Uranium Mill Proposed For Small Colorado Town in Paradox Valley Reopens Old Wounds

"We're all willing to go back into that hole and work until we die, just so we can be employed."

We found this in a comment section from the Colorado Independent from someone who had attended the meetings for the proposed mill:

WOULD YOU PLEAD TO IMPORT PEOPLE COMPETING WITH YOU FOR A POSSIBLE JOB ?

I am not sure what is REALLY going on in the West End, besides many opponents of the project being threatened with bodily and property harm...what about this:

My heart went to the West End population DESPERATELY pleading for jobs. What am to think though as I heard during a Montrose hearings "Please give us the mill - we want to IMPORT another 300 people so we can again say that 1,000 people live here - as it says on our sign when entering the town of Nucla..."

I attended most of the Montrose County and CDPHE hearings. It was very interesting to witness how one minute the Energy Fuels environmental director assured the public that they now have 'leakproof uranium tailings liners' and then witness that same person say "of course those liners LEAK..THEY ALL LEAK.."...and the Montrose county officials just nodding and smiling NOT ASKING a SINGLE QUESTION about those discrepancies...The person who asked those questions was waved to SIT DOWN and shut her mouth.

Local residents from Paradox Valley Bedrock are the only REAL insiders. The crowd from Nucla and Naturita DO NOT LIVE where the huge toxic uranium processing factory would be seated - in a beautiful valley ZONED AGRICULTURAL.

Montrose County Commissioners knew darn well that the Colorado Department of Health and Environment has the power to overrule their decision to process only new ore, no reprocessing of so called 'alternative fuels'...they said to assure of adherence to that rule dictated their awarding a "special permit" to process uranium in agricultural zone.

Phill Egidi of CDHPE assured me after the last Montrose County hearing that commissioners have the power to uphold that decision, yet his boss Steve Tarlton said to me personally after another hearing that the commissioner DO NOT have that power...It is CUSTOMARY for uranium 'mill' operators to import 'alternative fuels'.

Who is one to trust to look after the health of the public ? Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is not conducting an EIS (Environmental Impact Study) as you could perhaps naively expect - given their name ...on their web site they boast that since this would not be a 'federal project' basically public health is irrelevant...Free for all on private lands ? 

We hear voices how our energy needs gravely need that Uranium...

Laughable! The Canadian Energy Fuels Corporation stated publicly during hearings that the Pinon Ridge Uranium is NOT intended for the US markets ...

What ? Various individuals kept begging the commissioners and the CDPHE to allow us to have this source of uranium...Unfortunately these individuals were out of touch with reality ...EF representative publicly confirmed that uranium would go "to the highest bidder"

Even to China ? ''Yes even to China."

There is one hell of fight going on in Colorado and we are reminded of a question raised by the filmmakers of the Perry County, Alabama coal ash documentary:
"What happens to a community when it has to rely on a toxic entity for its only means of economic survival?"

We watch Alabama being torn up for coal to support the China dragon and now Colorado is reopening the book on Uranium mining to further fuel that country's insatiable appetite for industrial fuels. China suffers because of this, we suffer because of this, but who is really winning in this dirty game? Big business, as usual. 


We're not completely against nuclear energy per say, but how the material is gathered to produce it has us greatly concerned with the bad history in Colorado because of the refusal of government to strictly enforce regulations and compliance on these toxic mining industries. They are already signaling their willingness to be lax by not even performing an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) which is surprising given the history of uranium mining in Colorado before.


That did not go well. But they claim it will this time because "we have learned from our past mistakes and there are many more safeguards in place now." Well, that's good and some of that claim is true, but we're not buying into it. We've heard that too many times before in communities all across America to have faith in assurances from big business and state environmental agencies to "do the right thing" and police themselves.


Following environmental regulations are not profitable to these companies, they thwart major issues by tying it up in court for prolonged amounts of time which allows them to continue to operate and delay "judgment." Furthermore, when they are caught in "run of the mill" violations, the fine is minuscule and therefore no real deterrents exist. They know the game and take full advantage of the weakness of the system.


It's the age old problem that seems to have no clear answers and is only made worse by the powerful influence of lobbyists representing these entities, corruptible local officials, state representatives who rely on the free flowing campaign contributions, and the wink and a nod manner that still exists when handing out the cash to just "look the other way."

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