Update From the Associated Press via Business Week:
The requirements approved Thursday by the Mined Land Reclamation Board include detailed environmental protection plans for uranium mines and maintaining existing groundwater quality or at state standards. Mine applications must include detailed information on the pre-mining water quality. Public input will be allowed.
From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):
The Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board on Thursday put its final stamp of approval on a set of rules that will govern how British Columbia-based Powertech Uranium Corp. will be allowed to mine using an in situ leaching process and provide the public with a way to appeal state decisions on uranium prospecting. “It’s been what we’ve been effectively fighting for, for over three years now,” said Jay Davis, whose property is adjacent to the Centennial Project uranium mining site northeast of Fort Collins in Weld County…
The new rules permit the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety to require Powertech and other companies hoping to mine uranium using in situ leaching to establish “baseline” water quality before they begin prospecting for uranium. Baseline water quality is the quality of the groundwater as it exists before any mining or prospecting begins. The rules, which implement a 2008 state mining law, require Powertech, once mining is complete, to return the contaminated groundwater beneath the mine site to its original baseline condition…
“At the end of the day, they’ll realize this will provide additional protection to them and insulate them from assertions that prospecting released uranium into the groundwater,” said Mike King, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and a member of the MLRB. “This will provide a level of comfort and insurance to well owners, land owners in the area that they will have all the information (on groundwater quality) up front before the prospecting and mining process.”[…]
“They hit it out of the park,” said Matt Garrington of Environment Colorado, a Denver environmental group championing strong restrictions on mining companies in Colorado. “For the first time ever, local governments can appeal mine prospecting decisions.” King said the rules take effect Sept. 15.
More coverage from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:
The rules approved by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board require companies to test groundwater at mining sites before prospecting. Regulators can use test data to ensure companies don’t leave groundwater degraded. The rules also require companies hunting for minerals to disclose more information about when and how mining would be done. And communities affected by mining now have greater rights to appeal state decisions.
“We’ve established an appropriate level of oversight” and also “pulled back some of the veil that has led to concern about these activities,” said Mike King, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “I don’t think we are hostile to mining at all,” King said. “What we are expecting is that mining activity that takes place in this state is done under controls that protect our environment.”[…]
This might mean Colorado is not at the cutting edge of what is called in-situ leach mining, which uses wells instead of tunnels to extract the mineral, King said. “When the industry gets to the point that they can demonstrate that they can do this in an environmentally responsible manner, then they can apply for a prospecting permit in Colorado,” he said.
More nuclear coverage here.