee said, “the geology has not changed.”

“The flows of the Tallahassee Creek system will experience some depletion as a result of the construction of the Hansen Mine,” Water Court documents state. “In order to construct the mine, ground water will have to be evacuated throughout its immediate area. Secondly, wells… will be constructed around the perimeter of the mine into each of the several formations as necessary to accomplish the de-watering. The result is that any natural precipitation or runoff or streamflows which otherwise would have entered into and flows through the mine area now will be intercepted and the flow of the Tallahassee Creek system will be accordingly reduced. Conservatively… it is predicted that the flow of the North Tallahassee Creek… will be depleted to some extent. The flow in the Tallahassee Creek… will be diminished.”

Hawklee said an extensive water analysis is necessary to identify the impacts of the proposed mining and understand the full extent of the depletions involved.

“One may conclude that a worst-case scenario involving an open pit or strip mining operation is the most likely one to be pursued for economic reasons, and cannot be excluded from the discussion of the issue,” Hawklee said. “After all, it was proposed in the past, and the geology has not changed.”

TAC also believes Black Range eventually will look to an open pit or strip mine as the best option, because Cyprus Mines Corp. concluded that type of mining was the best economical choice for the surrounding geography. However, the company continues to emphasize it wants to implement an underground mining strategy.

“History predicts future,” Hawklee said.

An estimate of the appearance of such an operation is grim. Water Court documents in the Cyprus case said the ultimate depth of the excavation was expected to be from 700 to 800 feet, with a general excavation size projected to be approximately a mile and one-half wide long by three-quarters of a mile wide. Hawklee said that estimate was for the Hansen Project alone, and would necessarily increase with the addition of the Taylor Ranch Project.

Hawklee has done his homework. He also quoted a recent Colorado Supreme Court mining decision in a Summit County case, as he said TAC is looking to Fremont County to protect its residents.

“Counties still have ‘considerable land use authority over the location and impacts of mining operations’ such as ‘designating appropriate areas for different land uses and placing conditions on those uses’,” Hawklee quoted the court. “We cannot condone the large-scale industrial activity that would be in conflict with the Fremont County Master Plan.”

Hawklee said the project area is inside a residential development that was platted and marketed as such during the last decade and would need to be rezoned. The area in question is immediately adjacent to other residential areas, as well.

“This is bad news for us,” Hawklee said.