Town pens letter to CDPHE
By Katie Klingsporn
Associate Editor
Published: Sunday, November 21, 2010 6:13 AM CST
A group of environmentalists from the Telluride region has been hustling for more than a year to protest a uranium mill proposed to go up in Paradox Valley, a lonely, windswept valley in western Montrose County.
Now, the Telluride Town Council is hopping aboard the opposition movement.
Members of council and town staff are in the process of penning a letter to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials that details concerns that the uranium mill could damage the health of the region’s people, environment and economy.
“The town and our local residents and visitors are very concerned about the possible significant and long-term deleterious impacts that could occur if the Piñon Ridge Facility is approved by CDPHE and becomes an operational mill for the processing of uranium ore,” reads a draft of the letter.
A Canadian company, Energy Fuels, hopes to construct and operate a uranium mill at the Piñon Ridge site in Paradox Valley. The mill site would cover 17 acres and have a capacity of 500 tons of ore a day, and would have an expected operating life of 40 years.
At a work session this week, members of the town council discussed the draft letter, and ended up sending it back to be bulked up by staff. The plan is to sign and send it by Tuesday.
Based on the draft, the chief concern for the town is the danger a uranium mill could pose to the region’s water and air quality.
The letter explains that air modeling research from Dr. Mark Williams from the University of Colorado INSTAAR has shown that airborne materials are transported easterly by prevailing winds — and the fear is that dangerous particulates will settle into the San Juan snowpack and end up in the local drinking water.
“The question is not whether this will occur, but how significant is the increase of airborne and windborne radionuclide particles as a direct result of the potential operation of Piñon Ridge and the feeder mine operations that will support Piñon Ridge,” the letter reads. “The increased presence of radionuclide particles that will contaminate our surface water bodies, currently used as our municipal drinking water source, is of critical concern to the Town of Telluride.”
The letter also requests that the CDPHE consider enlarging the current 50-mile study radius for the environmental impacts of the mill and include a baseline monitoring component within the Telluride region with regard to air- and windborne radionuclide particles.
At the work session, town council agreed that it wanted to add a few things to the draft letter before it goes into the mail. Namely, the council wanted to include more information about the legacy of uranium mining and milling in the state of Colorado.
“It will be more definitive, more focused and a stronger position,” said Mayor Stu Fraser.
Council member Thom Carnevale said he believes the town should take a firm position on the mill. If just one person gets sick as a result of a uranium operation, he said, it’s too many.
“We know the results of uranium mills in the past,” Carnevale said. “I think this continues to be a danger not only for workers, but for visitors and the citizens of our region.”
And because it could affect the tourist population, he said, it endangers Telluride’s economy.
On Nov. 5, Energy Fuels submitted a report to the CDPHE as a part of the application process that addresses the potential release of radioactive and non-radioactive materials from mill operations and activities.
The report considers Telluride as well as Montrose, Norwood, Naturita, Bedrock and Moab, Utah, as off-site locations where humans could be receptors of its materials. It goes on to list processes that could have a potential for generating airborne radioactivity. They include: transportation of ore to the mill; transportation of yellowcake from the mill to out-of-state processing plants; on-site storage and use of ore; ore handling and grinding; leaching; uranium recovery including solvent extraction, precipitation, drying, and packaging; waste disposal facilities including tailings cells and evaporation ponds.
Read more:
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2010/11/21/news/doc4ce857e7e0b0b981120951.txt
