Update: Here’s a report from Rachel Alexander writing for The Cañon City Daily Record. From the article:
[Governor Ritter] signed the bill at the Whitewater & Kayak Recreation Park as the river roared behind him. “You’re going to be impacted by how we approach uranium milling and how we approach uranium permitting,” he said. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Ken Kester, Bob Bacon and Rep. Buffie McFadyen.
The law requires uranium processors to comply with clean-up orders before new applications are processed, strengthen public oversight of bonding requirements; require processors to inform residents about threats to their water if they have registered wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination; and require processors to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of “alternate feeds.”
“Nobody thinks uranium is an inherently evil thing, it’s just evil if you lose stewardship of it,” Ritter said. “We believed it was the right thing to move this forward.”
Governor Ritter signed the bill that Cotter Corp claims will prevent them from generating the revenue to fund the cleanup of the Lincoln Park/Cotter Mill superfund site near Cañon City. Here’s a report from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:
“This just gives us a better hold on the milling process,” Ritter said before signing the bill, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, and Sens. Ken Kester and Bob Bacon.
Greenwood Village based Cotter Corp. operates the mill that became a Superfund cleanup site in 1984. During the statehouse battle over the law, Cotter vice president John Hamrick said the legislation would kill Cotter’s proposed project to refurbish the mill and haul 12.5 million tons of uranium ore from New Mexico for processing. Hamrick on Tuesday declined to comment on the status on any future project. But Hamrick said Cotter is now planning to do research at the mill if the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment approves.
More coverage from Patrick Malone writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
“We should think not about ourselves, but about the generations to come” when it comes to protecting the environment, Ritter said. “It’s incumbent on us to turn this state over to the generation after us and the one that follows in a better way than we found it.”
Under HB1348, Cotter can’t gain permits to expand its operation without first mitigating contamination that already exists. It also must notify residents where groundwater contamination exists of its progress in addressing the problem. The bill also requires Cotter to carry a higher bond that would be sufficient to conduct cleanup efforts. If the mill were to close, the cleanup would be the state’s responsibility, like so many other decommissioned uranium-processing sites throughout the state…
During the past decade, Cotter has been cited about 100 times for environmental violations, but they have been markedly less frequent during the past five years, when a wholesale change of its management team took place. Cotter officials have said the bill hamstrings their intention to take on new materials from Mount Taylor in New Mexico, which would provide the revenue necessary to construct and update an environmentally sound mill.
But residents of Canon City have been fighting for years to get Cotter to clean up the contaminated plumes of groundwater that have been identified. To date, Cotter has chosen to let it dissipate naturally, which could take decades, stretching into centuries.
For the past eight years, Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste has pushed for more aggressive measures from Cotter to address the pollution. Tuesday, they saw the fruit of their work. “It’s a culmination of years of paying attention to this site, seeing the problems and looking for solutions,” said Sharyn Cunningham, president of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. “This bill is the solution to the contamination problems here.”
Here’s the video of the signing from Governor Ritter’s office. Here’s the release (Evan Dreyer/Megan Castle):
Gov. Bill Ritter concluded a two-day, five-city tour of southern Colorado this afternoon, visiting the banks of the Arkansas River near the Royal Gorge to sign legislation that will protect waterways and communities by increasing oversight of uranium mills.
“We all want a safe environment for our families, our children and our communities,” Gov. Ritter said before signing House Bill 1348, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Buffie McFadyen and Sens. Ken Kester and Bob Bacon. “Future Coloradans will want to raft, kayak and fish this river, just as we’re able to do today. It’s up to us to make sure they get that opportunity. This bill will help make that happen.”
HB 1348 requires operators of uranium mills to comply with all clean-up orders before new state permits for expansion or restructuring of operations are processed. The bill also requires operators to inform residents about threats to their water if residents have wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination.
“We heard Canon City residents testify that the poison from the uranium processing plant has been tainting groundwater for decades,” Rep. McFadyen said. “This bill simply requires uranium processors to clean up the old mess they’ve already made before accepting new materials that will create new waste. Having polluted groundwater harms the health and the economic development of the area. This bill sets the tone for the nation on what to do with uranium groundwater contamination.”
More 2010 Colorado legislation coverage here.