They listened and asked questions, but Windsor Town Board members made no decisions Monday about their stance on the proposed uranium mine near Nunn. A presentation was held at the Windsor Community Recreation Center Monday evening with presenters from the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, PowerTech Uranium Corp., the company who is planning the mine, and Citizens Against Resource Destruction, an opposition group...
The board has been asked repeatedly by residents over the last two years to take up this issue and pass a resolution supporting or objecting to the mine. They decided to take up the issue in August...
PowerTech estimates there are 9.7 million pounds of uranium deposits on the site. If extracted, the State of Colorado could rake in between $2 million and $3 million per year in local and state severance taxes. In addition, PowerTech estimates 100 jobs directly associated with the mining will be created, and between 300-500 secondary jobs. The uranium is shipped in 800-pound drums in a form known as yellow cake, which is about 90 percent powder and 10 percent liquid. "We ship it like that because that lessens the amount of uranium released into the air," Clement said.
Board member Jon Slater was curious about contamination. "How much of a problem is there?" he asked. Clement said the laws enacted in the U.S. mean contamination risks are very low.
Once the uranium has been extracted and to clean up the site, PowerTech will reverse its uranium extraction process and pump water back into the ground. The Centennial Project is located in the Fox Hills water aquifer, which is part of the larger Denver Basin aquifer. Denver Basin is a nonrenewable source of groundwater for municipal, agricultural, industrial and domestic use along the Front Range. The potential for contamination of the aquifer was one major concern for CARD Monday night. "At other sites, there has been a significant increase in radioactivity in the wells even after the site has been reclaimed," said CARD representative Jay Davis. "The wells have been impossible to use, and some scientists believe the water sources are impossible to restore."
Board member Michael Kelly was curious about the current state of the water in the wells. "How drinkable and usable is it now?" he asked. Davis said the wells in the area are being used for residential, livestock and agricultural purposes. In addition, CARD expressed concern that uranium, which begins emitting radiation once it is exposed to oxygen (which is present in water as well as air) and decays into radium, will become dangerous to residents of the area.
"Uranium is not dangerous unless ingested in large amounts, because it can't penetrate skin," said CARD member Dr. Ami Wangeline, "but it decays to radium, which can penetrate skin, and then decays further to radon gas." Radium causes damage at the cellular level and is of particular concern to those with weak immune systems, including children, the elderly and those with chronic health problems. Once inside the cells, radium causes mutations. Those mutations become cancerous tumors unless they are caught by the body's immune system. Any exposure to radiation can cause a cancerous mutation. "That's why there is no safe amount of exposure," Wangeline said. Wangeline, whose Ph.D. is in biology, is also very concerned about the other heavy metals that could be released along with uranium during the mining process. "Other heavy metals, including selenium, arsenic, molybdenum, lead and cadmium are found along with uranium," she said. Selenium, which exists in all humans in a small amount to help prevent deterioration of the heart muscle, is highly toxic in larger doses to humans and livestock. And some plants can absorb large amounts of selenium, creating a potentially life-threatening scenario. Wangeline said the process used to remove the uranium would undo what took hundreds of thousands of years to do: embed the uranium in the rock, and once it's done, it can't be undone.
CARD also listed several agencies that have set themselves in opposition to the proposed uranium mine, including the cities of Fort Collins and Greeley, the towns of Timnath and Ault and the Colorado Medical Society. Clement assured the town board that uranium mines are closely overseen by the state's DRMS. "We must be closely attuned to what is happening on each of our uranium sites," Clement said. "We exercise great care."
The board gave no indication of when and if they would pick up the topic again.
