From The Telluride Daily Planet (Matthew Beaudin):
Hilary White, Sheep Mountain Alliance’s executive director, faulted Energy Fuels, the company hoping to build the mill, for sidestepping concerns. “I think that they probably took more time on some parts of the application than others,” she said, claiming issues such as worst-case scenarios and air transport of toxic dust were ignored. “They shrugged them off. … The application was incomplete when they first completed it, and it continues to be incomplete. The state should deny it on those grounds, as well as others.”
Fraink Filas, who speaks on behalf of Energy Fuels and is the environmental manager there, had yet to see the report and thus could not comment.
[Stratus Consulting of Boulder, Colorado] found fault in the application in several main areas: water supply, waste containment and management and unmapped plans for dealing with future problems at the mill site. It’s estimated that the mill will require 144 gallons of water per minute. The only nearby sources for water are the San Miguel River and the Chinle-Moenkopi aquifer beneath the site, which is estimated to put out 100-175 gallons per minute under an “optimistic” projection, according to the report. “We do not believe that Energy Fuels and their contractor… have adequately addressed questions of water supply over the proposed 40-year mill life,” it reads…
Stratus and others are also worried that the ponds, which are required to be lined, may leak into groundwater beneath the site. Energy Fuels has said it would monitor the ponds for leakage with devices and install netting and equipment to keep birds from getting into the ponds. “Given the history of other mine sites, we believe that Energy Fuels should plan for contaminant releases to surface drainages and groundwater and include multiple control measures as part of the permitting process,” the report reads.
The consultants also faulted Energy Fuels, and the mining industry as a whole, on a failure to address future and unseen problems and plan for remediation. “Energy Fuels and its contractors presented a plan with an engineered solution for all aspects of the milling process. Impoundments will be lined, the ground surface will be graded, it will be a zero discharge facility, and after 40 years, they will implement their closeout plan and walk away,” the report reads. “They have assumed that these engineered solutions are failsafe and that no additional contingency planning is necessary.”