Streamlined uranium review pitched

The uranium boom is continuing to spread through the Four Corners region. In response, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a “generic environmental impact statement” to expedite the review of uranium recovery operations in the region. The commission will host a public scoping session Sept. 27 in Gallup, N.M., to gauge public sentiment on the document.

The commission produced the document because it is expecting numerous applications for new uranium recovery operations in the next two to three years. The operations will include existing leach recovery facilities and conventional mills. Because there are obvious environmental issues common to both types of facilities, the commission decided to address the common issues “generically.” The hope is that the move will aid in a more efficient environmental review for each separate license application, if and when they are submitted.

Opponents are not buying this line of rhetoric, however. Rather than an attempt at “efficient” environmental review, they say the move is a shortcut and a way to exclude the public. Eric Jantz, staff attorney with New Mexico Environmental Law Center, told theDenver Post, “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is bending over backward to accommodate the uranium mining industry … The generic environmental impact statement will also dramatically reduce opportunities for public participation in the environmental analysis process and could virtually eliminate environmental justice.”

The Navajo Nation is particularly concerned about the recent move since it officially banned uranium mining and milling on its lands in 2005 and efforts are being made to circumvent that ban. George Hardeen, spokesman for the Navajo Nation, told thePost that the ban on uranium mining will bend for no one. “If a uranium company wants to mine on Navajo land and disregard Navajo law, they can expect some trouble,” he said. “The governors of all of the states surrounding the Navajo Nation, every congressman that President (Joe) Shirley has visited with, tell him that indeed, they will stand behind the Navajo Nation and its sovereignty.”

With uranium fetching as much as $138 a pound on the spot market this summer – well up from $43/pound a year ago – prospectors and mining companies are once again eyeing the desert of the Four Corners. Regional uranium mining got another big nudge in early July when the Department of Energy announced its new Uranium Leasing Program. The decision more than tripled the land available to uranium miners in Colorado’s San Miguel, Montrose and Mesa counties. More than 5,000 claims have already been filed on this acreage.

Residents can weigh in on the future of leach mining and milling next Thursday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission welcomes members of the public to comment on environmental issues related to land use, public and occupational health, waste management, water resources, air quality, historical resources and others. The meeting will be held that the Gallup Best Western Inn and Suites and begins at 6 p.m. on Sept. 27 with an open house. Comments can also be sent by e-mail to URLGeis@nrc.gov.

State Wilderness Act reintroduced

The push is on for more designated wilderness in Colorado. Congresswoman Diana DeGette reintroduced the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 last week, a move that is being applauded by conservationists all over the state.

The proposal would protect 62 separate areas and 1.65 million acres of Colorado’s public land as wilderness, and the push comes at a time when drilling and resource exploration are at new highs. For Southwest Colorado, the Wilderness Act would protect the Dolores River Canyon as well as high elevation tracts between Silverton and Lake City. Wilderness designation prohibits any mechanized tools or travel and is an attempt to preserve areas as untouched by the hand of humankind.

“The great purpose is to set aside a reasonable part of the vanishing wilderness, to make certain that generations of Americans yet unborn will know what it is to experience life on undeveloped, unoccupied land in the same form and character as the Creator fashioned it,” DeGette said.

Wilderness supporters applauded the reintroduction of the Colorado Wilderness Act. “The last wilderness area designated in Colorado was James Peak in 2002,” said Kurt Kunkle, of the Colorado Wilderness Coalition. “These sixty-two areas are begging to be protected from the bite of the bulldozer and drill rig.”

Kunkle added that the lower elevation lands in the proposal provide exceptional recreational opportunities when the Rocky Mountains are under snow as well as important wildlife habitat.

“With development of Colorado’s public lands moving forward at a break-neck pace, protecting these special places will ensure that some of Colorado remains wild for future generations,” said Steve Smith, of The Wilderness Society.

Smith also noted that recent polling found more than 70 percent support in Colorado for protecting additional wilderness.

Hantavirus cure may be on horizon

A cure may be on the horizon for hantavirus. The deadly disease has haunted the Four Corners region since 1993, when a newly recognized species of hantavirus was found locally and triggered several cases of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome.

Hantavirus may face a difficult future, however, based on recent findings by researchers. Though the disease is transmitted by deer mice droppings, the rodents themselves are immune to it. Tony Schountz, of the University of Northern Colorado, and Brian Hjelle, of the University of New Mexico, have discovered that the mice produce a protein that prevents a response to the virus. “It allows the virus to escape the immune response,” Tony Schountz, a microbiology professor, told theRocky Mountain News.

Hantavirus does not actually do any damage to the body. The disease is deadly because of the immune response. In a given case, white blood cells attack the virus, and plasma from the cells leaks into a victim’s lungs. Eventually, the disease results in heart failure.

Deer mice, on the other hand, handle the virus differently. The animal’s cells produce a protein that halts the inflammation.“It prevents them from getting the disease but does not restrict them from getting the infection,” Schountz told the News.

Six people have been infected by hantavirus in Colorado this year, and four of them died from the disease.

Reclamation effort celebrates 10 yrs.

Efforts to improve water quality in the Animas and cap leaching mines in Silverton have been under way for a decade. A two-day celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service Abandoned Mine Lands Program is scheduled for Sept. 26 & 27 in Silverton.

Started in the late 1990s, the Abandoned Mine Lands Program is a multi-agency effort funded by Congress to accomplish reclamation of abandoned mines and affected watersheds on public lands. The effort especially focuses on partnerships between federal and state agencies, local communities and organizations.

The agenda Wed., Sept. 26, includes discussions by federal and state agencies, the Animas River Stakeholders Group, and San Juan County Historical Society. Other topics covered that Wednesday include technical advances in mine reclamation, highlights of other similar programs and a tour of the Lackawanna Mill. An evening barbecue will follow. The following day, the agenda will focus on tours of reclaimed sites, including the Brooklyn Mine, May Day dump, Elk Tunnel, Gladstone, Eureka, Animas Forks, as well as the Lark, Joe and John, and Forest Queen mines.

The event is free to the first 100 people. For more information, or to register, call 903-1701 or e-mail morseali@yahoo.com.

– Will Sands