Paradox resident Marie Moore responds to Norwood’s Tom Kyle and speaks out against the proposed Paradox Valley uranium mill… Rhonda Claridge asks the

Comment: Paradox, Colorado is fighting against a proposed uranium mill! Both women's anti-Uranium mill letter are referring to name calling ProUranium Mill dude (the letter comes after the women letters)! It seems all proNuke bunches like to call people names if you do not like nuke power! Virginians are also fighting against uranium mining and milling and the nuke bunch call us names too! Many of us have heard the old saying, "Don't let history repeat itself!” well the good people of Colorado are fighting against the uranium mill because they have past history of uranium mill pollutions. No to uranium mining and milling! (The above video, the guy giving the pro Uranium mill speech is a Canadian (listen to the accent!))

Aug 27, 2009

Editor:

In response to the letter by Mr. Tom Kyle from Norwood, I am Marie Moore and I have been a resident of Paradox for 17 years. I am the “poor woman” you referred to in your letter and who you accused of speaking for some of the farmers and ranchers in the Paradox Valley at the hearing for the Special Use Permit for the Uranium Mill on August 13th. I gave a list of farms in the Paradox Valley. I did not say that I was representing any of those farms or the stance that any of those ranchers and farmers have about the mill. They can speak for themselves, and many of them did. I said that if there is contamination or stigma from the milling and mining of uranium it could affect all of the farmers and ranchers here and their ability to gain their livelihood. It could. I was not speaking for the Paradox Valley Sustainability Association either.

I have studied about the history of this area and I would like to point out that farming and ranching existed here before mining and milling. In his article Mr. Kyle failed to mention about the “Legacy of Death” which was also part of the history of the uranium industry in this area. He failed to mention about the many cancer and lung disease deaths in people working for an industry that lied to the public about the dangers and risks involved. He failed to mention that our government has paid out millions of dollars for restitution to families who suffered because someone in the family (usually the breadwinner) had died from cancer or lung disease from working in this industry. Which, for those in this area who say that uranium mining and milling do not cause cancer – that it was just because the workers smoked – tell me, why have you all accepted the money from our government which was paid to you because our government has determined that those people died from cancer and lung disease because of working with radioactive materials? If uranium doesn’t cause cancer it seems to me everyone who has benefited from the restitution money are fraudulent and should return the money. No one gets restitution just because they die of cancer from smoking.

Yes, we have earthquakes here often, and earthquakes can crack brittle liners and cause leaching of contaminants into the groundwater. Mr. Kyle, you seem almost proud of the fact that the mining companies in the past had no consciousness about the contamination they left behind for our tax payers to pay to get cleaned up.

I know that people in Nucla and Naturita need jobs. Presently the BLM received stimulus money for doing mine closures of many of the mines west of Paradox. These jobs have just come up for bid and there will be more in the next year. Contact for information about this is Barney Buria at the BLM office in Montrose 240-5333. He mentioned to me that the mine closures are being done because of the accidents and deaths that have happened when people have driven ATV’s into mines and fallen down mine shafts, etc. Getting the mines closed and the mess cleaned up that was left behind by the mining companies that pulled out leaving mine tailings to blow in the wind will lessen any contamination that would blow around now. I have had people make readings for radioactivity on my property in Paradox and the readings were only .002 points above the national average. Considering that we are at 5,200 ft. above sea level and considering that the higher you go the readings get higher, I think we can say that there is either no or very little contamination from uranium at this time where I live.

The history of mining and milling makes excellent material for tourism when it is past history and no longer threatens people’s health and well being. Naturita has beautiful river frontage and is on Hwy. 141, upon which many tourists travel. I cannot understand why residents in Nucla and Naturita want to resurrect the uranium industry that caused so much death and sickness there when they have the opportunity to bring tourism into their towns as a way to make money. For those who want to build houses to bring into this area workers for the mill and mines, wouldn’t building cabins for tourists to stay by the riverside bring in more money in reality? (I thought the mill would employ locals so why do we need houses to bring in outsiders? Or would there be few jobs in reality for locals?) If you read the report done by the Sonoran Institute for Gateway Canyons, tourism is the business that has had a steady increase in revenues for this area for many years. Why are the residents of Nucla and Naturita not realizing that tourism has made Telluride, Moab, Gateway, and partially Grand Junction and Montrose prosper? Isn’t it time that the West End partake in the tourism prosperity? The history of mining and milling, the farming and ranching, the hunting and fishing and outdoor recreation, rafting on the river, the bicyclists, the rock climbers, gift shops, restaurants, retirees and tourism all support and benefit each other, so why not make the Western Slope a unified whole in supporting those activities for gaining a livelihood?

The stigma and contamination of the mining and milling is in direct opposition to the flourishing of all of the above-mentioned ways of making a living. So do we continue a history of not caring about each other and just trying to get for ourselves or do we look at the whole region and make our choices based on what will benefit everyone?

– Marie Moore, Paradox

Deny Special Use Permit for Uranium Mill

Editor:

To the Montrose County Board of County Commissioners:

I am writing to urge you to deny the Special Use Permit application for the proposed Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill. Development of a uranium mill will unfairly devalue the properties of existing landowners in the Paradox Valley. It will provide a short-term revenue source for 85 locals, but when this industry collapses, what will future generations of the region do for a living? Right now, people of the Nucla and Naturita area enjoy the income from boaters on the Dolores River and other recreationalists, such as rock climbers and road cyclists. There is potential for exponential revenue growth in the region given the history and scenic beauty of Paradox Valley, the climate, and the natural amenities. Should residents create some mountain bike trails and choose to provide tours of rock art and wild horses, etc., their economic well-being would be guaranteed. People will come and spend money and appreciate and protect the region.

I don't think it is fair to cater to the interests of a small group of people, i.e. those who seek jobs in the proposed mill, while polluting the air, soil and water that the rest of us who live in the Southwest are working so hard to keep clean. The dangers that uranium mills pose are evident when you research what has occurred in Canõn City or when you consider the enormous costs to taxpayers to reclaim mill sites at Uravan, Vanadium, and Moab. Why would the government undergo such huge clean-up efforts if the impacts of uranium mills were not harmful? The uranium industry has already boomed and busted more than once in the Southwest. Why not endorse a healthy, long-term industry such as generating solar power in Paradox? This would create jobs and harm no one.

Please look to the future, be courageous, and do not cave to political pressures from special interest groups. You have a responsibility not only to the people of Naturita, Nucla, and neighboring towns, but also to their children who will inherit a polluted land and greater socio-economic woes than their parents.

Respectfully,
– Rhonda Claridge, Ophir

Do You Know the History of the Paradox Valley? (ProUraniumMill, calling people names)

Aug 20, 2009

Editor:

At the Thursday night, Aug.13 public comment meeting at Nucla High School the Montrose County Commissioners listened patiently to the crowd against placing a uranium mill in Paradox Valley. I was astounded by the number of people from the Bedrock/Paradox area of our county who stood up and made fools of themselves by not knowing the history of their own area.

Didn’t the real estate agent tell you that you bought property in a mining district? Didn’t they realize that on all four sides of your little area is one of the largest mining districts in the State of Colorado? And it’s not a former mining district, it’s an existing mining district. One poor woman, apparently knowing nothing about the valley, mentioned the pending cellular mutation of the Redd cattle and the destruction of the Swain Ranch as instances of what was to come if the mill was allowed to get any dust in the air.

Uh…excuse me, but your living in a mining district. There is radioactive dust in the air currently and has been since you set foot in the valley. I recently read a great book about Charlie Redd who, without investing in the boom, profited from the era and even rented his LaSal home to the manager of Homestake Mining Company. He shared the BLM property with the miners and grazed his cows right beside their mine dumps along LaSal creek and fed them hay from Paradox. The low-grade waste dumps are all around you.

And also there is the age-old story repeated often in our local paper about Thomas Swain who, in 1895, sent specimens of yellow carnotite to the British Museum. In 1906 Madam Curie sent a buyer to Paradox from France. The realtor didn’t tell you that? It’s one of our best stories.

To the southwest of your area is the Big Indian mining district where Charlie Steen hit his mother lode. Do you think he and all the 500 mines in your immediate area picked up every granule of ore. Of course not and still today the wind hurls it right down into your front yard. To the northwest of Paradox Polar Mesa in the Uravan mining belt where hundreds of low grade mine dumps dot the surface. It’s our history. When the price is down our people practically starve. When the price is up, we get busy and mine it.

As you drive the valley from Naturita, look to your left to see the road to the Nil Mine at the base of on Monogram Mesa. It’s one of several hundred. It is no longer in operation, but it could be, if the water was pumped out. Not too many years ago, the wastewater from the mines in that area, were pumped into ponds for cattle to drink. No one told you that? Water is constantly moving through that strata and has been for 20 million years. You should ask Energy Fuels if they could use that water in their mill. It would alleviate them drilling wells.

Another lady at Thursday’s meeting was sure earthquakes were going to erupt under the mill. Does she and her rude clapping followers not understand that 600 earthquakes were noted in the valley last year? The shaking of the earth certainly opens up tiny cracks in all the formations for surface water to penetrate the ground after it leaches through the 1,500 low-grade waste piles from former mines that surround Paradox Valley.

Energy Fuels reports the new mill will require 500 tons of ore per day. That’s PEANUTS. The mill at Uravan operated at 200 tons per hour, twenty-four hours per day. Understand also that only a small part of the yellow cake produced is radioactive. It has to be refined before it is dangerous. That is why it will be transported to Illinois. All you fools holding your breath when you drive through the former Uravan, should think about the natural dust blowing off the former and existing mines in the surrounding mining districts. Mining uranium and vanadium is what we do here in Montrose County.

Building a vanadium/uranium processing mill in Uravan was not a good idea, but it was the only existing site where the U.S. Government could quickly get their hands on processed yellow cake during World War II. It is the primary reason the folks in Paradox Valley are not speaking Japanese today. The tax money from uranium mining paid for building the schools in Nucla, Naturita and Paradox and it contributed to the Montrose high school. It was Western Colorado mining resources that built St. Mary’s hospital. Not farming and tourism. Grand Junction is an energy hub with rich history and great future potential.

Another fool at Thursday’s meeting stood up representing [a nearby resort] who is against the mill. That facility is smack dab in the middle of a uranium mining district and he should advise visitors that their facility was constructed in the Uravan Mining Belt and the dust on the back roads where they escort tourists is in a uranium mining district where many hundreds of mines once existed and are in operation currently. Didn’t anyone tell them there was radioactive mine dumps in the area before the developed the resort? I’m sure they knew some of the history. Their tourist attraction and museum has increased Gateway traffic in the narrow canyon as much as eight times. It alone has contributed to more deaths than any mining currently operating. They should put up a sign notifying everyone the surroundings are radioactive.

Lake Powell in southern Utah was constructed in a mining district and when it filled, the water covered up hundreds of high-grade uranium mines, but people still love to go there and the fish are doing well. The people downstream are born have five fingers per hand.

I agree that mistakes have been made back when the U.S. Government was the only authorized purchaser of yellow cake. But technology has drastically improved and we are now back under the free enterprise system and controls are in place. The President of the company submitting the applicant is George Glasier, and like Howard Hughes, he has been in the industry his entire career and has his whole life and reputation wrapped up in this project. The last recent catastrophic meltdown I can remember was on Wall Street and even though I don’t know George personally, I trust him more than the president of my own bank, who has virtually nothing to lose.

If the fanatic folks in Paradox Valley are really interested in clean air, they should concentrate their efforts to research large power plants back east that spew millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year along with thousands of tons of radioactive particles. You just can’t see them. AND there is no clean coal technology other than pumping CO2 into the ground.

I don’t own mining stocks, I don’t own mining claims and I don’t need a job. I simply have studied good science and know the history of western Montrose County. I want to tell Paradox Valley residents not to be sorry you moved here. They can be part of the global solution.

– Tom Kyle, Norwood


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