Uranium isn't worth the gamble

Guest Commentary
May 2, 2008

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Uranium. It's a dirty word in Weld County. It might be seven letters long, but it's sure gotten a few four-letter responses, and for good reason.

Weld County and the entire state of Colorado are on the front end of a new uranium rush. The consequences could be, forgive the pun, radioactive. Uranium mining can poison our unspoiled mountain lands, open ranges, groundwater, rivers and streams.

Colorado's one experiment with injection or "in-situ" uranium mining was near Grover in Weld County. The mine increased the radioactivity of the groundwater by 15 times its original and safe pre-mining levels.

Farmers and ranchers, landowners and medical experts have rightly criticized the injection uranium project proposed by the Canadian company Powertech, dubbed the "Centennial Mine." We shouldn't gamble away clean water and the futures of our communities on uranium mining.

The stakes on the uranium gamble are high and extend far beyond the borders of Weld County. Colorado's mountains, forests, river canyons and wildlife are also at risk from the uranium boom. In fact, claims on public lands skyrocketed from just 120 in 2003 to 10,730 in 2008.

Another Canadian company, Atomic Minerals, staked claims in the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest and in Troublesome Creek just west of Rocky Mountain National Park, an area known as an important summer calving ground for deer and elk, and more than 50 miles of hiking trails.

This isn't the first boom in the boom-and-bust cycle of uranium mining. The first uranium rush came in the 1950s and helped contribute to the massive abandoned mine legacy in Colorado. Larimer County alone has 250 abandoned hardrock metal mines.

Abandoned mines can pose serious safety hazards and can actually create "perpetual pollution," contaminating waterways for hundreds of years to come.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, pollution from active and abandoned mines has polluted 40 percent of the headwaters in the Western United States. In Colorado, mining pollution nearly wiped out the greenback cutthroat trout from our rivers.

Unfortunately, both our state and federal mining laws are horribly out of date and ill-equipped to deal with the threats posed by the new uranium rush. That's why Environment Colorado is working with residents in northern Colorado, agricultural groups, health experts and local governments to pass sensible environmental and public health protections at the state capitol. Just this month, protections cleared the first hurdle through the Colorado House of Representatives.

In Washington, another important bill is being debated among our U.S. senators that would reform the 1872 mining law and help protect Colorado's mountain landscapes, rivers and communities, while also creating funding to clean up abandoned mines.

Our most valuable lands such as roadless forests, wilderness areas and our national parks deserve strong protections. Our communities should have a meaningful say in where mining takes place. Also, National Forest and other public managers should be able to weigh mining pollution impacts on our watersheds, wildlife habitat and local communities before permits are issued.

Finally, we should ensure that mining companies leave Colorado as beautiful as they found it by requiring plans to mitigate environmental damage, to clean up mines once closed and to guarantee to not pollute our water or to create pollution problems that require expensive, long-term treatment.

It was disappointing to see U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave vote no on mining reform. We urge Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard to step up to the plate and ensure a home run for our environment by passing strong mining reform legislation in this Congress.

Matt Garrington is field director of Environment Colorado, and Angie Blattner is a Greeley resident and District Leader, CD4 of Environment Colorado.