From The Pueblo Chieftain (Tracy Harmon):
“Cotter is playing political football with our health by refusing to test for the rate of radon pollution entering our community,” said Sharyn Cunningham of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste.
Cotter employees still test for abundant limits or radon concentrations being released from the facility at numerous gauges stationed around the entire mill facility, [John Hamrick, mill manager] said…
Hamrick said the difference of opinion comes from changes to 1989 Environmental Protection Agency regulations governing uranium mill tailing impoundments — both active and those under reclamation. EPA rescinded the under-reclamation standards in early 2000 because they were nearly identical to Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards, Hamrick said. When Cotter declared it would no longer operate using the secondary impoundment, the company felt it no longer needed to test for radon flux because the impoundment is in reclamation. According to an EPA letter dated Aug. 25, Deborah Lebow Aal, chief of the indoor air, toxics and transportation unit, said Cotter needs to submit an application for approval of modification before it can stop radon flux testing. Aal also pointed out, “We also have not yet received an annual report for the 2008 radon flux testing from the secondary impoundment.”[…]
Cotter’s mill is licensed but has been inactive since 2005. The company is in the process of tearing down old mill buildings to make room for new construction, should studies indicate a new mill would be feasible. “We have been doing lots of operational studies to see if we can get back into operation. The old equipment needs to be disposed of so we can build an all-new mill,” Hamrick said.
More coverage from the Associated Press via The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:
Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste filed the lawsuit in Denver District Court against the state health department and others. It says the department has estimated it will cost at least $43 million to decommission and decontaminate Cotter’s mill, which is a Superfund site, but that the state let Cotter set its financial surety at just $20.2 million.
More coverage from The Denver Post (Tom McGhee):
Cañon City-area residents have sued state regulators, accusing them of cutting a deal that slashed the amount Cotter Corp. must set aside for cleanup of a uranium mill. The suit by Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste names Steve Tarlton, manager of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s radiation control program, and the agency…
The 19-page suit claims the health department estimated that the cost of cleaning up and remediating groundwater contamination at the mill outside Cañon City would top $43 million, but it required Cotter to post a bond of about $20.2 million. “The resulting deficiency leaves the state of Colorado, and the local citizens . . . at significant financial and environmental risk, as the funds necessary for decommissioning and decontamination of the facility are insufficient to accomplish these required closure activities,” the suit states.
More coverage from the Colorado Independent (David O. Williams):
The Uranium Processing Accountability Act passed last legislative session calls for public notice and comment periods when state regulators – in this case officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) – negotiate the amount of money companies must post against future cleanup costs or pay for ongoing cleanup efforts. As revealed by the Colorado Independent in June, Cotter Corp. disagreed with state estimates that it would cost $43.7 million to clean up the Cotter Mill near Cañon City. CDPHE officials reportedly agreed to just $20.2 million in cleanup costs at the EPA Superfund Cleanup site. The lawsuit (pdf) claims the deal lacked transparency as required by the new law.