Cotter Corporation NSL Cañon City, Colorado

To the editor:

The uranium industry had recent comments regarding HB-1348, the Uranium Processing Accountability Act, requiring contamination clean-up before applying to continue operations, in addition to other requirements.

Lobbyists for the Colorado Mining Association argued “if you can’t accept new material for processing, you can’t produce the revenue stream you need to clean up the old site.” This statement is blatantly misleading. Colorado uranium industry produced revenue streams for the past 50 years.

They never used or allocated sufficient revenues for clean-up. This is why taxpayers have spent one billion dollars cleaning up uranium industry contamination, while the industry simply took every profit dollar they could.

As Cotter representatives stated publicly, they are “in business to make a profit“. Responsible corporate citizenship and care for the environment have never been a priority in their culture. Make no mistake, every dollar spent on contamination clean-up is a lost dollar of profit.

Cotter stated HB-1348 is a “legislative fix to a technical problem and generally those things don’t work out well.” There are no technical problems that cannot be solved, given priority and sufficient resources. The Fernald, Ohio uranium mill had off-site ground water contamination similar to Lincoln Park. Resources were invested there to use technology-based solutions.

Contamination plumes were significantly reduced due to technology, and in a reasonably short amount of time. Cotter’s plan for Lincoln Park is to “monitor,” hoping that contamination diminishes “naturally” over several more decades, timeframe being of no concern.

Cotter’s minimal cost approach further demonstrates this industry’s corporate culture and profit motive. This is precisely why legislation IS absolutely required.

Please urge your elected State Representatives and Senators to vote in favor of HB-1348.

Corporate culture can be controlled by law, even if it can’t be changed.

Paul Carestia,

Lincoln Park