Denver Post supports passage of HB-1161
Bill will "ensure that the water supplies vital to agriculture and municipal use aren't sacrificed in a new mining boom"
Posted March 22, 2008
The Denver Post editorial board has endorsed the amended version of House Bill 1161, due for consideration by the full House on Monday. HB-1161 passed the House Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources Committee on an 11-2 vote, and the House Appropriations Committee voted 10-2 to approve the bill. Both the Fort Collins Coloradoan and the Greeley Tribune have come out in favor of HB-1161. The bill has also been endorsed by the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. It is opposed by Powertech Uranium Corp. and the Colorado Mining Association.
My page on HB-1161 and HB-1165 can be found here, and includes the current full text of both bills and related news stories.
editorial
New, improved uranium mining
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 03/20/2008 08:49:45 PM MDT
The Colorado House of Representatives is scheduled to consider a bill Monday to protect the state's vital water resources in the face of a renewed boom in uranium mining.
The Post supports House Bill 1161 in its current form. We had reservations about the bill as introduced, but it has been substantially improved by its sponsors, Fort Collins Reps. Randy Fischer and John Kefalas, after repeated meetings with mining industry representatives, local officials and environmental groups.
Colorado has been through a uranium mining boom before, in the 1950s and '60s. Colorado uranium helped build atomic bombs as the U.S. and Soviet Union competed in a frantic arms race and also helped fuel the nuclear power plants that now produce 20 percent of U.S. electricity.
Demand for Colorado uranium later lessened as other sources began supplying nuclear power plants and arms limitation treaties capped nuclear arsenals. Since the Soviet Union dissolved, some of its former weapons have even been dismantled to produce fuel for reactors, reducing demand for newly mined fuel.
But mounting concerns over global climate change have spurred new interest worldwide in nuclear power. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized subsidies for up to six new reactors in the United States. Meanwhile, China, India and Japan are looking at nuclear to reduce their dependence on coal.
That surge in demand has sparked renewed interest in Colorado uranium, especially in a new "in-situ" process that promises to mine uranium more cheaply and with less environmental disturbance than the old open-pit mines.
The in-situ process essentially takes water out of the ore-bearing formations, enriches it with oxygen and baking soda, and re-injects it to dissolve the ore. The resulting slurry is pumped out and processed and the water is cleaned before being enriched again to renew the cycle. Slightly less water is re-injected than was withdrawn to encourage surrounding groundwater to migrate into the mine, reducing the risk that contaminated water will seep outward.
That sounds like a good plan. The trick is to be sure that the new mines are monitored to ensure they meet water standards. And that's where HB 1161 comes in.
"We now have adequate protections in place for the old open-pit mines in the Mined Land Reclamation Act," Fischer told The Post. "Now, it's important to provide adequate protection for ground water as we deal with this relatively new in-situ technology."
Fischer, an engineer, and Kefalas have worked diligently to craft a balanced bill that won't ban uranium mining in Colorado but will help ensure that the water supplies vital to agriculture and municipal use aren't sacrificed in a new mining boom. It deserves to become law.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_8643531