Colorful Colorado Takes on a Green Hue

Few issues galvanize people like fear, especially fear for one’s health and safety. So it stands to reason that lawmakers act more quickly and maybe more deliberately when it comes to solving those matters.

Three Northern Colorado lawmakers intend to sponsor two bills in the Colorado General Assembly that will likely make it harder for a subsidiary of a Canadian company to mine for uranium in the region.

State Reps. Randy Fischer and John Kefalas, both Fort Collins Democrats, are sponsoring two bills that will be carried in the Senate by State Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins.

The proposals are in response to Powertech Uranium Corp.’s Centennial Project, north of Nunn and between that town and Wellington. The area in question is about 13 miles northeast of Fort Collins. Many Northern Colorado landowners are fighting the mine, citing concerns about their health and the area’s groundwater.

Powertech estimates that 9.7 million pounds of uranium lie beneath a 15-mile chunk of Northern Colorado, on 5,760 acres of land to which Powertech has purchased mineral rights.

Powertech is not certain what process will be used to extract the uranium. The company’s project manager, Lane Douglas, has said it would most likely be in-situ recovery, although some form of open-pit mining is also possible.

In-situ recovery or in-situ leaching would use water from the aquifer underground to mobilize the uranium. But that process could also extract other heavy and potentially toxic metals, which is one reason residents are concerned about their water. Douglas said Powertech will figure out a way to protect the water.

Fischer said he and the other lawmakers hope to toughen state laws, which he admitted would make it difficult for Powertech to move forward.

State mining regulations are mum when it comes to uranium, which wasn’t a hot commodity when the mining laws were first crafted long ago. What’s more, in-situ leaching of uranium is a unique type of mineral extraction, and is not mentioned in the state’s Mined Land Reclamation Act, which deals with post-mining reclamation.

“The existing act is just silent on any of the potential hazards involved with that kind of mine,” Fischer said. “The first bill will try to adjust those standards, and make sure our groundwater resources and public health are adequately protected.”

One of the Johnson-Fischer-Kefalas bills would bring uranium mining issues more clearly under the purview of state regulators.

“Our bill would say that under the mining act, (mining companies) need to restore the groundwater to its pre-mining condition, which would be a significant challenge for people to do,” Fischer said. “So I think only serious proposals would go forward with those kind of standards in place.”

Fischer wouldn’t say whether the legislation was an intentional deterrent to Powertech’s aims, but he said he and other lawmakers want strong protections in place against anyone trying to extract anything from Northern Colorado ground.

“The folks at Powertech keep telling us that mining operations will be basically benign, that it won’t have any impact at all on groundwater. And perhaps if that’s true ... I would think that they might look favorably on our legislation and support it,” he said.

Johnson said he’s heard of groundwater contamination in other parts of the country after certain types of mining, and that’s enough to be concerned.

“If there is any risk to contaminating our groundwater, with uranium or other contaminated elements, then they should not be able to mine,” he said. “It’s the job of the regulators to hold them to their word, and not give them a permit unless we’re sure they can do it safely. And if they can do it safely, good for them. I don’t have anything against their company; I just don’t want to see an environmental disaster.”

Colorado is not immune to new mining techniques causing environmental disasters.

The Summitville Mine in Rio Grande County, in southwestern Colorado, became a Superfund site after a different Canadian-based company declared bankruptcy in 1992, leaving behind cyanide-laden water, acid drainage and other hazards. The disaster happened after a new technique for mining gold, which had been done at Summitville since 1870.

The process was called “heap-leach,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Ore excavated from the mountain was crushed and piled onto a lined pad, and then a sodium cyanide solution was poured over it to leach out the gold and silver. Almost immediately after its construction, a leak was discovered, and the company filed for bankruptcy.

Johnson said he doesn’t want another Summitville north of Fort Collins.

“(Powertech) is going to say, ‘What we’re doing is safe and we can do it.’ And that’s all well and good, but it’s the state government’s responsibility to make them prove it,” he said. “It’s easy to say those things ... In Summitville, I’m sure they came in and told the state, ‘We can do this.’”

Part of preventing a mining disaster hinges on knowing what’s going on in the mine. Another measure by the Fort Collins lawmakers would make it easier to do that.

As it is now, mining companies have complete confidentiality in prospecting operations. Fischer said Colorado is the only Western mining state that has such procedures. The lawmakers’ bill would make prospecting and exploration activities a matter of public record, so residents will be able to access information about what mining companies are doing.

“It wouldn’t require them to divulge any proprietary information, or trade secrets or anything like that. But it does give the community the right to know what they are planning in their communities,” he said. “I think that will be of real value to a lot of communities, not just the uranium mining communities in Northern Colorado and Weld County.”

Fischer said he hears more about uranium than any other issue, and that locally, it looms as large as health care reform, transportation and other major-ticket issues.

Johnson said it makes sense for lawmakers like himself, Fischer and Kefalas to hear about it.

“They are looking to the state government to protect them, and that is one of our jobs,” he said.

<b> Other Issues </b>

Lawmakers will consider a host of environmentally-focused measures in the next session, building upon the bipartisan green that colored the Capitol last year.

Gov. Bill Ritter said he hopes to build on the success Northern Colorado has had in renewable energy, noting Vestas Wind Systems’ decision to build its first American turbine plant in Windsor.

“I think you’ll see other kinds of movement around that, in terms of economic development from our push for renewable energy,” Ritter said. “We’ll be able to claim economic development progress where the vertical part of renewable energy is concerned.”

Other measures will deal with carbon dioxide emissions, in concert with a comprehensive Climate Action Plan Ritter announced this fall. One likely measure, sponsored by a Boulder Democrat, will attempt to bring Colorado’s vehicle emissions standards in line with the tough measures passed in California. Another bill, by a Loveland Republican, seeks to make it easier to obtain permits for clean-energy plants.

Here is a sampling of environmental bills to be carried by local lawmakers:

• Fischer is carrying a bill that he hopes will remove some of the legal obstacles for those wishing to sign long-term leases of water rights to the state’s stream flow program.

The program buys or accepts donations of water from farmers or other users who have more water than they need. The Colorado Water Conservation Board uses that excess water to maintain proper flow levels in streams and rivers.

The Cache la Poudre goes completely dry at certain times of summer, Fischer noted.

“That is the worst water quality there is, no water,” he said. “It has major impacts on the ecology of streams and rivers.”

His bill would sweeten the deal for water users who have been reluctant to enter into long-term leases of their water, Fischer said.

• Fischer is carrying a measure that would make some changes to the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, a Colorado State University program. First off, the bill would shorten the program’s name to just the Colorado Water Institute.

The institute’s mission would also be modified to do more research on the impact of climate change on water in Colorado. Fischer wants more research to dovetail with Gov. Bill Ritter’s Climate Action Plan, which will study possible water shortages due to smaller snowpack from warmer winters.

“The intent there is to make the institute really the central clearing house for water research, information and data, kind of an archive of data for the state,” Fischer said. “We will have the institute and the board craft a water research agenda that will be more in line with what Colorado’s research needs are.”

• Johnson is carrying a bill to create another state license plate—this one for people with a green conscience who buy energy-efficient appliances.

• Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, is carrying a bill to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a permit for a clean-energy power plant.

• An omnibus bill by state Reps. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, and Al White, R-Hayden, would address mountain pine beetles, which are ravaging the lodgepole forests of central Colorado. The measure would establish a pine beetle mitigation fund to remove infested trees from state forests, and it would be funded from donations received when hunting and fishing licenses are sold. It would also create incentives for companies to use the wood and waive the state portion of sales tax revenue derived from the sale of that wood.

In Larimer County, that could help Steve Rundquist, whose Bellvue-based company, Brewster Timber Frame Co., uses squared timbers from the beetle-killed trees to do timber framing. Rundquist is one example of what Republicans hope could be a market-based method for dealing with the beetle-killed trees, which present major wildfire hazards.

Many more pine beetles have survived the mountain winters that normally would kill them, but have seen warmer temperatures that some are blaming on human-caused climate change.

So other lawmakers are carrying bills they hope will address that cause, including one by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, that would require vehicles to have stricter emissions controls.