Candidates oppose waste shipments
By B.J. Plasket
Daily Record News Group
CANON CITY — Two of three candidates for county commissioner voiced their opposition to nuclear waste shipments to Cañon City during a Wednesday night candidate forum sponsored by Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste.
CCAT is a local citizens' group concerned with environmental issues, with specific concern for the Cotter Corporation's plans to import radioactive/toxic waste to its uranium mill. The forum was held at the Cañon Inn.
Several dozen people attended, many with their written questions in hand. CCAT also provided prepared questions for each candidate. Former Fremont County Commissioner Dennis Jones facilitated.
Candidates for the state Legislature said they believe the Cotter Corp. should have to "start over" in its efforts to have radioactive shipments approved after having been rejected because of an inadequate environmental assessment.
Democrat Phil Palmeri, who is seeking to unseat two-term Republican incumbent Joe Rall as county commissioner in District 2, said "We don't need it. We need jobs for our people, but we don't need polluters." As a newcomer, Palmeri said he can see some issues differently than those who have lived in the county a long time.
Independent Larry Lasha, who is the former city manager for the city of Florence and a retired fire chief for Colorado Springs, said if the contaminated soil from Maywood, N.J., "isn't good enough for New Jersey, why would it be good enough for Cañon City?"
Rall, who along with the other two commissioners passed a resolution earlier this year in support of the shipments, said the board of commissioners acted after determining that the soil posed "no significant risk" to the area. Rall said the board adopted the stance after funding a study conducted by A&G Engineering that indicated a low risk.
Rall also said the county commissioners don't have a major role in such decisions.
"We do have a role," he said. "It's at what level? These things are decided at the sate and federal level." Rall said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment "needs to make sure (Cotter) is in compliance."
Rall also said Cotter is a "permitted site" allowed to receive waste, but added, "I don't know that for 100 percent."
Democrat Timothy Snowden, who is seeking to unseat Colorado Springs Republican Keith King for the House District 21 seat, said House Bill 1408 needs to be strengthened "so that is has some teeth."
Snowden said the bill was heavily amended before passage and was "reduced to requiring one environmental assessment and a couple of town meetings."
Snowden said the area's state representatives "should be fighting to keep the shipments out." King did not appear at the forum. Snowden, a strong proponent for education, is also a substitute teacher for RE-2 School District.
Republican Les Shaver and Democrat Buffie McFadyen, who are seeking the legislative seat in House District 47, said Cotter should not be able to re-submit the environmental assessment required under House Bill 1408, which was passed this year and which requires both environmental assessments and public meetings as part of the approval process.
"If you fail that procedure, it's one strike and you're out," Shaver said. "The process has to start over." Shaver said the law "needs to be clarified." Shaver owns Shaver Real Estate in Pueblo.
McFadyen also said the law creates some ambiguity and said Cotter should have to go through the entire process again if it continues its efforts to bring the Maywood soil to Fremont County.
McFadyen, who grew up in Niagara Falls, N.Y. — the home of the infamous Love Canal pollution site — said she "watched what having a chemical waste dump in a community does to business" and said polluted sites make it "very difficult to attract business."
The candidates for House District 60 agreed that Cotter's application procedure should start over.
"The health department and I read the law differently," said Lola Spradley, the incumbent Republican who helped sponsor the bill. "My reading is that they have to start over. Don't allow then to amend the existing filing — start the public process over."
Spradley said the bill was crafted in a "short time frame" and is not perfect.
Spradley's opponent, Democrat Emily Tracy, .who served on the city council for Canon City for eight years, said she didn't think the bill was created in a short time frame, alleging that Cotter's problems go back years. She quoted from a 1980 newspaper article listing worker-health violations at Cotter, adding, "Here we are today dealing with it."
Tracy said state laws must be changed so that companies such as Cotter "can't grandfather in."
"We need an environmental impact statement on Cotter and to this day we haven't had one," she said. "We've got be move forward. Don't keep coming back every two years, every five years, every 24 years," she said.