From the Denver Post: "It has been 24 years since the federal government designated the [Cotter Mill] a Superfund cleanup site, based on radioactive contamination of air and groundwater drifting away from the 2,600-acre site just south of the city. Today the cleanup is less than half complete. A new plume of uranium-contaminated groundwater is spreading unchecked from the mill under a golf course toward Cañon City (population 15,850) and the Arkansas River, state documents and Cotter mill operators confirmed...
"State officials in July issued a 'notice of violation' giving Cotter 60 days to come up with a remedy. In a separate federal court case this year, Cotter pleaded guilty and was fined $15,000 for its role in the poisoning deaths of more than 40 migratory geese and ducks that came into contact with toxic materials at the mill. At the site this month, Hamrick surveyed reddish yellow-streaked ponds atop radioactive tailings. [John Hamrick, vice president of milling for Lakewood-based Cotter] and his crew of 30 cleanup workers are hunting for the source of the spreading pollution, he said."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
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