CAñON CITY — After being blocked by state health officials and state and federal courts, Cotter Corp. has dropped its plan to import radioactive waste from New Jersey to the site of its on-again, off-again uranium mill.
The Pueblo Chieftain said the company is instead considering renovating the mill while prices for the mineral are high.
Environmentalists and some area residents had opposed the plan to bring 470,000 tons of radioactive waste to a site near Cañon City from a Superfund site near Maywood, N.J.
Cotter appealed the health department’s decision to state and federal courts but lost, with the last ruling late last year.
“The time frame has passed to appeal that ruling and we’ve made a conscious decision not to appeal it,” said John Hamrick, Cotter mill manager.
Cotter opened its uranium mill south of Cañon City in 1958. The mill site and a portion of the neighboring Lincoln Park community became an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1988 because contamination from unlined tailings ponds seeped into the groundwater.
