C.C.A.T.

By Ken Amundson
Daily Record News Group

For the Cotter Corporation, the issue is survival in what is probably the most economically challenging uranium market since the atom was cracked in the 1940s.

For many in Cañon City, the issue revolves around trust. Can Cotter and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment be trusted to look after the interests of Cañon City residents, when the record is replete with examples of situations in which the health and welfare of the community were not protected?

The health department decision about whether to allow soil contaminated with thorium from the former Maywood, N.J., lantern factory site to be shipped to and deposited on the Cotter facility site is but one of three major decisions to be made in the coming weeks or months.

Also on the health department's agenda is a resolution of 16 violations of the Cotter Corporation's license to operate. This year's violations, a record for one year, bring the total violations to more than 140 since Cotter began operations at Cañon City in 1959. Finally, the health department is considering whether to renew Cotter's five-year operational license.

Cotter has worked diligently in recent months to perfect a new process that would move the company away from the economically challenged uranium milling business, said company President Richard Cherry and Executive Vice President Rich Ziegler.

The company would like to begin production of zirconium, a material used in the ceramics industry. But venture capital in the ore milling industry is difficult to secure and thus operations must generate the cash needed to retool, the two executives said.

Revenue gained from disposal of the Maywood soil would provide the money needed to continue the development of the zirconium process. Thus, the health department's decision has a significant impact on future operations of the company.

While Cherry and Ziegler eagerly embrace disposal of the Maywood soil as a means to earn investment cash, they say they are not interested in becoming a disposal site for other kinds of waste. Yet, they relate recent and historical instances in which Cotter has processed and/or disposed of wastes from the nation's environmental Superfund sites.

Those who have studied the problem of radioactive waste know there is a limited number of places where nuclear and other wastes can be disposed. Cotter is one site that is already approved for disposal of some of these materials.

The health department decisions are overlaid with varying degrees of knowledge about years of controversy surrounding the Cotter plant, just south up a hill from Cañon City and the Arkansas River that runs through town. Consider, for example:

— At least some of the waste from the Manhattan Project, which produced the nation's first atomic bombs, was processed at the plant without the full knowledge of the community or plant workers. Material not reclaimed in the processing for uranium ended up in impoundments on the site. Some of it is still there.

— Radioactive waste was found in the dust of the attic of the Joe Dodge home, a Ponderosa-looking ranch house just south of town in Lincoln Park, a Superfund site. This is evidence that particulate from the plant, or perhaps from shipment of the Manhattan waste in open rail cars through Cañon City, was allowed to spread on the wind.

— A government-imposed cleanup of the Cotter mill site and Lincoln Park beginning in the 1980s allegedly resulted in water from the impoundments being pumped into abandoned coal mines that honeycomb the geology of the area. Ziegler denied the allegation. Company employees, however, told the court in sworn testimony that it had occurred.

— Cotter agreed to test water wells in the Superfund area. It still does, but those tests are not regularly audited by the state health department. Well owners complain that some "tests" were done even when the well was bone dry.

The state itself owned the Cotter site until shortly before the Superfund designation and before the state lawsuit against the company. Land ownership, coupled with regular licensing renewals, gave great weight to the Cotter argument at the time that the state shared in liability for soil and groundwater contamination.

Cotter officials question what past violations and errors have to do with today's issues. The operation is better run than in the past, they say, and stories about the past's problems exacerbate un-founded fears among the general public about radiation and uranium processing.

But Cotter and Cañon City are also at a crossroads. Increasingly, Cotter and its parent company, General Atomics, are advancing the idea of alternative feed materials. Instead of processing uranium ore, the mill would process and/or dispose of material cast off by nuclear industries around the country. Cotter is licensed to take in so-called 11e(2) material, which is defined as the by-products of uranium and thorium milling processes. Those byproducts may be tainted with other hazardous materials.

At one time, processing of such wastes might have been restricted at mills such as Cotter's. However, gradual loosening of the restrictions — in the face of burgeoning stockpiles of wastes around the country — make it possible for such material to be placed at installations such as Cotter.

The state of Utah called such processing "sham processing" in a case it filed before an administrative law judge.

Utah contended that deals to process waste material were lucrative not because of reclaimable materials such as uranium, but because of the amount of money offered to dispose of the leftovers. Utah lost its case. The federal government determined its role extended only to regulating the radioactive content of materials, not whether a company's business practices had economic merit.

For Cañon City, the stakes are high. On one hand, a significant employer's economic future is at risk. On the other, health and safety issues come to the fore. Now being debated by the community at large is whether it is willing to accept a new business operation at Cotter that could include disposal of wastes that others don't want.

Beginning today, the Daily Record will publish a series of reports gleaned from the review of thousands of public documents, from dozens of interviews and from the analysis of multiple studies.

Included will be information about Cañon City's connection to the Manhattan Project, information contained in federal and state court files from lawsuits involving Cotter, a look at health department oversight of the mill operation, a review of the current state of affairs of the uranium industry and what is known — and not known — about the health impacts of living downstream of Cotter Corporation.

By B.J. Plasket
Daily Record News Group

CANON CITY — When the United States dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, the 20th century's most closely guarded secret was out.

With the fate of the world on the line, total secrecy surrounded the development of the bombs that would end World War II and launch the Nuclear Age.

But, 57 years after a uranium-based bomb destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb leveled the port city of Nagasaki, the nuclear waste generated in making the bombs remains a source of both mystery and controversy.

That mystery came to Colorado in 1968, when open railroad cars were used to transport the Manhattan Project residue to Cotter Corporation's Canon City mill. Cotter then extracted uranium and metals from what has been called the most radioactive material ever mined from the earth.

And, while southern Colorado residents debate Cotter's plan to store and process contaminated soil, the Manhattan Project still casts a shadow over a company that has been the center of controversy and the target of several lawsuits over the past 30 years.

Cotter, in fact, doesn't even use the word Manhattan when speaking of the materials.

"We have it on our books as the Colorado Raffinates and the Congo Raffinates," Cotter Executive Vice President Rich Ziegler said. "We purchased it as the St. Louis Airport Cakes in the late 1960s."

Regardless of what the material is called, about 11,000 tons of it remains unprocessed at the Cotter mill, some was processed and the tailings deposited in the mill's impoundments, and the rest continued to create controversy until it was finally processed at a Utah facility in the past few years.

Even the amount of the Manhattan Project waste is a matter of debate. The late Lynn Boughton, who for years was the chief chemist at the mill, claimed about 100,000 tons of the material was shipped to Canon City. Ziegler said that figure is "way high," but added he doesn't know the exact tonnage of the material.

The material, purchased by Cotter as the St. Louis Airport Cakes, was apparently composed of two different batches. The Congo Raffinates, according to Ziegler, later became known as Cotter Concentrate after being processed to remove uranium and several metals.

The other part of the Manhattan Project waste, the Colorado Raffinates, weighed about 12,000 tons when it arrived at Cotter. According to Ziegler, most of it is still at the mill.

"It's proven very hard to break-out," he said in reference to the milling process that breaks down the material and extracts components. "We have an idea we might get it to break down using a heating process, but I'm not planning on doing that in the near future."

A look at the history of the material explains why critics of Cotter - including some scientists - believe much of the radioactive material in the Manhattan waste was not extracted during processing —allegedly releasing some of the world's most radioactive material into the waste stream and the air.

While Adolph Hitler's conquering hordes were just beginning their march across Europe in the late 1930s, the American government became concerned Germany — with which the country would soon go to war — was developing a nuclear-fission bomb. Albert Einstein, perhaps the most famous physicist in history and an escapee from Nazi Germany, was enlisted to help the U.S. develop the bomb before Hitler's scientists had the chance.

In 1939 Einstein wrote a now-famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt in which he said the element uranium "could be turned into a new and important source of energy," and that newly discovered nuclear chain reactions could lead to the development of "extremely powerful bombs." Germany's newly acquired access to high-grade uranium in recently conquered Czechoslovakia also concerned him.

"I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium ore from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over," he wrote, adding that the son of Germany's Undersecretary of State was working at a Berlin lab where German scientists were duplicating the atomic research going on in both France and the U.S.

Expressing a sense of urgency, Einstein told FDR, "The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of uranium is in the Belgian Congo." Einstein encouraged Roosevelt to establish "permanent contact" with American physicists working on nuclear reactions.

Roosevelt took Einstein's advice about both the bomb and the uranium ore. The super-secret Manhattan District was formed to research and develop the bomb, and within a year a cargo ship laden with Belgian Congo ore pulled into New York Harbor.

Much of the processing of the ore was conducted at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. plant on Latty Avenue in downtown St. Louis, Mo. After the war, the waste was moved to a storage area near Lambert Field, the St. Louis airport, and became known as the St. Louis Airport Cakes. Although the material was shipped to Canon City in the late 1960s, pollution from the waste was left behind. Both the Mallinckrodt plant and the airport-area storage site are still listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of the country's most polluted sites - the so-called Superfund List.

So is the material's next home - the Cotter mill and the surrounding Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Mound Laboratories, which among other things produces nuclear fuel, has had a longtime fascination with the Manhattan waste and the "Cotter Concentrate" it produced. In the early 1960s Mound, which was anxious to find a source of the radioactive metal thorium-230 and which first approached federal officials about obtaining the material in 1960, found it at Cotter.

Prior to his death in 2001, Boughton said he had no idea what the material was until a Mound representative came to Canon City to obtain samples for testing. Boughton maintained that his bosses never ordered that the material be assayed for thorium and other isotopes, didn't have the equipment to perform such tests, and never tried to remove the thorium - allowing it to end up as waste in the now-closed original tailings impoundments at Cotter.

Ziegler scoffed at the idea, saying, "We assayed it for everything," adding that the milling process removed about 95 percent of the radioactive material contained in it. Boughton said the thorium was neither detected nor removed, and was passed along to the old tailings impoundments. The contents of those early impoundments, which the company admitted were designed to leak, was moved to new impoundments in an environmental clean up in the 1980s.

A study conducted by Mound and published in 1966 took the same position Boughton would take years later.

"The uranium recovery processes tend to reject thorium," it said, "and thus the ionium (thorium-230) and natural thorium end up in the waste stream."

According to the federal government, the Cotter concentrate is also one of only four materials known to contain plutonium-244 — an extremely rare form of naturally occurring plutonium. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says plutonium-244 "has been detected in extremely small amounts as a naturally occurring constituent of some minerals and ores."

It lists the Belgian Congo product as one of those places, but Cotter has always maintained there has never been any plutonium at the mill. Jake Jacobi, who heads the radiation division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said Cotter has never reported having plutonium on site.

"Plutonium-244 can be manufactured," he said. "That, of course, is not licensed for possession at the mill."

Jacobi also said the health department can do nothing about possible traces of "naturally occurring" plutonium at Cotter.

"If any discrete atoms of Pu-244 ever existed in ores that Cotter ran, those discrete atoms are part of natural background, would not be regulated, would not be detected." Jacobi said state officials have little information about the Manhattan Project waste and have never tested the entire content of the old tailings ponds.

Mound Labs, however, kept close tabs on the material for years.

In the late 1970s the federal government bought what was left of the Cotter Concentrate portion of the Manhattan waste, but in partnership with Mound apparently had little success extracting radioactive ionium (thorium-230) and protactinium at a Mound lab in Miamisburg, Ohio.

A paper written in 1998 by three Department of Energy scientists said the government "discontinued extraction operations when it was determined to be infeasible." The material was transferred to the Nevada Test Site in 1994 and stored as "strategic material," the paper said.

It was declared to be "waste" in 1995, and the DOE planned to dispose of it permanently at the Nevada site. But in 1996, the department allowed 400 tons of Cotter Concentrate to be taken to the White Mesa uranium mill in Blanding, Utah, for processing. That move angered environmentalists and some Native American groups, who called on Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to fire the head of the state's radiation-controls division for approving the transfer of the material from Nevada. Leavitt declined and the processing went on.

During testimony before Congress in 1998, a representative of the International Uranium Corporation — the owners of the Utah mill — said the last 400 tons of Manhattan material was processed in 1997 and 1998. Earl L. Hoellen told a Senate Committee the mill extracted 60,000 pounds of uranium from the material.

"The Cotter Concentrate has now been completely processed and tailings from that processing disposed of at the (Blanding) mill," he said.

By Jackie Hutchins
Daily Record News Group

It started with outcry about Love Canal, a 15-acre chemical landfill in Niagara Falls, N.Y., that came to public attention in 1978, and the Valley of the Drums in Brooks, Ky., where the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979 began investigating the contamination of 23 acres by the dumping of 1,500 drums of chemical waste that had begun to leak.

In 1980, spurred by public concern about hazardous-waste pollution after those sites and others came to attention, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to identify such sites, clean them first and collect fines later.

The EPA was given a list of 120 "National Priority Sites," an allocation of $1.6 billion and five years to do the work.

It wasn't nearly enough.

After the legislation expired in September 1985, Congress replaced it with the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and provided $9 billion more.

Today there are more than 1,200 sites on the National Priorities List - Lincoln Park in Cañon City and Maywood in Bergen County, N.J., are among them.

The EPA uses several sources to discover possible Superfund sites. Reports from citizens can trigger an investigation, as can an explosion or fire. Routine investigations and reports also can lead to an inquiry.

A Hazard Ranking System looks at how likely it is the site has or could release hazardous waste, the amount of toxicity of the waste, nearby people or environments that could be affected, and how the pollutant could be carried from the site in groundwater, surface water, soil or air.

If a site's scores warrant, the EPA can propose placing it on the National Priorities List.

Nearly 40,000 sites have been proposed for Superfund consideration. Among them, 37,357 have had a preliminary assessment, 18,129 a site inspection and, as of Aug. 7, there were 1,220 on the National Priorities List with another 49 sites proposed for listing.

After a site has been listed, the EPA investigates the extent of the site contamination, studies possible cleanup remedies, decides which remedy to use (referred to as a Record of Decision), then plans and carries out the remedy.

Funds for cleanup of Superfund sites can come from the parties responsible for the contamination or from the Superfund Trust Fund, a fund set up to collect money, primarily from taxes on chemical and petroleum companies, for cleanup.

Final cleanup can be a long process. When no further action is needed at a site on the National Priorities List, it can be removed from the list.

As of Aug. 7, just 259 sites had been delisted.

Lincoln Park

Superfund site

There are 16 active sites in Colorado on the Superfund National Priorities List.

The Lincoln Park site in Cañon City — the area adjacent to Cotter Corporation's uranium processing mill, was added to the National Priorities List on Sept. 21, 1984. Areas of concern included uranium and its decay products, molybdenum, selenium and other metals. According to the EPA, both groundwater and soils in the area were found to have more uranium and molybdenum than expected.

Cotter began operating the uranium mill in 1958, and between 1958 and 1978 discharged liquid and solid wastes into 11 unlined ponds. The ponds were replaced in 1982 with two lined ponds.

Cotter and the state of Colorado reached a settlement in 1988 that made Cotter responsible for cleanup of the site.

According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the company has paid to hook up residences in Lincoln Park to the Cañon City water supply. The company also installed an interceptor system to contain contaminated groundwater on site and a system below the Sand Creek dam to treat any contaminated water there. It also cleaned up several railroad loading areas around Cañon City to remove uranium ore and other spilled materials, the CDPHE reported.

The EPA issued a Record of Decision in January 2002 that said all necessary work to deal with contaminated soils in the Superfund site had been done. The EPA has not yet issued a final decision on whether enough work has been done to address groundwater concerns.

The groundwater concerns need to be resolved before the site can be removed from the National Priorities List.

Maywood Superfund site

New Jersey has more active Superfund sites (111) than any state in the United States.

The site known as Maywood Chemical Co. in Bergen County was listed Sept. 1, 1983, a year before the Lincoln Park site at Cañon City.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Maywood company processed radioactive thorium ore from 1916 until the late 1950s. Tailings from the processing work contained low-level radioactive materials. Processing wastes were pumped into diked areas west of the plant.

Gamma radiation and radon, which come from the decay of the thorium, are considered the largest contributors to health risk for the people who work at the Maywood site, according to a plan for dealing with the soils, recently released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Currently the soil is fenced and guarded and the material is covered to reduce exposure.

Radon mitigation has also been a concern at contaminated buildings, according to the report.

According to the 2001 annual environmental monitoring report for the site, other substances detected included radium-226, radium-228, iron, manganese, arsenic and aluminum in surface water, and radium-226, radium-228, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead, nickel and tetrachloroethene in on-site wells. Most were detected in amounts lower than state and federal standards allow.

According to the EPA, the soil contaminated by the chemical company operations spread beyond the company's property to contaminate residential neighborhoods in the area decades ago. A state highway was built through the disposal area in 1932, spreading the soil. Some of the waste material was excavated and used as fill dirt or mulch in the nearby communities of Maywood and Lodi. Other material went into a stream channel.

In 1959, Stepan Chemical Co. bought the Maywood company and many of its operations were discontinued, including work with thorium. Stepan began working to clean up the company site in the 1960s.

But in 1980, an area resident discovered radiological contamination on property formerly owned by Stepan, prompting testing between 1980 and 1983 by the state of New Jersey, the EPA and the Department of Energy, which found radioactive contamination in excess of state and federal guidelines at several sites.

Between 1984 and 1986, the Department of Energy removed about 35,000 cubic yards of soil and debris from the former location of the diked disposal areas and from residential properties in Maywood, Lodi and Rochelle Park. The material was stockpiled on 11.7 acres of land formerly owned by Stepan, located adjacent to the 18.2 acres the Stepan Co. currently owns. The storage area, now owned by the federal government, is known as the Maywood Interim Storage Site. The soil at the storage site, including soil yet to be excavated from the site, is what Cotter wants to bring to Cañon City.

Maywood residents have been pressing since at least 1986 to stop storage of contaminated soil at the interim storage site and to have the material removed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, through the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, is in charge of the cleanup effort.

According to the "Proposed Plan for Soils and Buildings at the FUSRAP Maywood Superfund Site," released in August, an estimated 281,288 cubic yards of material remains to be removed at the Maywood storage site.

Estimated cost to excavate and remove the material is $254 million.

Allen Roos, FUSRAP project manager, said the soil to be removed from the interim site contains thorium, radium and uranium, all of which naturally occur in the monazite soils that the Maywood company formerly processed for thorium.

Though the amount of material to be removed is estimated at fewer than 300,000 cubic yards, the Army Corps of Engineers has asked to contract with Cotter to accept as much as 470,000 tons of soil from the Maywood site.

Depending on soil weight, which can vary, according to the Colorado State University Soil and Crop Sciences Department, 470,000 tons would amount to between 348,148 and 447,619 cubic yards.

The actual amount of material to be removed at the Maywood storage site may be less, Roos said, but a high figure was used in case more material than expected must be removed. "A contract of that nature is not one you want to come up short."

To put the amount of material in perspective, the minimum amount of material that might be removed, 281,288 cubic yards, would cover a NFL football field and its end zones to a depth of 132 feet. At the maximum possible under the contract, 447,619 cubic yards, the field would be covered to a depth of 213 feet, or the equivalent of a 21-story building.

Roos said excavation work is going on at the Maywood Interim Storage Site and material previously excavated has been sent to Envirocare, a licensed disposal facility in Utah used for storage of contaminated soils, with which the Army Corps of Engineers has a contract.

Roos said the remaining material could be shipped to either Cotter or Envirocare. If the state of Colorado determines it is OK for Cotter to accept the soil, the Army Corps of Engineers will send it there, he said.

1953 - Prospectors find uranium in Fremont County, 35 miles northwest of Cañon City.

July 1954 - U.S. House of Representatives approves bill to facilitate uranium mining on public lands in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.

1955 - Cañon City Chamber of Commerce sends a mineral survey to mining corporations to lure business to the area.

1956 - Cotter Corp. founded in Roswell, N.M. The company moves a survey branch to Cañon City.

May 1957 - Cotter signs a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission for a uranium pilot mill south of Cañon City.

February 1958 - Cotter notifies the Atomic Energy Commission it will build a pilot mill, with an initial capacity to process 50 tons of ore per day.

July 1958 - Construction completed in 63 days. The mill has a 72-ton capacity and employs 35.

Aug. 14, 1958 - After processing 1,400 pounds of uranium oxide, or yellow cake, from 500 tons of ore, Cotter sends its first shipment to the AEC in Grand Junction.

September 1958 - Cotter's reaches full production capacity of 72 tons of ore per day, but pushes the AEC for a 200-ton-per-day plant.

Nov. 7, 1958 - The Cotter mill is formally dedicated.

August 1959 - After negotiations with the city, a new water line is installed to the mill, meaning Cotter no longer has to haul in 50,000 gallons of water a day by tanker.

November 1959 - Construction begins on Cotter's $1.25 million expansion to 200 tons per day.

March 1960 - The AEC and Cotter sign a contract for a full-scale, 200-ton uranium mill.

1964 - The AEC opens the uranium market up to private enterprise.

January 1965 - Cotter lays off 138 workers.

February 1965 - Cotter and two other uranium firms file suit against the AEC for not allowing them to continue fulfilling government contracts for another two years through a federal "stretch-out" program. Cotter claims the AEC permitted it to operate at no more than 72 percent capacity, while other mills ran at 110 percent. The plaintiffs lose their case and Cotter is forced to close.

May 1966 - Cotter plans to reopen after negotiating to supply uranium to several users. Also, the company buys the Schwartzwalder mine near Golden as a direct source of ore for its mill.

1967-1968 - The mill adds a 100-ton-per-day acid leach circuit.

1968 - Colorado becomes an "agreement state," and assumes responsibility for regulating nuclear facilities from the AEC.

1968-1971 - Cotter receives up to 110,000 tons of tailings containing radioactive residue from the Manhattan Project. The material is shipped to the mill in open rail cars.

January 1970 - Cañon City Councilman Robert Benson accuses Cotter of "serious air pollution."

Jan. 13, 1970 - Residents establish a community Anti-Pollution Committee.

Jan. 19, 1970 - Cañon City added to a list of Colorado cities that will be examined to make sure uranium tailings haven't been used as fill for houses.

1971-1973 - Cotter builds two lined tailings ponds covering more than 13 acres. Also, the mill begins extracting molybdenum.

May 1974 - Electric giant Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago buys Cotter. The plant has 81 people on its payroll.

April 1978 - The Colorado Department of Health discovers elevated levels of uranium and possibly toxic chemicals that are associated with milling in nearby aquifers.

June 1978 - Cotter's workforce numbers 148, second only to the state prisons as an economic force in Cañon City. The mill is capable of processing 400 tons of ore a day.

April 1979 - State health officials ignore EPA recommendations and renew Cotter's operating license. Residents near Cotter and Lincoln Park had asked for a two-year delay in the decision to allow the county to vote on the matter.

1979 - Cotter completes its new mill and begins transferring the contents of its old, unlined tailings ponds into new, clay- and rubber-lined impoundments.

May 1979 - The state permits Cotter to use its new facility, but will continue to monitor groundwater contamination.

January 1980 - Federal Mine Health and Safety Administration cites Cotter for vanadium poisoning but does not take any punitive measures.

September 1980 - Colorado Bureau of Investigations issues a report blasting Cotter's safety record, but the company won't be prosecuted because of a statute-of-limitations expiration.

November 1980 - Cañon City Citizens Committee for a Healthy Environment meets for the first time.

1980-1983 - After a resident discovers radioactivity on property in Maywood, N.J., the state, DOE and EPA conduct tests that confirm contamination in excess of state and federal guidelines.

September 1983 - The EPA designates the Maywood Chemical Co. and surrounding residential areas in Bergen County, N.J., as a Superfund site.

October 1983 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services releases a health assessment of Lincoln Park saying 36 wells exceeded limits for certain chemicals.

December 1983 - The Colorado Attorney General files a $50 million lawsuit against Cotter, accusing the company of contaminating natural resources.

September 1984 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designates the Lincoln Park area as a Superfund site.

February 1985 - Monitoring wells are drilled in Lincoln Park to detect groundwater contamination levels.

April 1986 - Negotiations delay the State vs. Cotter trial.

October 1986 - State health officials announce that groundwater in Lincoln Park is contaminated 12 to 17 times beyond safe drinking limits. A Remedial Action Plan calls for Cotter to pay $11 million in fines instead of the $50 million sought.

December 1987 - Cotter agrees to an out-of-court settlement in the state lawsuit.

April 1988 - Court approves Cotter clean-up plan.

August 1989 - Lincoln Park residents file a $550 million civil suit against Cotter, asking for $300 million in actual damages and $200 million in punitive damages. The suit also names the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and seeks $50 million in damages for radioactive spills at two loading sites in and south of Cañon City.

December 1990 - Judge Zita Weinshienk denies class-action status for the suit from Lincoln Park residents.

1994 - The $550 million case is settled. Five plaintiffs receive a judgment in their favor. A few others settle out of court and the settlements are sealed.

July 1998 - State health officials begin a review of Cotter's application to renew its radioactive materials license.

December 1999 - Cotter outlines a new plan to stop leakage of contaminated water under a flood-control dam.

February 2000 - City Council announces that it doesn't want the contaminated waste from the Shattuck Superfund site in Denver.

February 2000 - La Jolla, Calif.-based General Atomics buys Cotter from the Commonwealth Edison Co.

August 2000 - Cotter submits a bid to accept radioactive thorium tailings from a Maywood, N.J., Superfund site.

Dec. 31, 2000 - Cotter files with state health department for renewal of its operating license.

July 2001 - Cañon City Chamber of Commerce names Cotter as its business of the year.

2001 - Dodge case decided against Cotter, and $16 million plus interest is awarded. Cotter appeals.

February 2002 - Cotter officials announces they will receive 270,000 tons [Error - should be 470,000 tons] of Maywood waste.

April 2002 - The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment cites Cotter with 16 violations of its license.

April 2002 - Gov. Bill Owens signs an emergency bill into law that requires an environmental assessment and state health department review before out-of-state radioactive waste can be shipped into Colorado.

May 2002 - Cotter lays off 45 employees, nearly 40 percent of its workforce.

July 9, 2002 - State health department suspends Cotter from accepting any more shipments of ore until violations are addressed.

Compiled by John Lemons
Daily Record News Group

The nuclear industry uses a language all its own. Some of it will be familiar from high school chemistry classes, but other acronyms and definitions are like a foreign language to people who do not work in the industry. Here are some of the terms and phrases readers might find in the series of stories that will be published in the coming week.

ALARA

As Low As Reasonably Achievable, or keeping radiation emissions and exposures to levels set as far below regulatory limits as is reasonably possible in order to protect public health and the environment.

Alpha radiation

The most energetic but least penetrating form of radiation. It can be stopped by a sheet of paper and cannot penetrate human skin. However, if an alpha-emitting isotope is inhaled or ingested, it will cause highly concentrated local damage.

Aquifer

A permeable body of rock capable of yielding quantities of groundwater to wells and springs.

AR

Administrative Record, a required, comprehensive file of documents that forms the basis of decisions made regarding cleanup.

ARARs

Applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements, a comprehensive set of laws and regulations that are relevant to guide the selection of cleanup activity at a particular site.

Atom

The smallest particle of an element having the chemical properties of that element; the fundamental building block of matter.

Background radiation

The natural radioactivity in the environment. Natural radiation consists of cosmic rays, filtered through the atmosphere from outer space, and radiation from the naturally radioactive elements in the earth (primarily uranium, thorium, radium and potassium). Also known as natural radiation.

Beta radiation

High-energy electrons (beta particles) emitted from certain radioactive material. Can pass through 1 to 2 centimeters of water or human flesh and can be shielded by a thin sheet of aluminum. Beta particles are more deeply penetrating than alpha particles but, because of their smaller size, cause less localized damage.

Biological effects

The early or delayed results of biological damages caused by nuclear radiation (alpha, beta, gamma).

BRA

Baseline risk assessment, the study and estimation of risk from taking no activity. Involves estimates of probability and consequence.

Carcinogen

A cancer-causing agent.

CERCLA

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (also known as Superfund), the federal law that guides cleanup of hazardous waste sites. Not all FUSRAP sites are Superfund sites.

Characterization

Facility or site sampling, monitoring and analysis of activities to determine the extent and nature of a release. Characterization provides the basis for acquiring the necessary technical information to develop, screen, analyze and select appropriate cleanup techniques.

Cleanup

The general term for environmental restoration, the process designed to ensure that risks to the environment and to human health and safety from waste sites either are eliminated or reduced to prescribed, safe levels.

Closure plan

Documentation prepared to guide the deactivation, stabilization and surveillance of a waste-management unit or facility under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Comment period

Time provided for the public to review and comment formally on a proposed action or decision.

Contamination

The presence of foreign materials, chemicals or radioactive substances in the environment (soil, sediment, water or air) in significant concentrations.

Cubic meters

A unit equal to the volume of a cube measuring one meter in each dimension.

Cubic yards

A unit equal to the volume of a cube measuring one yard in each dimension.

Curie

A unit of radioactivity that represents the amount of radioactivity associated with one gram of radium. To say that a sample of radioactive material exhibits one curie of radioactivity means that the element is emitting radiation at the rate of 3.7 million times a second. A smoke detector contains 10 microcuries of radiation, or 10 millionths of a Curie. Named after Marie Curie, an early nuclear scientist.

Daughter product

An element formed by the radioactive decay of another element; often daughter products are radioactive themselves. Radon is a daughter product of thorium.

Decay

The process whereby radioactive particles undergo a change from one form, or isotope, to another, releasing radioactive particles and/or energy.

Decontamination

The removal of unwanted material (typically radioactive material) from facilities, soils or equipment by washing, chemical action, mechanical cleansing or other techniques.

Defense wastes

Radioactive wastes resulting from weapons research and development, the operation of naval reactors, the production of weapons materials, the reprocessing of defense spent fuel, and the decommissioning of nuclear-powered ships and submarines.

Dioxin

One of the most hazardous of all chemicals; can cause both acute and long-term effects ranging from chloracne, a skin disease, to cancer, reproductive failures, and reduced resistance to infectious disease.

Disposal

Waste emplacement designed to ensure isolation of waste from the biosphere, with no intention of retrieval for the foreseeable future.

Dose

Quantity of radiation or energy absorbed; measured in rads.

Dose equivalent

A term used to express the amount of effective radiation received by an individual. A dose equivalent considers the type of radiation, the amount of body exposed and the risk of exposure. Measured in rems.

Dosimeter

An instrument that measures exposure to radiation.

EA

A written environmental analysis that is prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act to determine whether a federal action would significantly affect the environment and thus require preparation of a more detailed environmental impact statement.

EE/CA

Engineering evaluation and cost analysis, which is a CERCLA document, prepared to address interim cleanup activities.

Effluent

A waste discharged as a liquid.

EIS

Environmental impact statement, required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Electron

An elementary particle with a unit negative charge and a mass 1/1837 that of the proton. Electrons surround the positively charged nucleus and determine the chemical properties of the atom.

Element

Any of the 109 substances that cannot be broken down further without changing its chemical properties. Singly or in combination, the elements constitute all matter.

Environmental restoration

The process of environmental cleanup designed to ensure that risks to the environment and to human health and safety from waste sites either are eliminated or reduced to prescribed, safe levels.

Erosion control

Methods to control land surface features to prevent erosion by surface water or precipitation runoff.

Exposure

A measurement of the displacement of electrons from atoms caused by X-rays or by gamma radiation. Acute exposure generally refers to a high level of exposure of short duration; chronic exposure is lower-level exposure of long duration.

Final disposition

Methods for permanent disposal of waste or contaminated soils after excavation/treatment.

Fission

The splitting of a heavy nucleus into two or more radioactive nuclei, accompanied by the emission of gamma rays, neutrons and a significant amount of energy. Fission usually is initiated by the heavy nucleus absorbing a neutron, but it also can occur spontaneously.

FS

Feasibility study, the Superfund study following a remedial investigation, which identifies, develops, evaluates and selects remedial action alternatives.

FUSRAP

Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, which was created in 1974 to study sites used during World War II through the 1950s as part of the nation's atomic energy program. These early sites were decontaminated under guidelines in effect during that period. Using today's more-stringent environmental laws and better technology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will restore these environmentally damaged sites.

Gamma rays

Penetrating electromagnetic waves or rays emitted from nuclei during radioactive decay, similar to X-rays. Dense materials such as concrete and lead are used to provide shielding against gamma radiation.

Geohydrologic

Pertaining to groundwater and its movements through the geologic environment.

Geohydrology

The science dealing with underground water, often referred to as hydrogeology.

Groundwater

Water beneath the earth's surface that fills pores between materials such as sand, soil or gravel. Groundwater is a major source of water for agricultural and industrial purposes and is an important source of drinking water for about half of all Americans.

Half-life

The time required for a radioactive substance to lose 50 percent of its radioactivity by decay. The half-life of the radioisotope plutonium-239, for example, is about 24,000 years. Starting with a pound of plutonium-239, in 24,000 years there will be one-half pound of plutonium-239, in another 24,000 years there will be one-fourth pound, and so on. (A pound of material remains, but it gradually becomes a stable element.)

Hazardous waste

A solid or liquid waste or combination of solid and liquid wastes that, because of quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious, irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness or pose a substantial hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed or otherwise managed. About 290 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated in the United States each year.

Heavy metals

Metals that have a dense molecular structure. Examples include mercury, lead, silver, gold and uranium.

HEPA Filter

High-efficiency particulate air filter.

High-level radioactive wastes

Highly radioactive material, containing fission products, traces of uranium and plutonium, and other transuranic elements, that results from chemical reprocessing of spent fuel. Originally produced in liquid form, high-level waste must be solidified before disposal.

Holding ponds

An impoundment made by excavation or earth fill for temporary storage of liquid wastes.

Impoundment liner

A continuos layer of natural or man-made materials, beneath or on the sides of a surface impoundment, which restricts the downward or lateral escape of by-product material, hazardous constituents, or leachate.

IR

Information Repository, where information relating to the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program may be found.

Ion

Atomic particle, atom or chemical radical bearing an electric charge, either negative or positive.

Ionization

Removal of electrons from an atom, for example, by means of radiation, so that the atom becomes charged.

Ionizing radiation

Radiation that has enough energy to remove electrons from substances it passes through, forming ions.

Isotopes

Atoms of the same element that have equal numbers of protons, but different numbers of neutrons. Isotopes of an element have the same atomic number but different atomic mass. For example, uranium-238 and uranium-235.

Leachate

The solution formed when soluble components have been removed from a material.

Leaching

To remove a soluble substance from a material by dissolving it in a liquid, and then removing the liquid from what is left. Liquids also can leach into soils and aquifers.

LLW

Low-level waste, discarded radioactive material such as rags, construction rubble, glass, etc. that is only slightly or moderately contaminated. This waste usually is disposed of by land burial.

MCL

Maximum concentration limit, the regulatory limit for various constituents, usually organics and inorganics; there are different levels for different media, such as air, soil, and water. The MCL cannot be exceeded.

Millirem

A unit of radiation dosage equal to one-thousandth of a rem. A member of the public can safely receive up to 500 millirems per year, according to federal standards, but the U.S. EPA ordinarily limits public exposure to 25 to 100 mrem/year.

Mixed waste

Contains both radioactive and hazardous components.

Mobility

The ability of radionuclides to move through food chains in the environment.

Molybdenum

A silver-white metallic element used as an alloy with iron in making hard, high-speed cutting tools. It is not a heavy metal.

Monitoring well

A hole drilled into the ground with a pipe inserted to allow for the collection of groundwater samples.

Natural radiation

Radiation that is always present in the environment from such sources as cosmic rays and radioactive materials in rocks and soils. Also known as background radiation.

NCP

National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan.

NEPA

National Environmental Policy Act, which requires a study of the impacts of activities at federal facilities.

Neutron

A particle that appears in the nucleus of all atoms except hydrogen. Neutrons are one of three basic particles that make up the atom. Neutrons have no electrical charge.

NOA

Notice of availability, published when a document on some aspect of cleanup is issued. Documents are available in the administrative record and information repositories.

NPDES

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

NPL

National Priorities List, the list of the nation's worst Superfund sites.

NRC

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

NTS

Nevada Test Site, a repository for radioactive wastes.

Nuclear radiation

Ionizing radiation originating in the nuclei of atoms; alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.

Nucleus

The central part of an atom that contains protons, neutrons and other particles.

PCB

Polychlorinated biphenyl, a synthetic, organic chemical once widely used in electrical equipment, specialized hydraulic systems, heat transfer systems, and other industrial products. Highly toxic and a potent carcinogen. Any hazardous wastes that contain more than 50 parts per million of PCBs are subject to regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Picocuries

Measurement of radioactivity. A picocurie is one million millionth, or a trillionth, of a curie, and represents about 2.2 radioactive particle disintegrations per minute.

Plume

A defined area of groundwater containing contamination that originates from a particular source such as a waste unit.

Plutonium

An artificially produced element that is fissile and radioactive. It is created when an atom of uranium-238 captures a slow neutron in its nucleus.

PP

Proposed plan, a CERCLA document that summarizes what cleanup remedy has been selected, and why. The public is permitted to comment about the PP.

RA

Risk assessment, the study and estimation of risk from a current or proposed activity. Involves estimates of the probability and consequence of an action.

Rad

Radiation absorbed dose, a measurement of ionizing radiation absorbed by any material. A rad measures the absorption of a specific amount of work (100 ergs) in a gram of matter. The rad measures the amount of energy deposited in a material. It is not a measure of biological effect of that energy, but together with other factors is used to calculate the biological effect in units of rem.

Radiation

Fast particles and electromagnetic waves emitted from the nucleus of an atom during radioactive disintegration.

Radioactive

Giving off, or capable of giving off, radiant energy in the form of particles (alpha or beta radiation) or rays (gamma radiation) by the spontaneous disintegration of the nuclei of atoms. Radioisotopes of elements lose particles and energy through the process of radioactive decay. Elements may decay into different atoms or a different state of the same atom.

Radioactive waste

A solid, liquid or gaseous material of negligible economic value that contains radionuclides in excess of threshold quantities except for radioactive material form post-weapons-test activities.

Radioisotope

An unstable isotope of an element that eventually will undergo radioactive decay or disintegration. Radioisotopes with special properties are produced routinely for use in medical treatment and diagnosis, industrial tracers, and for general research.

Radionuclide

A radioactive species of an atom.

Radium

One of four primary radionuclides in FUSRAP wastes. They include radium-226, radon-222, thorium-230, uranium-234, uranium-235 and uranium-238.

Radon

A radioactive gas produced by the decay of one of the daughters of radium. Radon is hazardous in unventilated areas because it can build up to high concentrations and, if inhaled for long periods of time, may cause lung cancer.

RCRA

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the federal environmental law designed to account for and ensure proper management of hazardous wastes, from creation to disposition.

Reclamation

The act of processing of reclaiming. A restoration as to productivity, usefulness.

Rem

Roentgen equivalent man, a unit used in radiation protection to measure the amount of damage to human tissue from a dose of ionizing radiation. Incorporates the health risks from radiation. One rem is roughly the average dose received in three years of exposure to background radiation. A typical x-ray is equivalent to 0.03 rem and a mammogram is about 0.3 rem.

Remedial action

Long-term cleanup activities.

Remedial design

A phase of remedial action that follows the remedial investigation/feasibility study and includes development of engineering drawings and specifications for a site cleanup.

Remediation

Those activities performed to remove or treat hazardous waste sites or to relieve their effects.

Removal action

Interim cleanup activities that are identified as needed to protect public health and the environment.

RI

Remedial investigation, the CERCLA process of determining the extent of hazardous substance contamination and, as appropriate, conducting treatability investigations.

RI/FS

Two distinct, but related studies, the remedial investigation and feasibility study. Together, they characterize environmental problems and outline remedial actions to solve those problems.

Risk communication

The exchange of information about health or environmental risks between risk assessors, risk managers, the general public, news media, interest groups, etc.

Risk management

The process of evaluating alternative regulatory and non-regulatory responses to risk and selecting among them. The selection process necessarily requires the consideration of legal, economic and social factors.

ROD

Record of decision, a written decision that identifies the selected method for long-term cleanup of contamination at a site.

SARA

Super-fund Amendments and Reauthorization Act

Sludge

A semi-solid residue from any of a number of air or water treatment processes. Sludge can be a hazardous waste.

Slurry

A watery mixture of insoluble matter that results from some pollution control techniques.

Solidification

The conversion of either liquid or loose hazardous waste into a solid.

Solubility

A measure of how much of a given substance will dissolve in a liquid. Usually measured in weight per unit volume.

Somatic effects

Effects of radiation limited to the exposed individual, as distinguished from genetic effects, which also affect subsequent, unexposed generations.

Stable isotope

An isotope of an element that is not radioactive.

Surface impoundment

A natural topographic depression, man-made excavation, or dike area, which is designed to hold an accumulation of liquid wastes or wastes containing free liquids and which is not an injection well.

Superfund

The program operated under the legislative authority of CERCLA and SARA that funds and carries out the EPA solid waste emergency and long-term removal remedial activities.

Tailings

Uranium mill tailings are the residual wastes of milled ore that remains after the uranium has been removed. The tailings are generated during the extraction of the uranium from the ore as it is fed to the mill. Uranium mill tailings are primarily the sandy process waste material from a conventional mill.

Thorium

A naturally occurring radioactive element and one of four primary radionuclides in FUSRAP wastes. They include radium-226, radon-222, uranium-234, uranium-235 and uranium-238. It is used in lantern mantles, in the production of ceramics and in alloys, among other uses.

Threshold dose

The minimum dose of radiation that will produce a detectable effect.

Toxic

Relating to a harmful effect by a poisonous substance on the human body by physical contact, ingestion or inhalation.

Transuranic wastes

Waste materials contaminated with isotopes above uranium in the periodic table. Transuranic waste is long-lived, but only moderately radioactive.

Treatment

Any activity that alters the chemical or physical nature of a waste to reduce its toxicity or prepare it for disposal.

Uranium

The heaviest element found in nature. Approximately 997 out of every 1,000 uranium atoms are uranium-238. The remaining 3 atoms are the fissile uranium-235. The uranium-235 atom splits into lighter elements when its nucleus is struck by a neutron. One of four primary radionuclides in FUSRAP wastes, including radium-226, radon-222 and thorium-230.

Uranium oxide

The generic name for a group of uranium compounds that includes uranium dioxide (U02), uranium trioxide (U03), and uranas-uranium oxide (U308), and uranium peroxide (U04.2H20).

USACE

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency managing cleanup of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program.

Vitrification

A method of immobilizing waste that produces a glass-like solid that permanently captures the radioactive materials.

VOCs

Volatile organic compounds, chemicals that contain carbon and commonly also contain hydrogen, oxygen and other elements. The prefix "volatile" means that the compound evaporates rapidly. Most industrial solvents are volatile. Found in some liquid and air waste releases.

Waste minimization

Employing new techniques to reduce the amount of hazardous and radioactive wastes generated to as low a level as possible.

WIPP

Waste Isolation Pilot Project, a planned disposal facility in New Mexico for transuranic and other radioactive waste.

X-rays

Electromagnetic radiations used in medical diagnosis; a penetrating electromagnetic radiation, usually generated by accelerating atoms to high velocity and suddenly stopping them by collision with a solid body.

Yellowcake

Ammonium diuranate (NH4)2 U207, a uranium concentrate with a characteristic yellow color. Yellowcake is the product of the uranium extraction (milling) process: early production methods resulted in a bright yellow compound, hence, the name yellowcake.

Sources: Glossary of Environmental Restoration Terms and Acronym List (EPAIOPA-87-017, August 1988)