Comment: No to uranium mining!
Speakers at Nunn meeting share opinions about proposed uranium mine and pump test
BY BOBBY MAGILL
BobbyMagill@coloradoan.com
December 22, 2009
NUNN - Standing before a crowd of more than 100 people Monday night, Fort Collins resident Diane Marschke said she doesn't think it matters if Powertech USA's proposed Centennial Project uranium mine pollutes the water.
"When people hear there's a uranium mine 10 miles away, they aren't going to come here," she said.
Marschke and about 15 others confronted U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency officials at the Nunn Community Center with their opinions about a proposed water pump test that will tell Powertech if its in situ leaching method of uranium mining is viable in the area.
To conduct the test, the company needs a "Class V" permit from the EPA, which will allow Powertech to pump water out of the uranium-containing Fox Hills aquifer, store it, then reinject the water back into the aquifer. The permit will not allow the company to mine for uranium.
Powertech will be responsible for doing its own tests on the integrity of the well hole and casing, which are meant to ensure the water will not contaminate aquifers above the area where the water is being reinjected, said Valois Shea of the EPA Underground Injection Control Program.
The company is required to report its findings to the EPA.
Most who spoke Monday night spoke passionately against the pump test and proposed mine, most of them fearing the pump test will stir up contaminants and harm drinking water quality.
"Powertech is testing their own wells," Fort Collins resident Scott Horak said. "They're monitoring their own situation. It's like the fox guarding the hen house. It isn't gonna work."
Robin Davis, who lives adjacent to Powertech's property, gave an emotional speech, saying she lives in a constant state of fear that every drilling rig that drives past her place could drill a hole leading to the contamination of her well water.
Randy King, a former miner at the Climax molybdenum mine near Leadville who said he is now a water quality professional for a local utility, said he fears toxic waste as bad as that left behind at the Climax mine could end up in Fort Collins' backyard.
"If Powertech happens, I'll be one of many people who will up and go," he said, imploring the EPA to "save my beautiful Colorado."
Read more:
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20091222/NEWS01/912220314/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02/Residents-voice-uranium-project-concerns
