State regulators have raised concerns about toxic waste, radiation and water supply at what would be the nation’s first conventional uranium mill opened since the Cold War.
Heavy-metals waste from Energy Fuels Resources Corp.’s proposed uranium-processing in southwest Colorado would include arsenic, lead, molybdenum and cadmium. A failure to fully address handling of this potentially harmful material “is considered to be a major deficiency in the application,” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment regulators said in a recent request for information.
Beaches around waste impoundment ponds would be exposed to birds. “What are the risks to wildlife from exposed tailings beaches?” the request asks.
State regulators asserted that people at fences around Energy Fuels’ 880-acre site could be exposed to radiation approaching a 25-millirem limit. “A projected dose that approaches a regulatory limit cannot be considered trivial,” a CDPHE document said.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board is opposing Energy Fuels’ filings to use water from the Dolores River. Energy Fuels has begun drilling wells to supply enough water to process 500 tons of uranium a day. But company officials say they may need additional water.
The mill near Naturita would supply uranium for an anticipated nuclear-energy renaissance and vanadium for batteries and hardening steel.
The proposed Piñon Ridge mill would crush uranium ore into a powder, then leach concentrated uranium from the ore using sulfuric acid. Most of the material would stay at the site in lined impoundment ponds.
CDPHE officials are required to decide by Jan. 17 whether to issue a permit. “If they need more information to make their decision, we’ll give it to them,” said Dick White, Energy Fuels’ vice president for exploration.
Controlling radiation levels at the fence “may require additional cover” on the ponds,” White said.
One option for protecting birds would be “hazing” — setting up motion detectors and noise-making cannons that would drive them away, said Frank Filas, environmental manager for the project.
State natural resources and company officials have launched a mediation process to address concerns about potential harm to Dolores River aquatic life, Filas said.
While the proposed mill has heightened local hopes of a return to Atomic Age prosperity, some residents oppose it.
Farmer Tony Daranyi, who grows vegetables about 45 miles east of the site, said he’s “concerned about the impacts to air quality from drifting heavy metals due to operations at the proposed mill.”
Uranium mill operations “may contaminate our soils and water, dirty the clean air, and poison high-altitude lakes and watersheds,” Daranyi said.
“Once our rich, nutritious soils are harmed, they’re gone forever.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
