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Colorado Citizens Against ToxicWaste |
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By B.J. Plasket A group formed earlier this year to fight radioactive waste shipments has now called for the closure and cleanup of the 44-year-old Cotter mill south of Cañon City. A press release from the board of directors for Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, Inc. (CCAT), calls for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment "to deny re-licensing of the mill" and calls on the Health Department — as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — to "immediately begin de-commissioning and cleanup of the Cotter Uranium Mill." CCAT co-chair Sharyn Cunningham said the call for decommissioning was the result of "an accumulation of information we found as we researched and explored all the issues that came up with Cotter." Cunningham said during the group's fight to stop shipments of radioactive soil from another Superfund site in Maywood, N.J., "one thing led to another, revealing more information that was disturbing." George Turner, the director of the Cañon City Chamber of Commerce who has publicly supported Cotter, said he was "disappointed" in CCAT's new stance. "They said their goal was to keep the radioactive waste out of town, not to close Cotter" he said. "It appears they weren't being honest." Cotter Corporation executives did not return phone calls prior to press time. The mill, which began operation in 1958, had its license to handle nuclear materials suspended earlier this year after a series of what health department officials called repeat safety violations — including allowing a pregnant woman in the mill's "product room." The CCAT resolution says Cotter has allowed its impoundment ponds to evaporate in violation of the 1988 consent decree that settled a state pollution lawsuit against the mill. The release said the evaporation poses a "clear and present danger of airborne radioactive particles." The resolution also takes exception to Cotter's contention that it is not becoming a radioactive waste storage site, claiming that the company's license renewal application predicts that 80 percent of the company's future business will come from the handling of radioactive waste, also known as "alternate-feed material." CCAT also claimed that decommissioning the mill would be of greater community benefit than its continued operation. "Decommissioning would establish that the people of our community have a greater value than an industry that has polluted the environment and that Fremont County would benefit from the increase in highly-technical and entry-level jobs that would be required during de-commissioning and cleanup," the resolution said. Cotter, which settled a lawsuit filed by Lincoln Park residents in the early 1990s, is currently appealing another suit in which 16 area residents were awarded damages that now total over $43 million for damages to their property and health. Earlier this year the Colorado Court of Appeals rejected Cotter's appeal of a suit that would have required its insurers to pay any judgment in that case. In that case the court ruled that the company's insurance policies covered accidental discharge of pollutants but did not cover pollution the company knew about and which was ongoing. The Health Department, meanwhile, is
planning tests for plutonium and other contaminants in the Lincoln Park
area and at the Cotter mill. A public meeting on a proposed testing plan
will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Fremont County Commissioner
Chambers, 615 Macon Ave., Cañon City. |
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