Cañon City uranium contamination looms over Montrose mill battle

By David O. Williams
9/25/09 8:39 AM

MONTROSE — For many in Montrose County and surrounding counties and communities in Southwest Colorado, the proposed Piñon Ridge uranium mill really is a clear-cut case of NIMBYism.

But for residents of Cañon City area, some of whom made the long trip to a special-use permit hearing in Montrose earlier this month, declaring “not in my back yard” could have spared them decades of health problems associated with the metal the Navajo Indians call “yellow death.”

Rebecca Lorenz of Colorado Springs was one of the attorneys who in the 1990s convinced two separate federal juries to award Cañon City area residents millions in damages stemming from radiation poisoning produced by Cotter Corp.’s uranium mill near Lincoln Park that was declared an EPA Superfund Cleanup site.

At a hearing before the Montrose County commissioners earlier this month, Lorenz read a laundry list of illnesses stemming from Cotter Corp. uranium processing that began in the 1950s and ran well into the 1980s: cancer, arthritis, bronchitis, infertility, birth defects and learning disabilities, to name a few.

She urged the commissioners to consider those considerable health risks before approving a special-use permit on Sept. 30 for a Canadian company, Energy Fuels, which wants to process uranium ore in far western Montrose County in the Paradox Valley between Bedrock and Naturita.

Cañon City resident Sharon Cunningham also made the long drive to Montrose, telling the commissioners that “ore from this area and tailings are less than a mile from my house.” She related the story of Cotter Corp. chemist Lynn Boughton, who worked at the Cañon City mill for decades and fought Cotter and Pinnacle Insurance for years to secure a settlement after contracting cancer.

Cotter Corp.’s Glen Williams also attended the hearing, acknowledging his company’s problems processing ore near Cañon City. But he said technology has changed dramatically since the state’s uranium-mining heyday, and he urged the commissioners to approve the Paradox Valley mill so mines Cotter still owns and operates in the area will have a much closer processing facility. Milling involves leaching uranium ore with sulfuric acid to produce uranium oxide, or yellow cake, which can then be converted into fuel rods for nuclear power plants.

“The [Paradox Valley] area is nice, but this county was built on natural resources,” Williams said.


uranium
Frank Filas, environmental manager for a U.S. subsidiary of Ontario-based Energy Fuels, said Cañon City is ancient history in his industry, with Cotter using unlined tailings ponds that led to groundwater contamination.

“You just can’t use [tailings] for sandboxes the way they were in the ’50s and ’60s, but comparing our situation to historic situations is a little disingenuous,” Filas said, adding his company will use state-of-the-art, double-lined ponds in the Paradox Valley.

Montrose internal medicine specialist Dr. Christine Gieszl and others cited numerous federal studies and a 2007 Colorado Medical Society (CMS) finding that uranium mining and milling pose a major public health risk. But Filas discounted the CMS decision.

“Our feeling is that decision was mostly political based on opposition to Powertech in Weld County,” Filas said, referring to a proposed uranium mine 15 miles northeast of Fort Collins that has now been opposed by the cities and towns of Fort Collins, Greeley, Ault, Wellington, Timnath and Nunn, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

There are a number of other concerns associated with a revival of Colorado’s uranium mining industry to meet a growing call for carbon-free nuclear power in the United States and around the world, including transportation of ore and other mining materials on two-lane mountain roads.

The Montrose County commissioners have finished taking public testimony on the proposed mill and appear ready to make a decision at their next hearing on the proposal, set for 10 a.m., Sept. 30, at Friendship Hall in the Montrose County Fairgrounds and Event

http://coloradoindependent.com/38522/canon-city-uranium-contamination-looms-over-montrose-mill-battle

Commissioners bent on blind conclusion (Uranium Mill)

The proposed location for the Pinon Ridge Mill Photo

Comment: Virginians is fighting against uranium mining and milling just like the people of Pinon Ridge, CO. Boy, this uranium corporation is a sneaky bunch, bussing people in for the event!

Montrose BOCC should wait on Pinon Ridge Mill Permit

Published: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 9:43 AM CDT
By Dan Chancellor

Dear Editor:

The Montrose Board of County Commissioners faces one of the most important decisions in the history of Montrose County. The special use permit for a uranium mill and radio-active materials dump site could have far-reaching consequences thousands of years into the future.

Despite the urging of citizens, businesses and varied organizations, the commissioners seem bent on blindly racing to a speedy conclusion. By stipulation of the permit process, the commissioners have received fifty thousand dollars for independent analysis of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the proposed mill and dumpsite.

To date, no studies have been implemented. Future impacts cannot be completely determined. Once established as a sacrifice zone, State and Federal agencies could amend the license to include large quantities of most any toxic, hazardous or radioactive materials.

Using only the data supplied by the mill applicants, in an incomplete application, the commissioners are poised to grant a special use permit that could negatively impact the entire Four Corners region. There is no obligation or apparent reason to rush this complex and extremely consequential process.

Public opposition was made abundantly clear at the Montrose BOCC public hearing in Nucla on Aug. 13. At the end of the allocated time, 28 of the 30 citizen speakers had voiced opposition to the mill. In the commentary extension granted by the board, the balance remained overwhelmingly in favor of the opposition.

To counter the swell of citizen opposition, Energy Fuels, the mill applicant, has chartered busses to bring locals to the upcoming hearing.

Energy Fuels has been serving up free hamburgers, along with sides of questionable facts and vague intentions.

Those of us whose chief concerns are the health, safety and prosperity of the area cannot afford to charter busses or give out free food.

But we can show up, we can stand up and we can make sure that our voices are heard.

The next, and possibly the last, public hearing will occur at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at the Montrose Fairground’s Friendship Hall.

If you can’t attend this meeting, you still have a short time to send an e-mail or letter to the Montrose County Commissioners. For further information go to www.paradoxsustainability.org, e-mail pvsa777@yahoo.com or call 970-859-7248.

Sincerely,
Dan Chancellor
Placerville, Colo.

http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2009/09/12/norwood_post/news/doc4aa7bc525dde8078706492.txt

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


http://www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Paradox+resident+Marie+Moore+responds+to+Norwood%E2%80%99s+Tom+Kyle+and+speaks+out+against+the+proposed+Paradox+Valley+uranium+mill%E2%80%A6+Rhonda+Claridge+asks+the+Montrose+County+Commissioners+to+not+cater+to+special+interests-%20&id=3274865

Nunn uranium mine could adversely impact groundwater, expert says

Comment: People from Australia are coming to America informing us that we should be worried about uranium mining and milling will ruin our water. Australia's people should know a thing a two about so call "Modern uranium mining” since their country is polluted from uranium mining and milling!

By David O. Williams 8/19/09 9:41 AM

Colorado has uranium on the brain these days.

An environmental engineer and lecturer brought in by conservationists told an audience in Fort Collins Tuesday they should be concerned about the deterioration of their water quality if a proposed uranium mine near Nunn goes forward, according to the Greeley Tribune.

“If I was living in this area, I would certainly have concerns about groundwater,” said Dr. Gavin Mudd, an assistant lecturer at Monash University in Clayton, Australia. “Knowing the extent of problems they’ve had at mines in Wyoming and Texas, for example, I would certainly be concerned about protecting my groundwater quality.”

An executive for Denver-based Powertech Uranium Corp. said he wouldn’t have a problem living next the mine, which would use in-situ leach mining.

“I would be very happy to live next to one of those things,” Powertech President and CEO Richard Clement told the paper. “Believe me, if I could move the project next to my house in New Mexico I would be more than happy to live there. I’ve been around these projects 30 some-odd years. There are no concerns.”

Mountain communities in Southwest Colorado, meanwhile, are heatedly debating the benefits and risks of a mill that would process uranium in Montrose County.

Uranium mining claims are on the rise around the state and nation as nuclear power continues to be touted as a renewable energy source that can dramatically reduce carbon emissions and global warming. But stopping mining claims near national parks and proposed wilderness areas, including the Grand Canyon, where President Barack Obama’s family vacationed over the weekend, has become a rallying cry for environmentalists.

Still, numerous politicians, including some former and current Democratic lawmakers from Colorado, are calling for more recognition of nuclear power and traditional energy sources such as natural gas in pending climate change legislation.

http://coloradoindependent.com/35963/nunn-uranium-mine-could-adversely-impact-groundwater-expert-says

Question and answer with Jody Williams, anti-nuclear activists

Comment: We need to get Ms. Williams to come speak about the problems of the nuclear cycle which begans uranium mining in Virginia! There is uranium in Fredericksburg too!

August 9, 2009
Question and answer with Jody Williams, anti-nuclear activists

By Tim Johnson
Free Press Staff Writer

Jody Williams, 58, a native of Brattleboro and a graduate of the University of Vermont, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In 2006, with five other peace-prize laureates, she co-founded the Nobel Women's Initiative, in support of women's organizations worldwide working for peace, justice and equality.

She divides her time between homes in Fredericksburg, Va. and Westminster West, Vt.

Williams was in Burlington last Thursday -- the anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima -- to speak at a Nuclear Disarmament Day rally sponsored by area peace groups. She sat down with the Free Press before her speech to discuss her views on nuclear energy. Her discourse was sprinkled with obscenities. "You can edit my lovely language," she said at one point. "When I get worked up, I swear a lot."

Tim Johnson: What are your thoughts on nuclear energy as a power source?

Jody Williams: I am not pro nuclear energy. I think looking backward in time for a response to today's problems is ridiculous. I really take offense at the lies that it's clean, sustainable, etc. Mining uranium is not clean. Building the plant is not clean. Decommissioning the reactors is most definitely not clean, and where ... do you put the radioactivity, which can last for hundreds of thousands of years? So, putting it forth as a clean alternative is (b.s.), and I hate being lied to, quite honestly.

TJ: Suppose someone said it was relatively cleaner than coal, oil, fossil fuels?

JW: I don't care. Without taxpayer money, it wouldn't exist at all. Private investors don't invest in it, as with most everything that's full of crap. Look, I'd rather have my billions of dollars going to finding really clean, sustainable energy, not looking back to nukes. I'm really terrified about where you're going to put all the crap. Last I checked ... there's no place in the United States that nationally will accept nuclear waste now.

The last I knew, there were two regional facilities that would accept waste from contiguous states, but the one that accepted waste nationally closed, so where is the nuclear (stuff) going? It's sitting there, polluting. And to be told that it has no impact defies my intellect, quite frankly. I understand that at Vermont Yankee, which is in my back yard, I don't want Chernobyl in my neighborhood with Mom ...

TJ: What about Vermont Yankee, which is near your hometown. Have you kept up with news about it?

JW: I'm keeping up with it a little bit. I know that they're supposed to end in 2012. I fully support that. I do not support 20 more years of them. I don't like the fact that they're a moving target in terms of where you measure the amount of radiation. Of course, they want to measure it far enough away that it comes up fairly negligible. I don't trust anything a radioactive plant tells me, to be quite honest. It's already had quite a few problems, and they're going to license it for 20 more years of problems? It makes no sense to me.

TJ: Did your life in Brattleboro overlap with Vermont Yankee?

JW: Oh yeah, my dad used to go there. My father ran Brattleboro Vending Corporation, which was a food and amusement vending company, and he supplied food to Vermont Yankee, so he used to go there every day and fill his machines. Dad died of cancer, by the way. Metastasized throughout his entire body, a month after he was diagnosed. Forever in my little peanut brain is the question: Was it because of Vermont Yankee?

TJ: When did he die?

JW: He died in 2004. ... I was just in Los Alamos, by the way. ... I was there for a protest, or a positive message about, it's time to follow Obama and get rid of nuclear weapons, and saying to the people of Los Alamos, who are supposedly phenomenally brilliant -- I think they're a little tunnel-visioned, but brilliance is said to be that way -- that they can use their brilliance in order to figure out ways to decommission safely nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear plants. Let's put their little brains on that one, too, and to figure out meaningful verification and compliance regimes for a nuclear treaty. So we're not saying get rid of your jobs. Everybody freaks out about jobs. I'm not saying that. You can keep your job. Start thinking about positive things instead of ways to destroy humanity.

TJ: There are many people who are opposed to nuclear weapons but sympathetic to nuclear energy as a power source. Is there a connection you can make? Even Obama wants to restrict nuclear weapons but is sort of pro nuclear energy. Is that a contradiction?

JW: In my book, yes. Why was my least favorite president in the history of the United States -- which would be W -- why was he all torqued out about Mr. Ahmadinejad and his nuclear energy plant? He was torqued out because he said that with that nuclear power plant, he could manufacture weapons. OK, if he (Ahmadinejad) could do it, everybody else can do it. Why then would logic say it's OK to have nuclear energy in enemy countries? ... There was a relatively recent article in the Washington Post ... making the same argument I'm making. There are between 30 and 40 countries that have petitioned for the right to start nuclear energy plants. I think a dozen are in the Middle East. ... Every one of those can turn those plants into the fundamentals for making nuclear weapons. Hello! If Iran can do it, anybody else can do it, and why ... would we want to do it? It is not sane. And where are you going to put the nuclear waste?

TJ: Do you think the U.S. is hypocritical in taking the stance it does toward Iran, when the U.S. already has nuclear weapons and is promoting nuclear power?

JW: Of course. I'm no fan of Mr. Ahmadinejad. I just spoke on July 25 in front of the Capitol in support of the people in Iran. There were demonstrations in over 110 cities. ... But if I were a state that has been declared an enemy of the United States, I'd be thinking, what can I most do to possibly protect myself? It would be a nuclear weapon. That is logical. And it offends me also that if you say that you're called a traitor here, because you can put your brain in the brain of someone on the other side of the planet ... We need to learn how to think, how other people think. We need to step outside the United States and look at how people look at us. They don't look at us with great joy and friendship, except that now we've got Obama and it's making them a bit less unhappy.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com, and follow him on Twitter at @flyonthe.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090809/NEWS05/908090310/1001

Uranium mining in Gateway area could hurt tourism, recreation, report warns

By DENNIS WEBB/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
Friday, August 14, 2009

A report on the implications of a uranium mining revival in the Gateway area holds lessons for Montrose County as it weighs whether to approve a mill for processing the mineral, the group behind the research says.

The Tucson-based Sonoran Institute this week released a report warning that an upswing in uranium mining could negatively impact the growing tourism and outdoor recreation industry in the Gateway area in southwestern Mesa County.

On Thursday night, Montrose County commissioners met in Nucla to consider a uranium mill proposal by Energy Fuels Resources Corp. for a site west of Naturita. Commissioners made no decision Thursday and will resume review of the matter on Sept. 9 in Montrose.

The nonprofit, conservation-oriented Sonoran Institute’s report considers the economic and community effects of getting uranium out of the ground, rather than processing it.

The economist who prepared the report, Joe Marlow, said a uranium mill is different from a mining operation.

“Still, there are environmental and economic risks associated with that,” he said.

Marlow’s analysis is available at www.sonoraninstitute.org.

Soaring uranium prices had sparked a renewed interest in mining in the Gateway region, but that interest has subsided because of a more recent price drop.

The report says local communities should be aware that traffic, environmental and other impacts of what has been a boom-and-bust industry could harm the more sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation industry.

A representative of Gateway Canyons Resort presented Montrose commissioners with the report Thursday as one more thing to think about as they consider the mill proposal.

The county’s planning commission and planning staff have recommended approval of the mill, with conditions aimed at protecting the environment.

County land-use Director Steve White said the potential tourism and environmental impacts have been a common concern regarding the proposal. Many of the more than 80 people who spoke Thursday opposed the mill, but others have voiced support for it, largely for the jobs it would provide.

Marlow acknowledged the value of mining-related jobs compared to lower-paying tourism work, but he said their higher pay reflects the health risks those jobs present and the lack of certainty over their longevity.

He said the report doesn’t take a position on uranium mining around Gateway.

“It’s just really to make people think and be aware of what the costs and the benefits are,” Marlow said.

Email DENNIS WEBB

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/08/14/081509_7a_Gateway_uranium_mill.html

Uranium: Wealth or Woe?

The current global quest for alternative energy sources such as nuclear power is poisoning the land of communities deemed lucky enough to have such lucrative resources at hand.

Mar 11, 2009 – Debates rage over whether energy generated by uranium induced nuclear fission is beneficial or harmful. The debate often settles into familiar bipartite arguments of nuclear power plants versus nuclear bombs.

However, this article demonstrates that this approach is too narrow; the threats to land and livelihoods generated purely from the extraction process are substantial but unknown or ignored, as the Topnaar Nama people in Namibia are discovering.

Whilst tragic results of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are well documented, the environmental and health problems that are a consequence of uranium exploration are less well known by the general global public.

During the development of the atomic bomb, thousands of mines were built in the Southwest of the United States and Northern Canada. The radioactive waste, known as tailings, that builds up in huge piles of rocks and slush outside the mines continues to threaten the wellbeing of local populations and contaminates the environment.

The sad truth is that Governments are fully aware of the dangers but refuse to implement adequate protection measures.

Uranium can cause a wide variety of health problems. Miners and local communities drink contaminated water, eat contaminated food and breathe in radon gas and dust from the tailings. In addition to this, the extraction and processing of uranium ore uses huge amounts of highly sought-after water that cannot be recycled.

It has been argued by mining companies that uranium extraction brings jobs to local populations, thus creating better living conditions, and for a few this was true. However the companies also quietly ignore the health and environmental effects of the process.

In many cases there have been no safety precautions, no radiation protection and no information about the hazards of the mining process. Regulations are non-existent or faulty to such an extent that they would never be accepted in industrialized states.

The problems associated with uranium mining are set to continue with its rising price as demand from nuclear power plant companies increases. Africa is especially at risk because companies are attracted by the lack of strict regulations.

One community that is particularly at risk from uranium extraction is the Topnaar Nama, one of fourteen groups of Nama people. These groups traditionally lived in the southern parts of the Namib, which today is part of Namibia and adjacent to South Africa. This nomadic group breed their own livestock such as goats and cows, which, along with !Nara fruits make-up their main food staples. They now live their traditional way of life in the area of the Kuiseb River and canyon, south of Walvisbay and Svakopmund.

There are currently two mines operating in the Topnaar territory with the Namibian Government recently issuing more uranium exploration licenses to various international companies. The Topnaar people now fear for their lives and existence. Uranium mining poses a considerable threat to general health, and lifestyle because of effects on underground and surface water resources.

The lack of water, and other environmental issues related to uranium mining have other impacts on the Topnaar. As Captain Samuel Khaxab from the Royal House of the Topnaar Nama states:

‘We do not accept the uranium mines. One day I want to show my children, my small children, this flower and that bock - which is called springbock and that one [which] is an Oryx. But if that mine is coming, the animals cannot be there anymore. The thing is so strong, dangerous; the people who are working in the mine become sick. The Roessing mine is far from us, but now it comes near at us. And it is dangerous for us. We cannot give permission for that thing.’

It has been recognized that the demand for water is much too high for the Namib to supply. In an attempt to combat this problem a water desalination plant is presently under construction at Wlozkasbaken as a joint venture between the uranium mining company UraMin and Nam Water.

It has been reported that workers of the Roessing mine, amongst them Topnaar people, are becoming ill and are dying. One Topnaar reported that his friend, a miner, had died a few weeks ago because of what the doctor referred to as ‘old mans illness’. He was only 60, and those within the Topnaar villages that have never worked in the mines live beyond 80 without any ‘old mans illness.’

It is clear from the issuing of uranium exploration licenses that the Namibian Government is less than supportive towards the Topnaar peoples’ situation. This is despite the fact that the Namibian constitution states that traditional chiefs (captains or kings) of different tribes be included in parliament.

It appears that financial institutions within the country, such as the Bank of Namibia, have found the potential income that mining may bring too attractive to reject. This is despite studies in other African countries that demonstrates only a small percentage of the worth of the resources extracted actually stay in the country.

Indeed it is clear that the Topnaar people are not benefiting from the mining taking place within their territory. Ephraim Peterson, also from the Royal House of the Topnaar-Nam said:

‘In the harvest time we collect the !Narra fruit. We eat it, the goats and donkeys also eat it. But the fruit is in danger because of the Uranium mines. If those mines are coming they can contaminate our plants, the !Narra. We also have the fish but we never benefit from it. Even from the Naukluft Park also. Thousands of tourists are coming in, but we never got something from it. Our ancestors were hunting here before it became a Park. They were eating springbock, Oryx, the ostrich. But today we cannot hunt anymore. It is not allowed, the Government took it over.’

Captain Samuel Khaxab agrees, arguing that the ‘Government has forgotten the customary law, the old law of Namibia. Customary law says that if someone comes from the royal house, he is entitled to the captainship and the chieftainship. The law says the mountains belong to us, the birds belong to us, the Oryx, the ostrich, all the animals, everything in that area is belonging to me and my people. That is what customary law says. Even the minerals are ours and the ground belongs to us’.

It is apparent to the Topnaar, in the words of Ephraim Peterson, that the Government ‘does not care’, no money has ever been received from the mines; instead they must pay the water company in order to get water. He claims that the ‘people who govern now do what they want. They do not care about us. And that is very painful for us!’

The Topnaar Nama people fear for their lives and for their existence. Uranium mining poses considerable health hazards to the people, and the side effects of uranium mining, such as the depletion of the underground and surface water resources make their traditional lifestyles impossible to maintain.

Fanuel Abraham Haoseb describes how the natural water systems have come under strain in recent years:

‘In the past elephants, giraffes, rhinos they used to come down the river during the rainy season.

But today these animals are not coming down anymore. Our water is now supplying too many things like factories or the mines in our area. Mines use a lot of water and this will have an effect on us because Nam Water will have to pump more water out of the river so that they can give more water to other people. This will also have an effect on our community itself. The river, the trees and the whole lifestyle of us will be afflicted by this system.’

Less or no water means no food for the animals, and it also means fewer !Nara fruits. It all adds up to no food for the people and is compounded by a government that is unwilling or unable to assist its people. It appears that the quest for alternative energy sources that has invigorated so many has left the Topnaar Nama people desolate in light of their drained lands.

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organisation. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.

http://www.prlog.org/10196921-uranium-wealth-or-woe.html

Uranium mining hinges on markets, courts

NUCLA - The promises of uranium on the Western Slope will be fulfilled or dashed in the courts and the commodities markets.

People here follow uranium news so closely that Nucla's local newspaper, the San Miguel Basin Forum, prints the market price of uranium every week on its front page. It's hovering around $52 - well below its high of $138 during a speculative bubble in 2007, but more than double the price during the 1980s and '90s.

The price was right for George Glasier, a local rancher with a long career in the uranium business, to form Energy Fuels Corp. three years ago. Glasier wants to build a mill in the Paradox Valley to process uranium and vanadium, an element that's used to harden steel.

At $50 a pound, uranium mining makes sense in Colorado as long as there's a mill, Glasier said. His company is here to stay, he said, unlike some firms that make money by "mining on Wall Street."

"This is a company that has experienced guys," Glasier said. "We're producers, not promoters."

Glasier is confident he can raise the $125 million in financing needed for the mill, even though the company's stock is now about 30 cents a share. It once traded as high as the $4 range during the 2007 uranium bubble.

Apart from the markets, judges and government agencies also will have a say over whether and how the mines reopen.

The Montrose County commissioners and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will consider permits for Energy Fuels to build the Piñon Ridge mill. The state government has the power to enforce federal laws on air pollution and radiation, so federal agencies will not have a role in approval of the mill.

Lawsuits seek halt to mine leasingBut two federal agencies - the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management - do have a say over mining, and both are defending lawsuits from Durango's Energy Minerals Law Center.

The Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management decided in 2007 to offer leases on some of the 25,000 acres it manages in Colorado. Durango's Energy Minerals Law Center is leading a legal challenge to the leasing program.

Travis Stills, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in both lawsuits, says the pattern of secrecy that the government started on uranium during World War II continues today.

"The common thread is important information is concealed from the public and people making decisions. Fortunately, current law doesn't allow that. That's why we're in there trying to enforce it," Stills said.

The first lawsuit targets the BLM for not releasing documents about uranium mining under the Freedom of Information Act.

"It's meant to keep the public informed. It's not a trivial law," Stills said. "Here it is three years later, and we're still having to drag public documents out of the Bureau of Land Management."

In June, U.S. Senior Judge John Kane ordered the BLM to do a more thorough search for uranium documents in its possession.

But those documents, which Stills said show BLM workers had concerns about the uranium-leasing program, were kept from the public during the comment period for the OLM's environmental study.

Stills also filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Energy, but he lost that case.

Another lawsuit asks the court to overturn the OLM's decision to lease parts of its 25,000 acres in Southwest Colorado to uranium miners.

The lawsuit, which is the centerpiece of environmentalists' legal strategy, seeks to overturn the decision to lease lands. The plaintiffs - several environmental groups - say the OLM should have done a full environmental impact statement, not just a less-detailed environmental assessment.

The OLM is fighting the lawsuit and maintains that it followed all environmental laws. The office approved expanded leases in Colorado to comply with Congress' 2005 Energy Policy Act, which called for more nuclear power, OLM lawyers said in their response to the lawsuit.

Work with us, mill backer saysLawsuits might dog the Piñon Ridge mill, too. Glasier said he wouldn't be surprised to be sued over the mill. His county permit, if it's approved this month, gives him five years to get the mill built.

Stills also is working with mill opponents. He and his allies say the mill will have troubles with water supply and might pollute groundwater - a charge Glasier disputes.

"It's nonissue. We aren't going to affect anybody's water rights," Glasier said.

The mill will use 130 gallons a minute - less than he uses to irrigate the hayfield at his ranch, he said. The Paradox Valley's farms are mostly on the lush west side, where the water table won't be affected by the mill's wells, Glasier said.

Opponents also say dust from the mill will be blown out of the windy Paradox Valley east to Telluride. But Glasier says dust will not be a problem. The mill keeps the uranium wet, so the dust will never be dry enough to fly away, he said.

Glasier said he will make whatever health and safety improvements anyone suggests to the mill, but he won't back away from it altogether.

"The environmental community ought to be involved in a dialogue to make this mill better, not to stop it," Glasier said.

jhanel@durangoherald.com
http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/08/12/Uranium_mining_hinges_on_markets_courts/

Uranium City - Life After the Mine

Comment: Mining’s benefits will not last forever: The Article is about the Boom to Burst of Uranium Mining, really just the burst! Gretna Hurt, Chatham, and maybe Danville will become ghost towns; jobs will not come to our area because of the destruction of uranium mining. Water, air, and land will be ruin from radiation fallout!

By Daniel Hayduk

A thin veil of fog envelopes Uranium City as a light sleet dances in the chilled northern air.

Birch firewood fuels a roaring fire in Andrew Schultz's rambling, unfinished home on Nuclear Avenue.

"Dixie called," Schultz remarks, carefully scrubbing a dirty plate at the kitchen sink, "you're not going to fly out today."

Twelve days earlier, C-GRUG, a Cessna 172, dipped and shuddered towards the northern Saskatchewan settlement's dimly lit, cracked and re-tarred runway.

As McMurray Aviation pilot Brock radioed in the plane's location to the airport's nonexistent control tower, the shattered desolate remains of homes slipped beneath the wings of the plane.

Streets, cul-de-sacs and treed alleyways were lined with empty homes. Some homes still had windows and walls -- for others, only a staircase leading to the sky remained.

A barrage of trees and shrubs surrounded each home -- eager to reclaim the land.

Where humans still dwelled, smoke traces drifted lazily from the chimneys into the waning daylight.

One of those homes belongs to Andrew Schultz, who retired from the lucrative oil-field work in Fort McMurray after coming to Uranium City to scatter his fathers ashes.

"I spread my dads ashes, and that is when I started looking for places to live," Schultz said.

"The beauty, the peace, the clean air - I was dying in McMurray."

With the Cold War looming, the discovery of uranium in northern Saskatchewan brought thousands of miners and their families to the area.

For decades, the mines operated and Uranium City was the opposite of a peaceful quiet place.

Home to about 8,000 people, bus routes, schools, hotels, apartment blocks, bars, theaters, arcades, shopping malls, a hospital, hockey arena, and a bowling alley all came to life.

The search for higher-grade uranium persisted late into the 1960's, when large deposits were found South and East of Lake Athabasca.

At that same time, the United States military halted the use of Canadian uranium in it's atomic weaponry.

And slowly, Uranium City began to dismantle.

A few layoff's -- a closure here -- and then another.

And in 1983, the last mine closed.

Margaret Powder was in Grade 10 at CANDU School when the Eldorado Mine announced its shutdown.

"They called all of us students into the gymnasium -- all 500 of us -- and our principal had to announce to us that our town was shutting down."

Her voice breaking, Powder describes the mood in the gymnasium, "the devastation, it hit hard.

Everybody cried, the whole gymnasium, everybody was holding each other, crying. Asking why -- and nobody knew why."

Sitting next to her husband Wayne in their kitchen, they shared memories of the closure of the last mine.

"That winter, the Mayflower Moving trucks came in on the winter road," Margaret recalls.

"The Mayflower trucks were on every street -- 20-30 trucks on every street. Everywhere you walked there were moving trucks."

Other than a winter road across Lake Athabasca, no real roads connect Uranium City to the rest of the world.

Those who did not pack their belongings while the winter road was open had fewer options of moving their belongings.

Some, "just took their clothes on their back," leaving homes, cars, and remnants of lives perfectly preserved, remembers Wayne.

"They just got up and left."

Brand new homes -- some still under construction -- were left with cars still in the driveway, plates on the table, pictures hanging on the walls.

The 200 people who stayed behind with the town, made use of the abundance of now free material; salvaging doors, lighting fixtures, cars, and anything else of value.

With a twinkle in his eye, Schultz shares details about the empty part of town.

"There's all kinds of old stuff down there, and I make things out of anything. There are 10,000 projects and no time," Schultz sighs.

"The old part of town, that is my playground," Schultz boasts, noting that, "there is nothing that can't be fixed, so long as you put your mind to it."

"It's not for the weak of heart up here," Schultz points out, emphasizing that a man was killed when an old car fell and crushed him.

Today, the wood from the bowling alley at the Gunnar Mine furnishes a home.

There are no more hotels or restaurants.

There are no theatres or arcades.

There are no bus routes.

The 16 children who attend Ben McIntyre School walk or bicycle to their single classroom school for their classes.

Principal and teacher Doug Preikschat engages each pupil with a vibrant smile and attitude as he guides them through their lessons .

At one table, Preikschat works through a science experiment with Grade Seven's -- Chelsey, Tristan and Tyler.

The younger pupils quietly practice spelling drills on the school's computers.

But even in the cozy back-country school atmosphere of the small community, problems do exist.

"We've got a lot of people that are addicted to alcohol and also drugs," Preikschat confides, "we see the effects at the school with the kids."

Athabasca Health Authority Licensed Practical Nurse, Shelley Murphy, agrees, "the younger kids in the community are experimenting, and we are finding that it is not acceptable at all."

Murphy, a health worker at the town clinic, grew up in Uranium City.

"When we were kids, there were arcades, video stores, movie theaters and restaurants. You could do things, recreation was set up and it was community based," recalls Murphy.

These days, "there is not enough recreation for the kids and they are getting bored," Murphy fears.

With concern in her voice, Murphy shares a problem typical to all societies and backgrounds across Canada.

"The kids are falling back into the addictions parts of life."

For Murphy, the solution is to get everyone in the small community working together.

"There should be more recreation put into the community -- more organized events involving the kids and not just a poker game."

Principal Preikschat, his wife Simone, and two daughters Lily and Hannah see the lack of structured events in the community as a blessing.

"It's a good place to raise kids, you can raise them with quite a strong sense of freedom. It's a great place to foster creativity."

"There is not a lot of peace and quiet in the city," Preikschat says.

"In winter, if you go out for a walk and you stop and hold your breath, you can hear the snow crackle as it hits the gound. That's pretty quiet."

"At school I tell the kids that it's so quiet you can hear a bug fart," he laughs.

Uranium City gives the opportunity to, "really make your own situation, to do what ever you want to do, and we do," Preikschat summarizes.

In Schultz's second home, a cabin nestled on one of the many lakes adjacent to Lake Athabasca, he shares his thoughts on why boredom and substance abuse exist in such a small tranquil community.

"The youth don't have any drive because they've never been taught how to work."

From the labor of love that is is cabin -- in which the steel support beams were hand cut -- to tales of being prepared for harsh northern winters, Schultz colorfully outlines stories of hard work and adventure to emphasize his point.

Sporting a worn hunting jacket, torn sweat pants and casual summer shoes, Donald Kasner lumbers through the light snow to the GLR and UCR Resources building on Uranium Road.

For Kasner, Project Coordinator for the exploration companies GLR and UCR Resources, his hope is to return the town to it's former glory.

"Things are looking a lot more positive than they have over the years," Kasner says of the prospects of re-opening a mine.

"But again, nothing is always one hundred percent even when you do have the money," Kasner cautions, "anything can change."

Having worked in the area for decades, Kasner knows Uranium City like the back of his hand.

He shares stories of being stranded at one of the mine sites outside of town without a food supply, water or shelter for days -- in the middle of winter and in several feet of snow.

Seeing first hand the struggles of the locals, Kasner wants to be the one who gives the locals a chance at working with the mines again.

"The people here have gone through some real hardships over the years here with the mines closing," Kasner laments.

GLR and UCR Resources are exploring the previously been mined minerals of Uranium City - gold and uranium.

One of the projects Kasner oversees is the Box Mine site, an abandoned gold mine last operated in the 1930's, but still holds 1.1 million ounces of gold.

"Hopefully in May well be running a producing mine here," Kasner projects, adding that it would, "give the people in town opportunity to have a better life and a steady job."

With a shaky world economy holding an uncertain future for the price of gold, and higher grade uranium readily available elsewhere in Saskatchewan, nothing is ever for certain.

"There isn't going to be a mine," Schultz flatly states, emphasizing that, "there's definitely going to be no gold mine.

Its been 28 years now in the going -- still no mine."

Murphy shares the same sentiment, "they've been at the gold mine since about 1986, and they haven't proven themselves yet."

Preikschat takes a moment to think about the possibility of a mine opening, "personally, I think it is a long shot," he finally says.

"What you see today is a test. And while it is nice to see all this exploration, you try not to say 'oh yes, we're going to have a mine again,'" Margaret Powder philosophies.

Choosing her words carefully, Margaret shares what could be the mantra of Uranium City, "live for today, because you don't know what the future is going to bring."

Kasner understands why the possibility of re-opening a mine conjures up strong reactions.

"You've got places left around and you've got people that are heartbroken over being left. They blame the mines, they blame the government, they blame whomever, but that is just the way it worked out."

As the small fire in the stove radiates a scented heat throughout Schultz's cabin, he would rather share the positives of the area.

"This is probably the last refuge in all of Canada, there's no place else to go," Schultz says as he lists off the problems facing other northern regions in Canada.

"Fish are still plentiful, the moose are still all over and it's the perfect place to be, as you can see outside," Schultz laughs and gestures out the window to prove his point.

With the rugged beauty of awe-inspiring lakes, rolling hills and seemingly never-ending miles of coniferous forests come long cold winters where -50 degrees Celsius is not uncommon.

"It's meant for people who enjoy the outdoors," Schultz cautions, "If you don't enjoy the outdoors you aren't ever going to love this place."

As waves push up against the rocks of the small island on which the three-room cabin rests, Schultz shares the secret of why people stay with Uranium City.

"Peace. Quiet. You come out to a place like this, and there is not a soul that will bother you."

Back at Schultz's home on Nuclear Avenue, an eerie near darkness cloaks the morning light in which snow now freely falls on the darkened trees and rocky hills.

"You're going to have a few spare days here," Schultz predicts, pointing out that no planes fly in or out in foggy or cloudy weather as the many hills surrounding the airport pose too great of a risk for pilots.

As Schultz sets aside the clean plate -- the branches of trees creak and sway in the frozen air, slowly closing in around Uranium City, as snowflakes can be heard falling.

http://hayduk.ca/daniel/uraniumtext.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDmtHBTwHCQ&feature=related

Keeping Agriculture Alive in the Shadow of a Uranium Mine: Potential Effects and Regulatory Solutions for Virginia

By admin May 20, 2009
by Maggy J. Lewis

This Note deals with the emerging regulatory controversy over the potential mining of a uranium deposit located in rural Southern Virginia. The “Coles Hill” deposit is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States, but has been largely ignored since the Virginia General Assembly instituted a moratorium on uranium mining in the early 1980’s. The increase in the price of uranium in recent years has revived the debate on uranium mining. There is potential for the moratorium to be lifted in the near future and for uranium mining to be introduced to Virginia for the first time.

Virginia’s climate, topology, and climatology are substantially different from those areas in the Southwest where uranium historically has been mined. In addition, the location of the mine is in an area that, although considered rural within the state, has a significantly greater population density than the western mining areas.

The region of Southern Virginia where the proposed mine is located has historically been powered by nearby textile and furniture industries and agricultural production, especially tobacco.

The present-day economy of the immediate region is comprised of more than a thousand farms, primarily producing tobacco, corn, wheat, and soybeans, and beef cattle and swine.

Although uranium mining has the potential to bring short-term economic prosperity to Southern Virginia, there are potential risks to the agricultural economy.

The mining and milling process, as well as waste products, also bring significant risks of contamination to the surrounding environment.

These risks which have been realized at other mining locations, and these risks may be exacerbated by the unique hydrological environment of Virginia.

The increased exposure of crops and livestock has the potential to pose a significant safety and health risk to consumers of those products.

More importantly, the public perception of risk or danger from uranium mining may also result in serious negative repercussions for the marketability of agricultural products from the nearby regions, regardless of whether those risks present any real threat.

This Note addresses the potential implications for agricultural production if uranium mining becomes a reality for Virginia by looking at scientific and sociological data at other mine sites, as well as public perception of food safety threats.

There are gaps to be filled in both regulation and enforcement mechanisms as they apply to uranium mining’s effects on agricultural crops and livestock.

This Note provides suggestions for means of regulating the output of agricultural products from the potentially affected regions of Virginia under the current statutory framework for developing state and site-specific protocols to ensure safety and preserve the public confidence in the food supply.

The debate over Cole’s Hill will continue. Should Virginia tap these resources?

How should Virginia protect farmers?

What does mining Uranium say about Virginia’s balancing of energy needs and the safety of the food supply?


http://elpr.org/2009/05/20/keeping-agriculture-alive-in-the-shadow-of-a-uranium-mine-potential-effects-and-regulatory-solutions-for-virginia/

Darryl Hannah decries proposed Colorado uranium mill

Comment: Ms. Hannah, please come to Virginia and help us fight uranium mining and milling!

Hannah grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County

Associated Press

MONTROSE, Colorado — Actress Darryl Hannah is speaking out against a proposed uranium and vanadium mine in southwest Colorado.

Hannah, who grew up in the area and has a home in San Miguel County, spoke Wednesday at a meeting of the planning commission in adjacent Montrose County, where Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. wants to build the mill.

The site is about 225 miles southwest of Denver.

Hannah told the commission she's concerned "about short-term thinking leading to a disaster."

The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend a special-use permit for the mill, but the project has other hurdles to clear.

In West Virginia last month, Hannah and others were arrested in a protest of mountaintop-removal mining.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20090702/NEWS/907029985/-1/RSS02

Uranium Mill Issue Will Set National Precedent

Comment: We do not want to take everybody's junk uranium in Virginia, demand the local leaders to ban uranium mining and milling now!

by Beverly Corbell
07.01.09 - 01:10 pm

MONTROSE – Deep divisions in the Paradox Valley community may well remain after the Montrose Planning Commission’s vote Wednesday night on whether to recommend a special use permit for a uranium mill in Paradox Valley.

Friendships have been severed, with some on the side of agriculture in the valley and some who want to hearken back to the good old days of uranium mining their parents and grandparents enjoyed decades ago.

Whatever the decision of the planning commission, Energy Fuels’ request to build a huge mill on 800 acres will be the first built in the United States in almost 30 years, and will have national implications, some say.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said recently that nuclear energy is “the wave of the future” and is encouraging nuclear energy development.

The proposed mill would set a precedent for the rest of the country, said Travis Stills of the Energy Minerals Law Center in Durango, but for the wrong reasons.

“They’re trying to claim it’s the resurgence of the uranium industry and trying to tie it into the nuclear equation,” he said. “It could be a national story because it could be the place where all the stuff goes. It could be looked at as a disposal facility.”

As originally proposed, the mill would only process raw uranium ore from nearby mines. But at a public hearing in Nucla last month, Energy Fuels CEO George Glasier said the mill could also extract uranium from radioactive groundwater.

After Glasier spoke, Stills went to the podium and expressed his displeasure with what he called “a major shift” in policy on what would be processed at the mill.

Only two uranium mills are operating in the U.S. at this time, the White Mesa and Shootaring Canyon mills in Utah, Stills said, both process radioactive wastes.

“A major source of income (for the mills) is waste disposal fees from various folks who have radioactive waste to get rid of,” he said.

The proposed Paradox Valley mill also wants to take in mine waste, not just tailings, he said.

“They should send that to a low level facility, not to a mill tailings cell, which is hazardous enough,” he said.

But Glasier and his many associates have decried health risks of exposure to radioactive materials in the air and water that opponents say could occur because of the mill. Glasier says the industry has made enormous safety advances since the near meltdown of a reactor core at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Glasier said he never had plans for the mill to become a waste disposal facility for nuclear and other radioactive wastes, but was only trying to help the state because of tighter laws on uranium content in drinking water.

New state laws require a new limit on the amount of uranium in drinking water, but in western Colorado, naturally occurring water has higher than those limits, Glasier said.

The mill could have treated municipal water by supplies by loading resin beads with uranium extracted from the water, sending the beads to a disposal facility, after which the beads could be reused.

Without the mill, the water treatment plants will have to install their own resin extraction columns, which is expensive, he said.

“They’ll have no place to dispose of it so they’ll have to ship it to a waste disposal site and they can’t reuse the beads,” he said. “The state wants us to do it, and it would save all these municipalities a great deal of money.”

But Glasier said he dropped the idea of extracting water from uranium because of objections raised at the public hearings.

“Some people were objecting to what would have been a real benefit,” he said. “But those environmental kooks come up with this stuff…They’re saying we’ll process waste, but we have no plans to process anything else but raw uranium ore and the water that comes right out of our mines.”

Other objections to the mill have come from the agricultural community. On to their Web site for Paradox Valley Community Supported Agriculture, William and Vernie Lynn DeMille wrote about how they moved to the valley from Missouri after farming there for 35 years.

“We love farming and we were thrilled when we discovered the Paradox Valley,” DeMille wrote. “Because of its outstanding soil, great climate and protected valley, it is the perfect place to grow excellent crops, both vegetable and fruit.”

Food grown in the valley will be packed with nutrition because of high mineral content of the soil, DeMille said.

During public forums, farmers in the valley objected to the mill, saying they will lose their organic agriculture status because the mill has the potential to pollute the air and water.

Paradox Valley proponents of the mill, most from families who remember the heyday of mining in the area decades ago, scoffed at farmers’ concerns, even displaying a sign at the last public meeting that read, “Uranium dust helps your organics grow” along with “We need jobs on the West End.”

However the planning commission votes, which occurred after the Watch printing deadline, the divisions in the Paradox Valley will apparently not soon heal.
© telluridewatch.com 2009

http://www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Uranium+Mill+Issue+Will+Set+National+Precedent%20&id=2867706-Uranium+Mill+Issue+Will+Set+National+Precedent&instance=secondary_stories_left_column

Uranium mill would process more than rocks

Comment: The Canadian uranium company plans to build a uranium-milling complex in Pittsylvania County, VA. The State of Virginia is an Agreement State now (2009)! The Agreement status is based on medical waste. Will the uranium mill process more than uranium ore or is the plan for the State of Virginia includes processing medical waste at the mill? Sneaky-Sneaky!!

By Dick Kamp
Wick Communications Environmental Liaison

MONTROSE COUNTY — Energy Fuels Inc. has told the Montrose County Planning Commission it wants to process waste and process streams beyond uranium ore at their proposed Paradox Valley Pinon Ridge uranium mill.

The announcement came after public testimony was concluded at a second hearing June 10 in Montrose for a special use permit. The proposed location of the new facility would be about 12 miles east of Paradox in the West End off of state Highway 90.

In public testimony at the first hearing May 19, Energy Fuels representatives said that they had “no plans to process any material other than uranium ore.” This appears to have been the sole public comment on the subject.

Montrose County Planning Director Steve White issued a memo to the planning commission prior to the June 10 hearing that proposed the specific condition that “only raw uranium ore processed on-site may be stored in the tailings cells.”

Late in the June 10 hearing, EF’s CEO George Glasier approached the planning commission to discuss alternatives to White’s proposed feed restriction condition. Durango attorney Travis Stills, who represents mill opponent Paradox Valley Sustainability Association, said he spoke after Glasier’s presentation, even though public comment was closed.

“I told the commission that changing the wording to the condition would open up a can of worms and that I was very uncomfortable with this request,” Stills told the Daily Press. “I had heard EF bandy about several wordings including allowing the mill to process ‘source materials.’ It means any materials having over .05 percent of radioactive substances such as uranium and thorium, or in other words, no limit at all.”

Stills went on to say that Phil Egidi, representing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, concurred with his opinion.

Egidi suggested perhaps the mill could process specific materials as filters from municipal treatment facilities with high radioactivity in the water. Egidi stressed that even though the state has no permit application, that EF and CDPHE have had discussions on what process feed the mill might handle that preceded the county hearings.

Potential process feed discussions had included, according to Egidi, potentially ion resin columns from filters containing uranium from water treatment facilities in southeast and southwest Colorado, uranium from in-situ mining facilities in Wyoming, Nebraska and Texas, that would also be deposited on ion-resin columns after a solution was injected into the ground, and “possibly uranium from EFs own mining water treatment facilities.”

“We have no permit, and unlike Montrose County, we have no deadlines for a permit and we can take the time to get our language right and avoid industrial waste streams such as those that the White Mesa and Cotter (closed Canon City) mills have sought. EF has stressed to us that they are not seeking contracts for industrial radioactive waste,” Egidi said. Egidi anticipates receiving a permit application for in-situ mining, but there are none currently operating, nor under consideration, in the state. Presumably concentrations of uranium from in-situ facilities would be far more concentrated than from most municipal treatment facilities.

“We approached the commission at the end of the June 10 hearing because the state (Egidi), had suggested, between the two hearings, that we process the municipal ion resin filters in order to reduce the costs to municipalities with high uranium and those are to be found throughout the West,” Glasier said Wednesday.

“At the first hearing, we thought that a permit that allowed us to process ore — and we did want to be able to process our own mines’ water treatment filters but hadn’t mentioned that yet — would be acceptable. Those two items are all that we would want to add to the processing restriction on a permit.”

With Egidi referring to municipal water treatment wastes from southern Colorado, and Glasier referring to water wastes throughout the West, it is unclear what the geographic limit for importation of the process material is intended to be.

Critics of the EF proposal have feared the processing of any substances resembling radioactive waste as an open-ended invitation to what they term “false recycling” wherein radioactive waste is dubbed “recycling” because the sender pays a uranium mill a relatively low fee to have waste turned into yellowcake instead of sending it to an expensive, low-level radioactive waste facility. Uranium mills, in turn, profit from a waste stream they are paid to convert to yellowcake instead of paying a toll for uranium ore coming from mines the mill does not own.

Older uranium mills, even the last constructed facilities such as Canon City and White Mesa, Utah, also have a history of water, soil and tailings contamination, and both mills profited largely from processing waste as opposed to ore.

Stills said importation of a few wastes or concentrates such as those from in-situ mines, or from water system filters could open a wide door to processing of other toxic substances and industrial waste as opposed to mining beneficiation.

“I think that we are looking at a special use permit for a mill that cannot make a decent profit on uranium ore and instead wants to get permitted as an industrial uranium-hazardous materials recycler,” Still said.

“That would not be a mining development-related permit in an agricultural area, and if that were the case, this would not be a valid application. Energy Fuels has totally misled the public in these hearings and in past public meetings, and this new information should be a focus of public comment and a new application.

“If EF is not going to build a mill that only processes uranium ore, then let the debate begin.”

White stressed that neither he nor the planning commission had direct knowledge of any discussion of other waste streams prior to the public hearings. As soon as the issue had been raised in a question from the Daily Press, he had included his “ore-only” provision as a staff recommendation and had raised it at both hearings.

“Energy Fuels has asked to submit potential language to us on their process stream and as soon as our attorney (Bob Hill) is available, next week, we will hopefully have something to evaluate. I think that the commission did not feel comfortable with the question of what the mill would process, nor with some water issues such as potentially setting conditions for monitoring over-pumping or actions that could be taken if it occurs. That’s why they continued the hearing to July 1,” White said.

The third hearing will be held that evening at 6 at Friendship Hall. If the planning commission approves a permit there, it could be sent over to the county commissioners for a vote.

White said they will be consulting with Egidi, including discussion on what contaminants can be brought into the county and what the county may not want brought in.

White said it was up to the planning commission to decide whether further public comment would be accepted.

“I would think that if there are issues affecting residents of the county that have not been addressed, that commission members might want to open them up to more comment in the interests of doing a comprehensive analysis,” he said.

White said another unresolved question is the life of the permit. “EF has five years to get moving on the mill and if they do not do so, then the permit would expire. But if there is litigation against them, perhaps we should be amending that condition,” White said.

“Maybe we could add a year in the event that they were in court five years from now. I don’t think it will take the state five years to make a decision.”

http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2009/06/19/news/doc4a398aa082f93298165816.txt

Sask. forest fire burns near major uranium facility

Comment: Well, this is scary, just think about the air problem if the Uranium mill catches fire!

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 10:53 AM CT

CBC News -A large forest fire is burning in northern Saskatchewan about six kilometres away from a major uranium milling site.

The provincial fire centre has named the 100-hectare blaze, about 570 kilometres north of Saskatoon, the "High Rock" fire.

It's near the Key Lake operation, the largest uranium milling operation in the world, according to majority owner Cameco Corp.

The company is taking steps to reduce risks, Cameco spokesman Gord Struthers said.

"We've set out some sprinklers as a precaution, and are using some heavy equipment to cut some fire breaks and are working in co-operation with the Ministry of Environment people, who have a crew up working in the area," he said.

The mine camp is safe for now, he said. The number of people working at the camp wasn't immediately available.

"The prevailing winds are away from the camp, and it's also behind a chain of lakes, and apparently they were getting some rain up there as well," Struthers said.

On Tuesday, 75 forest fires were burning in the province. There have been 375 to date this year, compared with 327 by the same time last year.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/06/17/uranium-fire.html?ref=rss

Vote delayed on local permit for Colo uranium mill

Associated Press - June 12, 2009 1:14 PM ET

MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) - Montrose County planners have delayed until July 1 a decision whether to recommend a special-use permit for a proposed uranium and vanadium mill in southwest Colorado.

Energy Fuels Inc., based in Toronto, wants to build the mill 12 miles west of Naturita and about 225 miles southwest of Denver.

The county Planning Commission heard hours of public comment at a hearing on Wednesday but delayed a decision until the July meeting.

The county commissioners have the final say on the special use permit. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment would also have to approve the mill.

Energy Fuels has said it might take 10 years to have the proposed mill ready to operate.

Information from: Durango Herald, http://www.durangoherald.com

Comment: Remember the NRC is a federal part of gov't and they are there to make money!!!

Articles from 2008: Cameco recently paid $1 million in penalties to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality because of violations related to years-long delays in the restoration of groundwater and a seriously inadequate bond to cover restoration. As the nation's largest uranium producer, and largest in-situ leach uranium mine, it was a major public relations set-back for an industry that hopes to launch dozens of new in-situ mines across the West.

By George Ledbetter, Chadron Record staff

CHADRON, Neb. -- The four-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission has overruled a panel of the federal agency's administrative judges on several key issues raised by opponents of the Crow Butte uranium mine, including a challenge to the legality of licensing a foreign-owned company to extract radioactive material in the United States.

In a May 18 ruling regarding renewal of the license for the Crow Butte in situ leach mining operation near Crawford, the NRC also dismissed an argument that the mine releases low levels of arsenic into drinking water supplies. Critics had claimed that contributed to increased diabetes and pancreatic cancer on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, about 30 miles away.

The NRC called that argument "speculative" and based on a study that doesn't show the mine causes any arsenic contamination.

"There is nothing in the Arsenic Study that tends to show that Crow Butte's operation is likely to, or already has, released arsenic," the ruling said.

A spokesman for Cameco Corp., the Canadian-based owner of the Crow Butte mine, said the company is particularly pleased to have a resolution of the foreign ownership issue.

"We are grateful that our ownership is clearly permitted under U.S. law and has been reported properly," Ken Vaughn said Wednesday from Cameco's office in Casper, Wyo.

The license renewal had been the subject of a September 2008 hearing in Chadron by the administrative law panel, and the foreign ownership issue was to be argued again at a June 11 session in Rapid City, S.D.

Because of the decision by the full NRC, the June hearing will likely be canceled, though further proceedings on other issues are expected next spring, Vaughn said.

The Crow Butte mine has been in operation since 1991. The leaching process used to extract uranium from underground layers of sandstone involves injecting a solution of bicarbonate of soda into the uranium-bearing ore body, then pumping the water out and removing the dissolved material, which is sold as "yellowcake" uranium for use in electric power generation. The Crow Butte mine produces about 800,000 pounds of yellowcake a year. Cameco, which is the world's largest producer of uranium, has also applied for a permit to mine the "North Trend" at a site one mile north of Crawford, about 8 miles from the existing mine.

The company has also said it has longer-range plans for expansions south of Fort Robinson State Park and northeast of Marsland.

Several individuals and organizations have registered objections to renewing the mine's 10-year operating license, and in a separate proceeding, to a permit for the 2,100 acre "North Trend" expansion.

Among the individuals opposing the mine are Debra White Plume of Pine Ridge, S.D., and Thomas Cook of Chadron. The groups include the Western Nebraska Resource Council and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Cameco has owned the Crow Butte mine since 2000, but opponents said the NRC had not properly considered issues involved with a foreign firm producing nuclear materials in the U.S. Uranium exported from the Crow Butte mine might end up in the hands of a nation that does not share America's interests, they said.

Cameco's attorneys countered that the NRC had been fully informed when it took over the mine and that any national security issues are handled when the company applies for export licenses for the material it produces.

In directing the administrative panel to dismiss the foreign ownership objection, the NRC said there is no legal ban on foreign ownership of a "source materials" license and that objections to sending the material to another country can be heard under export license proceedings.

Vaughn said he expects the foreign ownership issue will also be dismissed from consideration in the North Trend expansion permit hearings. "It's a similar issue. We assume it will be resolved similarly," he said.

In its decision, the NRC agreed to let arguments continue on some of the issues raised by the mine opponents, including the potential for contamination of the White River and whether the most recent research on the region's geology has been used in determining the potential for contamination of underground water layers.

Vaughn said that Cameco will continue working with the NRC staff to answer those questions. "We are confident that our operations are safe and environmentally sound," he said.

Although uranium prices have fallen significantly from the peaks they hit in recent years, Cameco is still proceeding with plans for expansion of the Crow Butte mine, according to Vaughn.
"We take a long-term view," he said. "One of our focuses is growth, and that's what we are working towards."

http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/05/23/news/local/doc4a16e676d991a183193602.txt
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2008/08/21/news/wyoming/ac2406424d552cca872574ac00086596.txt