Lawsuit on uranium mining, and accountability for wastes

Even as the expansion of uranium mining in Colorado is being challenged, conservation and citizen groups and elected officials are working to ensure that taxpayers do not pay to clean up contamination left behind by the uranium industry in the event of a new boom cycle.

Court Decision Aids Uranium Lawsuit The WATCH by Karen James , Jan 20, 2010 Efforts Also Underway For More Industry Accountability

TELLURIDE – A U.S. District Court judge ruled last week that conservation groups suing the U.S. Department of Energy for its decision to expand uranium mining on public lands near the Dolores River Canyon may question agency officials and obtain records related to its Uranium Leasing Program through the process of discovery in order to build their lawsuit…………
In 2008 the groups sued the DOE for what they alleged was its failure to consider the environmental impacts of expanding the active leasing of 27,000 acres of public lands from 13 to as many as 38 individual lease tracts…………..

Even as the expansion of uranium mining in Colorado is being challenged, conservation and citizen groups and elected officials are working to ensure that taxpayers do not pay to clean up contamination left behind by the uranium industry in the event of a new boom cycle.

State legislators including Rep. Buffie McFadyen (D-Pueblo West), Sen. Ken Kester (R-Las Animas) and Sen. Bob Bacon (D-Fort Collins) are expected to sponsor the new Uranium Processing Accountability Act in the coming weeks.

The legislation would: require operators to comply with all cleanup orders before new applications are processed; strengthen pubic oversight of cleanup and decommissioning bonding requirements; require operators to inform residents with registered wells in close proximity to groundwater contamination about threats to their water; and require operators to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of “alternate feed.”

“A company should clean up its toxic mess before being allowed to renew or expand its operations,” said Matt Garrington of Environment Colorado, which is spearheading the legislation with the Cañon City-based Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste.
The act is inspired in part by a March 2009 announcement by the Cotter Corp. of plans to resume processing yellowcake uranium at its uranium mill in Freemont County just south of Cañon City in 2014.
In 1984 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed the Cotter site as a Superfund hazardous waste site with groundwater contamination from uranium and molybdenum is still present.

The Watch Newspapers – Court Decision Aids Uranium Lawsuit