MONTROSE – For the first time in almost 30 years in the United States, a proposed uranium mill received county approval Monday.

Despite a protest rally and fervent opposition by farmers and environmentalists, the Montrose County Board of County Commissioners on Monday approved a special use permit for a uranium mill in Paradox Valley.

The proposed Pinõn Ridge mill has been a subject of controversy for months, with people both for and against the mill carrying signs and fervently pleading their case.

Back in July, the Montrose County Planning Commission recommended that the county approve the mill.

Organic farmers in the valley have said the mill would put them out of business while others say the mill is needed because the county’s West End needs jobs. Emotional appeals from both sides, both pro and con, were made at multiple public meetings.

The meeting Monday, which lasted a little more than an hour, was not open for public comment, and the vote to approve was unanimous.

According to Montrose County Land Use Director Steve White, this meeting of the county commissioners was civil compared to prior public hearings on the mill.

“Everyone was very respectful, there were no comments and no one yelled out,” he said. “I think that’s the way it should be and it says a lot for people on both sides. They didn’t let their emotions overrun and interfere with the meeting,” White said.

One woman, however, reportedly put her head in her hands and cried after the vote.

The next step for Energy Fuels Inc., the company that wants to build the mill, is acquiring a state permit, White said, which in Colorado, meets or exceeds standards for the federal permit, he said.

“The federal permit is the state permit,” said White.

According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Colorado is among 37 “agreement states” to which NRC transfers authority to regulate and license radioisotope byproduct materials, source materials including uranium and certain nuclear materials. Agreement states came about after the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

That’s part of the problem, said Sarah Field, program director for Utah-based Uranium Watch. Field was recently quoted in the Moab Times as saying the state didn’t do a very good job overseeing the long-closed Cotter Mill, now a Superfund site, where new contamination was recently discovered.

“So no, I don’t think the state of Colorado has shown that it has an adequate program,” she said.

But Energy Fuels CEO George Glasier has stated that times have changed, technology has advanced tremendously and today’s mills are safe.

Fields and other environmentalists have their doubts. The Environmental Protection Agency only recently completed its Superfund cleanup of clean up of the region’s last uranium mill in the area, located in Uravan. That 20-year project cost $120 million and involved the removal of 13 million cubic yards of contaminants and treatment of 380 million gallons of liquid.

According to White, the state permitting process of the Pinõn Ridge Mill will take at least a year and will include several assessments, including environmental impact.

As part of the county permitted process, Energy Fuels had to put up $50,000, which will be used by the county for an independent expert review of those assessments, he said.

“Once the state permitting is done, they come back to the county and start getting building permits,” White said.

Seventy-five to 100 people showed up at Monday’s meeting, a smaller crowd than expected, said Commissioner David White.

Despite its initial nod of approval, the county still “has a way out,” said White. Money put up by Energy Fuels will be used by the county to verify both the state and the applicant’s information.

“We will get our own experts to verify information, to visit the site, to make sure they are putting test wells where they’re supposed to and have the proper meteorological equipment in place,” he said. “It’s not a free rein for them to do whatever they want to do.”

But White also praised the economic possibilities of the mill, which will produce processed, or yellowcake, uranium and vanadium. He said there is a market now for uranium because “the U.S. imports 92 percent of its uranium from Australia and Russia.”

White sees an expanding market for vanadium because in Australia a new vanadium battery is being developed that can recharge in 20 minutes. Most batteries are lithium-based, he said, which is far more expensive than vanadium.

The mill will be the best facility ever built to process uranium ore, White said, and the county’s decision was a land use issue, not an environmental one.

“I think it’s specious at best to say that the mill, which will be the most environmentally correct facility ever built to process uranium ore, would create more particulates than what’s already there naturally occurring,” Commissioner White said.

Many strongly disagree, and more than 20 environmental groups have voiced disapproval of the mill, including the Sierra Club, Western Colorado Congress, Sheep Mountain Alliance, and the Ridgway Ouray Community Council.

The Paradox Valley Sustainability Association, a nonprofit group of local citizens, claims the following will occur if the mill is built: contamination of air, soil and water; permanent tailings disposal pits will remain radioactive for thousands of years; the stigma of a uranium mill will negatively affect agriculture and ranching, and lower property values; and having a uranium mill in the middle of an agricultural valley will change the nature of the entire area forever, affecting wildlife, agribusiness, tourism, property values, and remain a threat for thousands of years.

Another opponent of the mill, attorney Travis Stills of Energy Minerals Law Center in Durango, criticized the Montrose commissioners, noting that three of the 19 conditions they put on the mill were added at the last minute, and that at the meeting there was “no deliberation, just prepared speeches.”

He said the fact that it took Energy Fuels 14 months to get past the county level means they could have trouble getting permits from the state and feds.

Stills also said the county approval was no surprise.

“It’s likely this has been a done deal since the March 2008 meeting between the commissioners and Energy Fuels,” he said.

Stills said the West End planning advisory commission was “stacked with mill proponents” even though many area residents opposed the mill.