Lawsuit challenges DOE uranium leases in Colo. PDF Print E-mail
Written by COLLEEN LUCCIOLI, Land Letter   
Friday, 08 August 2008
Four conservation groups this week filed suit against the Department of Energy over its plan to expand uranium mining leases along the Dolores River Canyon in southwest Colorado.

"The Department of Energy must thoroughly consider all of the consequences of vastly expanding its uranium leasing and mining program in western Colorado," said Brian Farnsworth of the Colorado-based Information Network for Responsible Mining (INFORM). "The federal government cannot blindly stumble along with this proposal, which could permanently and irretrievably contaminate precious water, soil, and wildlife habitat."

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado by INFORM, the Colorado Environmental Coalition, the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Center for Biological Diversity, claims DOE and the Office of Legacy Management failed to fulfill National Environmental Policy Act requirements.

The lawsuit claims NEPA "mandates that the DOE/OLM adequately consider the environmental impacts of the federal uranium mining program involving the Uravan Mineral Belt before fully expanding the active program, before offering leases for as many as 38 individual uranium mining claims on federal land, and before stimulating a boom in uranium prospecting and mining in the unique canyons of western Colorado."

In July 2007, DOE issued a Uranium Leasing Program Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for 27,000 acres of DOE-managed land near the Dolores River, a tributary to the Colorado River, which is the primary water supply for about 25 million people in seven Western states.

The conservation groups are quick to point out that besides the water supply issues associated with the area, the Dolores and Colorado rivers support river otters, bald eagles, and four fish species protected under the Endangered Species Act: the Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, and humpback and bonytail chub. Increased uranium mining, these groups argue, will only hurt these species.

That is among the reasons the groups resorted to litigation when on July 10 of this year, DOE announced leases were being issued for uranium mining in southwest Colorado.

The 10-year leases, which the plaintiffs say could lead to approval of 38 uranium mines, are being issued "without conducting the mandatory lease-tier NEPA analysis," the lawsuit states.

"The Department of Energy shouldn't gamble with the future of Colorado communities, rivers, mountains and wildlife, by rushing to approve such a large number of new uranium mines -- certainly without requiring adequate protections to prevent pollution," said biologist Megan Mueller of the Center for Native Ecosystems.

Already, the area has experienced an increased interest in uranium mining even though the area has not fully recovered from contamination from past uranium development.

"This is the epicenter of the uranium mining boom in Colorado," said Megan Corrigan, a staff biologist for the Center for Native Ecosystems.

"We must avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and ensure that our water, our environment and our people are protected from uranium pollution," said Travis Stills, the attorney for the lawsuit and with the Energy Minerals Law Center. "It's deeply troubling that the federal government is spending our taxes planning new mining before contamination from past mining has been cleaned up."

The leases at issue in this lawsuit involve land withdrawn from management by the Bureau of Land Management over a half century ago and taken over by DOE for the purpose of nuclear production, according to Corrigan.

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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 August 2008 )
 

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