Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill Given Final Approval By The State

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has issued what it is calling a "final, corrected, original radioactive materials license" for the Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill in western Montrose County, Colo. The mill will be the country's first new conventional uranium mill in more than 25 years.

The CDPHE gave initial approval of the Piñon Ridge mill in January over the objections of local environmentalists. Hilary White, executive director of and environmental group called the Sheep Mountain Alliance, said at the time that the CDPHE "did not take into consideration hundreds of pages of documents of comments submitted by scientific and technical experts expressing concerns about the mills' impacts."

After the January ruling, the company applying for the permit--Energy Fuels Corp.--had 60 days to request a formal hearing on the rules laid out by the state. The company did not make a request.

In February, the Sheep Mountain Alliance filed suit against the CDPHE, claiming that the department failed to comply with the Atomic Energy Act by failing to allow adequate public questioning before issuing the permit.

A district judge has not yet responded to the health department's request to drop the suit.

WATCH A NEW YORK TIMES VIDEO FROM DECEMBER PROFILING THE DEBATE OVER PINON RIDGE:

READ THE COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT'S PRESS RELEASE:

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Comments

[mogluver]

09:01 AM on 03/09/2011

I understand that the Cotter Mill in Canon City has been cleaned up. The main issues on the Cotter Mill revolved around ground water contamination. The mill was located above the town on the slope of a mountain, the lined detention ponds leaked radio active water into the ground water flow which moved through a rural area with lots of wells that folks used for their drinking water. The mill has been a superfund site for years, with heavy state and EPA supervision. This mill in Montrose County has been in the works for a while, and most of the folks upset by the proposal come from San Miguel County to the south east, miles away from the project.

This area of Montrose County has very high unemployment and such a mill would bring positive benefits to the region and community. The Colorado Department of Health would not want to make another mistake like they did in Canon City, overall the project has more pluses than minuses.

[librainstars]

10:11 AM on 03/09/2011

cancer to your children is a big minus. I hope the ppl there study it all. As money is not worth your life.
Do you really think those sites are cleaned up? what is the shelf life of Uranium ?
In a perfect world they would not make that mistake again. But its not a perfect world.

[1differentdrummer]

08:06 AM on 03/09/2011

Boy, this makes a lot of sense. It's to be on the Western slope. Where are the cities? In the East. What direction do the prevailing winds come from? The west. Between there and the Eastern part of the state how many reservoirs are there? All of them for the Denver area. So, to try to follow logic, if there is an accident where will the radioactive stuff go? Why it will go toward the population centers and their drinking water. Duh. What geniuses. Some things are best turned down.

[mcsandberg]

07:01 AM on 03/09/2011

This is the best news Colorado has had in a while! You eco-pests should check out http://www.accesstoenergy.com/view/ate/s41p1043.htm and http://wattsupwiththat.com/ before you mindlessly oppose all energy. After all Access to Energy is a Human Right!!

Then take a look at Atlas Shrugged and contemplate how far down the road to collectivism we're traveled, which is why I use the sig:

Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be a warning, NOT a newspaper!

[1differentdrummer]

08:10 AM on 03/09/2011

Your argument, though garbled, aims at convincing on an issue without taking the hazards into account. "Mindlessly oppose alll energy?" Who does that? Because people oppose radioactive pollution and fracking chemicals in their drinking water is that mindless? Turned about, is being for all "energy" mindless? Think about it.

[acorus]

11:54 PM on 03/08/2011

between the mother-frackers and the tailing heaps colorado is being exploited again for what it was exploited for in the past, except the future is even more mineral/gas deficient than the past, the school of mines is here for a purpose and knows what exactly lurks in these hills, and hell with 20 times the normal background radiation, what's the difference?

[P51MUSTANG]

09:22 PM on 03/08/2011

While China is cornering the rare earths market we're diddling around with uranium

[PoloniumMan]

09:07 PM on 03/08/2011

How can they do this? Don't they understand that we're supposed to be outsourcing our industrial pollution to poor, underdeveloped nations? Don't they know that it's better to drill 34,000 natural gas wells and inject fracking fluid into the ground than to open a few uranium mines and mills? Isn't it OK to ignore the radium that comes up with the returning fracking fluid and the radon that accompanies the natural gas into our homes?

[aquarius2]

08:43 PM on 03/08/2011

The Western Slope is just getting beat to death with dangerous endeavors. I like it over there but definitely would not want to live there.

[No Longer Amused 25]

08:26 PM on 03/08/2011

Let them eat yellow cake!

[Ron Booth]

08:08 PM on 03/08/2011

'You can trust us we're an all American energy company we may screw up the land and the streams and the air but at the end of the day we'll wrap it all up in the red,white and blue and you'll never know the difference'

We hope!

[Primadonna]

06:44 PM on 03/08/2011

Colorado sells out everything ... water, dirt and radioactive contamination. I look forward to the day when the youth of the state revolt against this very good ole' boy legislative network.

[P51MUSTANG]

09:24 PM on 03/08/2011

It's definitely not the "Rocky Mountain High" image John Denver gave everybody.

[librainstars]

06:31 PM on 03/08/2011

This was writen today. "Uranium mill blamed for cancer cluster in Monticello" out of Utah
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top%20stories/story/Uranium-mill-blamed-for-cancer-cluster-in/oLM-pWvt-EipO6svFRq7yw.cspx
quoted out of it "nearly 600 cases of cancer confirmed in current and former residents of Monticello. It is a number, they say, that is still climbing."
This started as yours did in the 1940s. and you ppl in this town want to start it back up? Money is more important than your loved ones? Sorry for being so direct. I grew up in a area where ppl still die from this kind of stuff.
Puts a new meaning to the song "dust in the wind"


High country new"http://www.hcn.org/wotr/a-uranium-mill-makes-no-sense-in-western-colorado
quoted "But western Colorado has never had a mine or a mill that didn't leave contaminants around for years to come."

All as I can say is it comes home on you in dust form. on you , on your cars trucks. You will bring it home to your kids.
check your cancer rates. check other areas in co where this has taken place.

[P51MUSTANG]

09:33 PM on 03/08/2011

I live in nearby Durango. We had a uranium mill too. I once attended a meeting for people who had worked in the mill, and in the tailings cleanup in the 80's

The only problem is...there were none. I heard several stories from their survivors, like the son of a bulldozer operator who helped bury the tailings piles.

Kids in Durango used to sled/ski down the tailings pile, and it was also used for house foundations, roadbed, etc.

It would be very difficult, and expensive, to do everything RIGHT with a mill for radioactive products. That assumes that a company would WANT to, rather than cutting corners. It's virtually impossible to construct a raffinate pond that won't eventually leak.

[librainstars]

10:18 PM on 03/08/2011

Im sorry you lived near one. Living near that stuff well its not nice. Thats a understatement.
The companys should be made to do it right. ((i know you agree)) Yes it has been my understanding most ponds leak. Its wrong.
It was also wrong they used this stuff to build roads, schools.buildings homes. very wrong
The other problem as I said it gets picked up by the wind.
No way should the kids have been sleding on it. Companys knew way back when it was harmful
I have watched to many ppl die from cancer. other related things like kidneys. By being exposed to this junk.
I would hate to see a new generation have it start all over again . As the stuff from before is not cleaned up.
sorry I went on so long.

[PoloniumMan]

08:16 AM on 03/09/2011

I would be more worried about the contents in the coal soot coming out of the D&S narrow gauge train than the pile that used to sit across the Animas. If the coal ash were brought to a nuclear power plant, the plant operators would have to treat it as rad waste, maintaining strict controls and ensure proper disposal. Your dose from cosmic radiation living at 6512 is also much higher than most other Americans (except for airline crews).

[pattyrenee]

06:29 PM on 03/08/2011

There are still very ill Uranium miners being treated around here. Now, more miners will die because they need jobs where none exist. Hopefully, the new health care will take care of them.

[2ewdee]

10:45 PM on 03/08/2011

"they need jobs where none exist. Hopefully, the new health care will take care of them"

Surviving unemployment in this culture is hell. But it is not worth the selling of your soul. Those people need to move instead of allowing themselves be victimized by another corporation. They will begin moving anyway when cancer begins killing off their families. Corporations are always going to value profit over people and all safety regulations will be ignored (eg BP oil spill). When will the sheep learn?

[BroBrigham]

05:55 PM on 03/08/2011

Viable Green Energy = Nuclear Energy. Clean, Cheap, Safe, Viable, and Abundant!

[Decorina]

06:27 PM on 03/08/2011

What about the waste?

[PoloniumMan]

03:43 PM on 03/10/2011

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle it.

[incognito-ergo-sum]

07:51 PM on 03/08/2011

You need to live closer to the diggings. You need to live where the waste is just moved from place to place. You need to live here in Western Colorado and see how clean, cheap and safe this stuff is before it ever gets to the mill. Prices are down now, move in and see.

[aturner18]

05:08 PM on 03/08/2011

Drill baby drill..........and dig too!

[MimiK]

04:34 PM on 03/08/2011

This is not the end of the story.