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General Atomics might not be able to restart uranium mill

“Since General Atomics acquired the Cotter Corporation in 2000, the company has had over a hundred violations of federal and state environmental laws,” Jantz told The Independent. “This demonstrates a pattern of willful disregard for environmental law, which is a real concern for the community.”

Proposed Mt. Taylor uranium mine faces new obstacle « New Mexico Independent, By Marjorie Childress 10 May 2010, A controversial plan to open an old uranium mine on Mt. Taylor, near Grants, New Mexico, is now facing a new obstacle. The Colorado legislature just passed a law forbidding an expansion or increase in operations at uranium mills until they clean up existing sites their operations have contaminated in the past. The Cotter Uranium Mill, just a little over a mile south of Cañon City, Colorado, is owned by the same company that owns the Mt. Taylor mine, and is the designated recipient of future Mt. Taylor uranium ore. But the new law raises doubts that the mill will be able to accept the ore.
Under the new legislation, which Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter still has to sign, the mill won’t be able to increase or expand operations until it cleans up existing environmental problems…..
its a sore subject. Many families cite past uranium mining for an increase in disease, through either direct exposure to work in the mines or through the impacts of  environmental contamination caused by the mines.

The contamination continues to be a problem; 137 of the 259 old uranium mines have never been restored. Some activists say that all the old mines should be properly cleaned up before new mining is even considered and are skeptical of claims that new technologies render mining safe today.

Proposed mine is within a Traditional Cultural Property

Compounding these concerns is that much of the proposed new mining is on or very near Mt. Taylor, which is a sacred site to some American Indian peoples, including the Navajo Nation, the Hopi, the Zuni, and the nearby Laguna and Acoma Pueblos. Those five groups successfully petitioned the state to permanently designate Mt. Taylor an official Traditional Cultural Property in 2009…..
The owner of the Mt. Taylor mine is Rio Grande Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of the same company that owns the Cotter Mill–General Atomics Corporation. The environmental record of General Atomics at the Cotter Mill is cause for concern in New Mexico, said Eric Jantz, attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

“Since General Atomics acquired the Cotter Corporation in 2000, the company has had over a hundred violations of federal and state environmental laws,” Jantz told The Independent. “This demonstrates a pattern of willful disregard for environmental law, which is a real concern for the community.”

Proposed Mt. Taylor uranium mine faces new obstacle « New Mexico Independent

May 11, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, uranium