 Update: Here’s a report from Rachel Alexander writing for The Cañon City Daily Record. From the article:
[Governor Ritter] signed the bill at the Whitewater & Kayak Recreation Park as the river roared behind him. “You’re going to be impacted by how we approach uranium milling and how we approach uranium permitting,” he said. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Ken Kester, Bob Bacon and Rep. Buffie McFadyen.
The law requires uranium processors to comply with clean-up orders before new applications are processed, strengthen public oversight of bonding requirements; require processors to inform residents about threats to their water if they have registered wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination; and require processors to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of “alternate feeds.”
“Nobody thinks uranium is an inherently evil thing, it’s just evil if you lose stewardship of it,” Ritter said. “We believed it was the right thing to move this forward.”
Governor Ritter signed the bill that Cotter Corp claims will prevent them from generating the revenue to fund the cleanup of the Lincoln Park/Cotter Mill superfund site near Cañon City. Here’s a report from Bruce Finley writing for The Denver Post. From the article:
“This just gives us a better hold on the milling process,” Ritter said before signing the bill, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, and Sens. Ken Kester and Bob Bacon.
Greenwood Village based Cotter Corp. operates the mill that became a Superfund cleanup site in 1984. During the statehouse battle over the law, Cotter vice president John Hamrick said the legislation would kill Cotter’s proposed project to refurbish the mill and haul 12.5 million tons of uranium ore from New Mexico for processing. Hamrick on Tuesday declined to comment on the status on any future project. But Hamrick said Cotter is now planning to do research at the mill if the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment approves.
More coverage from Patrick Malone writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
“We should think not about ourselves, but about the generations to come” when it comes to protecting the environment, Ritter said. “It’s incumbent on us to turn this state over to the generation after us and the one that follows in a better way than we found it.”
Under HB1348, Cotter can’t gain permits to expand its operation without first mitigating contamination that already exists. It also must notify residents where groundwater contamination exists of its progress in addressing the problem. The bill also requires Cotter to carry a higher bond that would be sufficient to conduct cleanup efforts. If the mill were to close, the cleanup would be the state’s responsibility, like so many other decommissioned uranium-processing sites throughout the state…
During the past decade, Cotter has been cited about 100 times for environmental violations, but they have been markedly less frequent during the past five years, when a wholesale change of its management team took place. Cotter officials have said the bill hamstrings their intention to take on new materials from Mount Taylor in New Mexico, which would provide the revenue necessary to construct and update an environmentally sound mill.
But residents of Canon City have been fighting for years to get Cotter to clean up the contaminated plumes of groundwater that have been identified. To date, Cotter has chosen to let it dissipate naturally, which could take decades, stretching into centuries.
For the past eight years, Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste has pushed for more aggressive measures from Cotter to address the pollution. Tuesday, they saw the fruit of their work. “It’s a culmination of years of paying attention to this site, seeing the problems and looking for solutions,” said Sharyn Cunningham, president of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. “This bill is the solution to the contamination problems here.”
Here’s the video of the signing from Governor Ritter’s office. Here’s the release (Evan Dreyer/Megan Castle):
Gov. Bill Ritter concluded a two-day, five-city tour of southern Colorado this afternoon, visiting the banks of the Arkansas River near the Royal Gorge to sign legislation that will protect waterways and communities by increasing oversight of uranium mills.
“We all want a safe environment for our families, our children and our communities,” Gov. Ritter said before signing House Bill 1348, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Buffie McFadyen and Sens. Ken Kester and Bob Bacon. “Future Coloradans will want to raft, kayak and fish this river, just as we’re able to do today. It’s up to us to make sure they get that opportunity. This bill will help make that happen.”
HB 1348 requires operators of uranium mills to comply with all clean-up orders before new state permits for expansion or restructuring of operations are processed. The bill also requires operators to inform residents about threats to their water if residents have wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination.
“We heard Canon City residents testify that the poison from the uranium processing plant has been tainting groundwater for decades,” Rep. McFadyen said. “This bill simply requires uranium processors to clean up the old mess they’ve already made before accepting new materials that will create new waste. Having polluted groundwater harms the health and the economic development of the area. This bill sets the tone for the nation on what to do with uranium groundwater contamination.”
“Every uranium mill has extensive, localized groundwater contaminant plumes that are still years, if not decades, from being fully remediated.” Source: STATEMENT OF CHRIS SHUEY; Before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands; Natural Resources Committee; U.S. House of Representatives; March 28, 2008 republicans.resourcescommittee.house.gov/pdf/Shuey_Testimony.doc
Ore is trucked from a mine to a conventional uranium mill where the ore is chemically processed to extract the uranium (U308), called Yellowcake.
Cotter Uranium Mill, Canon City, CO
Facility Locations
There are currently only two uranium mills licensed to operate in the U.S. One is the White Mesa Mill near Blanding, Utah, built in the 1980’s and owned by Denison Mines Inc., a Canadian public company. White Mesa is licensed to process up to 2,000 tons of uranium ore per day. The other is the Cotter Uranium Mill, at the edge of Canon City, CO, built in 1958 and owned by the Cotter Corporation, an affiliate of General Atomics. In 1984, the area was declared a Superfund Site due to contamination from the mill. Cotter was on standby awaiting a corporate decision to either close and decommission or tear down the decrepit old mill and build a new mill to continue operations for an undetermined time. At peak estimated production, once refurbished, Cotter’s Mill could process 1,200 tons of ore a day. On March 27, 2009, Cotter announced their intention to rebuild and reopen by 2014, using a 25-year source of ore from a New Mexico uranium mine. Confusingly, at the same time Denison Mines Inc. in March 2009 announced plans to close the White Mesa Mill in May 2009 due to economic reasons, such as the depressed uranium market.
Due to the uranium rush caused by inflated yellowcake prices (until just recently) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received letters of intent and applications for permits to restart or build new uranium recovery operations at thirty-one sites. Twenty-eight of the projects are owned by foriegn companies. Six applications are for new uranium mills, one restart of a mill, seven are for expanding current ISL operations, and fifteen are for new ISL operations. These bear watching to see if the current depressed uranium market curtails investments. Click to see the NRC Chart of Uranium Recovery Applications.
Processing Methods
Uranium is extracted from ore by either In-Situ Leach fluid processing at the mine site, or at a conventional uranium mill. Heap-Leach extraction is another method used at mine sites, but it has been out of favor for a number of years because of dangers from water contamination. However, since uranium fever hit recently, a Canadian company has applied for a Heap-Leach permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a site in New Mexico.
The extraction process usually done at a conventional mill happens underground with the In-Situ Leach method. A solvent solution is injected through wells into the ore body, dissolving rock and mobilizing the uranium, other radionuclides, and heavy metals. This solution is then pumped to the surface, where the uranium is extracted, concentrated, precipitated , and dried as yellowcake. The waste contaminants are essentially the same as found at a conventional mill consisting of drilling muds, water, chemicals, heavy metals, and other radionuclides. Some are dissolved and stay underground mobilized in groundwater, while surface wastes are typically placed in pits on site. Liquid waste comes from the well field, processing plant operations, and aquifer restoration activities. Liquids may be evaporated in ponds or returned to the ground with deep-well injection. The greatest concern with ISL is that contaminants can and do go beyond the well field and contaminate groundwater. For more information, see the EPA TENORM Mining report, Vols I & II http://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm/pubs.html
Uranium mills are enormous industrial operations covering many acres, with numerous buildings and large tanks for processing and storage of thousands of gallons of chemicals and water. The ore is crushed and fed through a variety of stages involving grinding with water, and leaching with acids or alkaline materials, often under pressure and with high temperatures. The slurry is put through thickening tanks, and a sulfation process again uses a strong sulfuric acid treatment and more water. The solvent extraction stage separates the uranium from other materials, concentrating and purifying the uranium using organic chemicals mixed in kerosene, and again using sulfuric acid. The uranium then goes through precipitation requiring more sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, more thickening, and ammonia.
The final product, Yellowcake, is dried and packaged for shipping to a conversion facility, the next stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, where it is further purified and converted to Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6), a gas that solidifies after cooling. Emissions of radioactive dust and other contaminants are supposed to be controlled by baghouses or filters. Unfortunately, for close neighbors, mills are permitted to release a certain amount of contaminants. The Cotter Uranium Mill has an air permit allowing yearly emissions of over 180 tons/year of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon monoxide. The permit allows emissions up to 1,135 pounds/year of radioactive materials. The waste (tailings or raffinate) from the uranium milling process, approximately 99% of the original ore combined with water and chemicals, is then sent to the tailings impoundment for permanent storage.
For photos and description of a conventional uranium milling facility, visit the Wyoming Mining Association
http://www.wma-minelife.com/uranium/mill/mllframe.htm
Uranium is a danger, especially if ingested, as a heavy metal and a radioactive material. The concentrated and purified uranium product (U308) was named Yellowcake years ago because of its yellow powdery appearance. Most uranium ore in the U.S. contains less than 1% U308. There are three major isotopes of uranium in Yellowcake. U-238 is the most abundant with U-234 the least percentage: U-234: 0.005 % U-235: 0.711 % U-238: 99.284 %
 
Due to decades of illness and environmental contamination from uranium mining and milling, Navajo's in the Southwestern U.S. call it Leetso or "Yellow Monster," something they say should be left in the ground where it's found. Click to read news article ("Study may help slay Yellow Monster," PHYSORG.COM, General Science, April 2006).
Yellowcake is shipped to the next stage of fuel production, conversion, where it is further purified by removing any leftover radionuclides, such as thorium, or heavy metals. It is U-235 that is needed to create fuel rods for reactors or nuclear weapons. U-234 and U-238 become by-products of the process, referred to as Depleted Uranium, which is used for hardening metal for use in weapons, vehicles and more.
See IEER Uranium Fact Sheet: http://www.ieer.org/fctsheet/uranium.html
Mill Water Usage
Uranium mill tailings are deposited in impoundment ponds with water as cover to prevent dusting and radon emissions. Mill processing also uses large volumes of water. At peak production, the Cotter Mill could use 1.3 million gallons of water per day for processing and impoundment cover, enough water to supply approximately 4,300 families for a year.
Most uranium mills have been built near rivers because of the incredible volume of water needed for processing and dust suppression. Treated city water, wells, pump-back and runoff provide the sources for water at Cotter. The City of Canon City has a contract to provide up to 900 gallons of treated water a minute at approximately one-tenth the cost to regular customers (up to a yearly use of 473 Million Gallons).
The unincorporated community of Lincoln Park is downhill and adjacent to the north boundary of Cotter, with a population of approximately 4,000. Many homes and over 120 private wells in this area have been there since the 1870s. The watershed and groundwater from the mountains once filled the wells. Now the water is blocked as much as possible by an earthen dam for runoff, pump-back wells, and an underground cut-off wall, because of contamination picked up as the water passes through the mill property. All water at the facility is lost to either evaporation or leakage into groundwater.
Most uranium ore in the U.S. contains less than 1% uranium. The other 99% becomes waste, referred to as tailings, and is stored in pits. One ton of uranium ore could produce roughly 20 Lbs of Yellowcake. The other 1,980 Lbs of tailings contain leftover uranium, Polonium, Radium, Lead 210, Thorium, and radioactive gases such as Radon and Thoron. It varies, but some of these materials remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years – uranium more than 4.5 Billion years.
Processing also leaches out heavy metals such as Chromium, Mercury, Cadmium, Iron, Lead, Molybdenum, Cobalt, Nickel, Arsenic, Vanadium, Selenium, Manganese, Zinc and Copper, which become part of the tailings. Chemicals used in the processing round out the lake of hot toxic soup in the tailings impoundment, such as Sulfuric Acid, Hydrochloric Acid, Nitric Acid, Kerosene, Ammonia, Caustic Soda and solvents.
Milling Waste Storage Methods
At peak production, processing 1,200 tons of uranium ore per day, Cotter could produce up to 320,000 tons of waste per year. All waste from the Cotter Uranium Mill goes to the 90 acre Primary Impoundment. The approximately 55 acre Secondary Impoundment was filled to capacity with tailings and excavation from the Old Tailings Pond Area in 1994, a pond that holds waste from the Manhattan Project era.
The Cotter Uranium Mill impoundment area (approximately 145 acres) was the largest in the world when constructed in 1979. Since then, federal regulations have restricted the size of impoundments to 40 acres or less. The disposal capacity currently authorized by Cotter’s license is approximately 10.5 Million short tons, which will include waste from decommissioning (buildings, equipment, and soils). The impoundment is lined with a sandy clay-like material covered with a Hypalon plastic liner and another layer of sandy clay-like material. In 2005, a State and EPA review of construction documents led to little faith in the liner preventing migration of contaminants into surrounding groundwater. In 2007, an investigation determined that there is leakage.
Milling Waste Solutions
For decades tailings impoundments have been covered with water to prevent radioactive dust and radon emissions from tailings. Liquids in the impoundment contain inordinately high concentrations of radionuclides and heavy metals. Liquids from mill processing also contain high levels of acids and corrosive materials (Sulfuric Acid, Hydrochloric Acid, Nitric Acid, Kerosene, Ammonia and other solvents, and caustic soda). The Cotter Mill was ordered by their 1979 license to keep the acid content low by maintaining a pH of 4 or above, to prevent damage to the soil and plastic liner. From construction in 1979 until 2000 they failed to comply. For twenty years the pH was below 4, sometimes as low as 1-2 pH, a highly acidic condition.
In August 2008, Cotter was cited with a violation for once again failing to keep the pH above 4: "pH measurement in both the primary and secondary impoundments are persistently below the required level of 4. What actions will Cotter Corporation perform to prevent recurrence of this violation?" (Colo Dept of Public Health & Environment, Letter to Cotter, 8-15-08)."
Many fail to realize there is a danger from uraniuim mills because you cannot see, hear or smell most contamination from mills. Uranium mill tailings are deposited in impoundment ponds with water as cover to prevent dust and radon emissions. In the mid-20th Century these were unlined pits allowing contaminants to poison watersheds, aquifers and wells. By the early 1980’s impoundments were required to be lined, and many old mills were closed or went on Standby. In Colorado alone, at least eight mills have been closed due to contamination to community water and soil. The small town of Uravan, CO was literally bulldozed under at a cost of $120 Million - most paid by taxpayers. The community near Cotter is in a Catch-22 situation: If the impoundments are kept full, there is danger of overtopping or the liner continuing to leak or blow out. If you dry the impoundment to prevent leakage or overtopping, radon emissions increase.
After years of investigation, the Cotter Mill and surrounding community of Lincoln Park was declared a Superfund Site in 1984 due to water and soil contamination. Twenty-five years later, private wells and groundwater in Lincoln Park are still contaminated with uranium and molybdenum, and it is still a Superfund Site.
Water Contamination
Even with the best of intentions, leakage occurs through the plastic liners at tailings ponds. It’s been said by many that all impoundments leak. In 2006, after an investigation of Cotter’s Primary Impoundment, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment finally admitted that it was leaking. Click to read the CDPHE’s evaluation of leakage at Cotter.
Cotter and the surrounding community have been a Superfund Site since 1984. Groundwater contamination persists. A new area of the groundwater contamination plume was finally acknowledged beneath a golf course adjacent to the mill. Click to read CDPHE Notice of Violation. Since 2000, the Cotter Mill has been sited with close to a hundred violations. In 2005, a spill of solvents pooled in a pond and killed 40 migratory birds, which brought a federal violation and a fine and restitution of $30,000 to the Cotter Corporation in 2007. Click to see the enlarged and persistent Uranium and Molybdenum Plume in 2007.
Air and Soil Contamination
Radioactive and heavy metal dust emissions occur during ore delivery, storage, grinding, and the yellowcake drying process. Cotter’s 2007 air permit allows 1,135 lb/yr of emissions or dust from radioactive material, and over 180 lb/yr of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. Click to read Cotter's Air Permit. We've been unable to locate an air permit for Denison's White Mesa Mill that limits radionuclide emissions, but the rest of the contaminants emissions are limited to 106 tons/year. Click to read White Mesa's Air Construction Permit.
In December 2005, the Cotter Mill was cited with violations for operating furnaces after the baghouses were burned out. Baghouses are filters that prevent emissions of radioactive dust. Cotter’s nearest neighbor is approximately one-quarter of a mile away, and a golf course is right next door. Approximately 6-8,000 people live inside a 2-mile radius of the Cotter Mill, in spite of the fact that federal regulations require a mill to be "remote from a population." Contaminated wells are used to irrigate throughout the area, depositing contaminants on surface soils and vegetation. Click to read Baghouse Violation.
Both the Cotter Uranium Mill and White Mesa radon emissions are limited by federal regulations. Radon emissions occur throughout the facilities, and from the tailings impoundments. Radon emissions from the tailings impoundments at Cotter have recently increased dramatically due to evaporation to prevent leakage through the liner. In 2.5 days, Radon gas attaches to dust particles and becomed radioactive lead (PB210) that deposits in soils and is resuspended each time the wind blows. Click to read Cotter's 2007 Radon Test.
Milling Product Transporation
Both the White Mesa and Cotter mills transport ore and radioactive waste by truck. Minimal radioactive warning labels are required. Though trucks are required to have their loads covered, dust escapes along the way. After being dormant for many years, Cotter began trucking ore over 200 miles through the mountains from their uranium mines in western Colorado. In February 2006, one of Cotter’s trucks wrecked in the Arkansas River Canyon.
Cotter has access to a rather questionable railroad spur that travels 2-miles south from Highway 50 and the center of Canon City. Homes and businesses line the tracks on the way to Cotter’s property. Some homes are as close as 15 feet from the tracks. Cotter has shipped tankers of chemicals and acids on these tracks over recent years, and could ship ore on them.
Cleanup Costs
Source: U.S.DOE, FY2009 Congressional Budget Request, Environmental Management, Defense Nuclear Waste Disposal, Nuclear Waste Disposal, p. 464.
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