PAY DIRT

July 1996

Cotter reopening Canon City uranium mill as price rises

From The Associated Press

A Canon City uranium processing mill that was once a Superfund site and the target of a $5OO million lawsuit will reopen because of rising uranium prices.

Before it closed in 1987, the Cotter Corp. plant produced yellowcake, refined uranium that was shipped elsewhere for processing into fuel pellets for nuclear power plants.

Production will begin again within the next 18 months, after a $1.5 million refurbishing to improve processing and waste handling.

Company officials said if the mill gets approval from the Colorado Department of Health to resume operation, it will boost employment from 37 to about 80, and rise the payroll contributions in the area from $1 million to about $2 million.

"The uranium market has had a considerable comeback since 1995. It's up to $16.50 a pound, so the price has more than doubled," said Rich Ziegler, executive vice president of the Lakewood-based Cotter.

After the mill closed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made it a Superfund site. Then, 532 residents of the nearly Lincoln Park neighborhood sued Cotter, claiming that radioactive wastes seeped from holding ponds and into the groundwater.

Residents also claimed that uranium dust blew over the area. Some area residents said they developed cancer and other health problems from the exposure to the dust.

Five plaintiffs were awarded $220,722 in a 1994 trial.

Ziegler said the old plant complied with waste-management regulations, but new systems will provide far tighter controls.

"We have worked out a lot of methods to instill environmental quality in the plant to make it a much safer and more economical process," he said.

New recycling systems will reduce volumes of liquid waste in the ponds, he said. Barriers and monitoring wells are being installed to prevent runoff and flow of wastes into underground or surface water.

Cotter has doubled its work force to 39 and will probably double that when production begins.

Ziegler said the company expects to produce about 1.5 million to 1.7 million pounds of yellowcake over three to four years, or possibly more if the uranium prices keep rising.

Canon City Mayor Ruth Carter said she has not heard protests about the mill's reopening.