A Few Reassurances But No Changed Minds

TELLURIDE — Energy Fuels Inc. contemplated seven sites in Colorado and Utah before selecting an 880-acre parcel in Paradox Valley where it is proposing to build the nation’s first uranium mill in nearly 30 years, but among many logistical factors it also considered the likelihood of gaining community support for the project.

As a result the company avoided San Miguel County, where it anticipated that opposition to the project would run high, and settled eventually on the present Montrose County location.

“We didn’t really want to fight that battle and heck, it’s already here,” said the Toronto-based company’s chief operating officer, Stephen Antony, who spoke about vocal mill opposition to a small group assembled along a dusty, sagebrush expanse beside Highway 90 in Nucla early last Saturday morning for a tour of the company’s proposed Piñon Ridge mill site.

“Montrose County is miner-friendly,” he said.

The company considered the proposed mill’s proximity to uranium mines, the availability of a local workforce, its remoteness, and the operation’s potential to have a positive economic impact on the local community, according to Antony, who told the group that Energy Fuels has already invested close to $9 million in the project, including $1.5 million in land acquisition costs.

Opponents fiercely reject that final point saying it will have the exact opposite effect.

The company has stated that the mill will create up to 85 new jobs averaging $40,000 to $75,000 a year plus benefits, and 80 percent of which would come from the local population, support 200 mining and trucking jobs at nearby mines and generate tax revenues for public services and infrastructure if realized.

The mill would stand adjacent to an open pit uranium mine owned by the Cotter Corporation (an affiliate of General Atomics, whose chief executive officer is former Telluride Valley Floor owner Neal Blue) and in a historic mining district containing hundreds of uranium mines.

“We felt this was as close to brownfields as you could get,” said Antony.

“There’s never been a mine or mill on our 880 acres, but there sure have been ones close by,” he continued, underscoring his belief that a uranium mill is an appropriate use for the land.

Marie Moore, of the anti-mill Paradox Valley Sustainability Association who did not attend the tour, disagreed on the basis that the land is zoned for agricultural use.

“It’s highly inappropriate for [Energy Fuels] to put such a heavy industrial use there,” she said in a telephone interview.

The purpose of the site tour was to clear up misunderstandings about the project and help allay misgivings or concerns some in the community might have. To that end Antony and later safety director Jess Fulbright described the various data collection methods that are already being employed onsite to measure factors including air quality, radioactivity, and ground and surface water.

“[The monitoring] establishes baseline,” Antony said. “It means that you have something to compare to if you degrade the site.”

Although Antony came to the meeting prepared with a bullhorn and handouts for 75, only 17 members of the public turned out, most, but not all, in full support the mill.

“We have our reservations, but we believe it will bring some much needed jobs,” said Fritz Stever and Deb Stueber of Nucla, who are also not convinced that renewable solar and wind power are sufficient to meet all the country’s energy needs by themselves.

Kerry and Julie Smith of Montrose arrived at the meeting in a blue Toyota Prius. They said that while they have been generally supportive of the mill all along, the tour had helped to reassure them.

Although rumors suggested that anti-mill protestors planned to picket the tour, they did not.

“I had told them all to forget about it; I think it would just be rude,” said Moore, who explained her position that it is proper to protest at events such as public hearings, but to do so at the mine tour would have been inappropriate.

Bryce Wolfe, a computer engineer from Ophir, and Mary Brooke Sunderland, of Telluride, appeared to be the only opponents to the mill who did attend.

“I’m still not convinced” that all the safety measures will be sufficient, said Bryce. “There are no absolutes and no guarantees, the best you can do is mitigate.”

“I do appreciate the extra effort they have put in,” said Sunderland who attended the tour despite knowing it would not change her opposition to the mill.

“I don’t want to be some adversary who talks at the meeting but never comes to listen,” she said.