Kristine Woolley
Record Staff Writer

Cotter Corporation officials are moving forward with plans to resubmit a portion of an environmental assessment on a proposal to bring 470,000 tons of radioactive soil from a New Jersey Superfund site to its Cañon City mill.

"We're just finishing putting the supplemental plan together and hope to submit it to the commissioners and the state health department in the next couple of weeks," Rich Ziegler, Cotter's executive vice president and general manager, said Monday.

In October, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment rejected the environmental assessment the company was required to submit as part of its application to receive the waste, citing socio-economic and transportation inadequacies.

Specifically noted in the rejection was the lack of social sciences data assessing the significance or influence — whether favorable, neutral or negative — on community residents and on the perceptions of tourists who visit the area.

The transportation deficiencies included failure to identify potential releases and the consequences that could result from removing the material from rail cars.

"We're not in agreement with the state's findings, but we're going to try and answer all their questions," Ziegler said.

"We have so much data we're sifting through from Franklin Environmental Services, rail carriers and Union Pacific to address the transportation issues. We'll be sending that information to the state."

To address the state's socioeconomic questions, Ziegler said Cotter officials have been working with Greystone Environmental Consultants, the company hired by Cotter to conduct the environmental assessment.

When complete, a copy of Cotter's updated environmental assessment will be available at the Cañon City Public Library, Ziegler said.

The environmental assessment was a requirement of House Bill 1408, which was passed by the Colorado Legislature last session.

The law requires a public comment period and an environmental impact study before radioactive waste can be brought to the state.

Companies are also required to provide counties with $20,000 to review the environmental assessment.

Cotter may have to provide Fremont County with another $20,000 if the county commissioners want to hire another independent consultant to review the new environmental assessment.

"We're going to give them the environmental assessment and have them do their own assessment. They will do what they think is right," Ziegler said.

After the assessment is submitted, Cotter will have to hold a public meeting on its proposal. There will be a two-week break to allow the public time to review the information, then a second public meeting will be held.

The time frame for the environmental assessment process depends on Cotter, said Chris Dann, a public information officer for the CDHPE.

"It's always been our intention to move very quickly on this. Once Cotter meets the state statutory requirements, it should be a matter of a few weeks before the state has an answer," he said

The pending Cotter application, filed April 1, 2002, sought approval to transport 470,000 tons of mildly contaminated waste soil from the Maywood Chemical Superfund site in New Jersey to Cotter's lined impoundment ponds.

During the environmental assessment process, the radioactive soil has been going to a nuclear waste dump operated by Envirocare Inc. in Clive, Utah.

"It's been going there since we've had this hang up with the application," Ziegler said.