{"id":91763,"date":"2019-10-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-has-no-say-in-proposed-uranium-dump-site\/"},"modified":"2019-10-29T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T10:00:00","slug":"county-has-no-say-in-proposed-uranium-dump-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-has-no-say-in-proposed-uranium-dump-site\/","title":{"rendered":"County has no say in proposed uranium dump site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County cannot stop state health officials from constructing a uranium disposal site south of Durango, a point learned after further review this week. Residents have shown strong opposition to the project, fearing for health and safety.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It turns out La Plata County has no authority to stop the construction of a uranium disposal site near Bondad proposed by the state\u2019s health department.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released plans to create a temporary staging area where residents could bring uranium mill tailings on their property that were used years ago in construction.<\/p>\n

The proposed plan, however, met immediate backlash from some residents around Bondad who took issue with the state bringing radioactive waste to their neighborhood.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the La Plata County Planning Commission denied the state health department\u2019s project during what\u2019s called a \u201clocation and extent review.\u201d The review, however, does not hold any weight from stopping the project.<\/p>\n

County officials Thursday said the project would ultimately go before La Plata County commissioners. Upon further review Friday, it appears that is not the case.<\/p>\n

The state health department does not require a county permit to go ahead with building the disposal facility, said County Manager Chuck Stevens.<\/p>\n

Instead, the state health department can appeal the Planning Commission\u2019s denial to CDPHE\u2019s Board of Health. That board can then overrule the Planning Commission and proceed with the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statute is silent about the mechanics or timing of the appeal,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cIf the Board of Health overrules the Planning Commission\u2019s decision, they must notify the Planning Department within 14 business days of their decision to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state health department was noncommittal about future plans when contacted Friday and would not answer direct questions about whether it intends to proceed with the site at Bondad.<\/p>\n

Instead, Laura Dixon, spokeswoman for the state health department, provided a statement: \u201cAfter last night\u2019s meeting, and hearing the community\u2019s concerns, the department will work with our local partners to develop a path forward in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for a temporary staging area stems back to the mid-1900s, when people used to take uranium mill tailings from the smelter in Durango and use them for construction around town. About 100 properties were missed during a massive cleanup effort in the 1980s and still require cleanup, the state health department said.<\/p>\n

But state health officials aren\u2019t notifying people who potentially have radioactive waste on their property until they have an area for residents to take it. The plan would then be for the state health department to take large loads of the contaminated material to Grand Junction for permanent storage.<\/p>\n

Residents from around Bondad packed Thursday\u2019s meeting, saying transporting the waste to their neighborhood would create health and environmental concerns, negatively effect property values and be located just yards away from the Animas River and an irrigation ditch that serves New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s recently enacted \u201c1041 Regulations\u201d provide no help in this situation, either, Stevens said. The regulations are meant to provide the county an avenue to permit some types of development and activities that county codes otherwise do not regulate.<\/p>\n

\u201cA solid waste disposal site is one of the designated activities with 1041, but the definition of solid waste disposal site does not include sites for disposal of radioactive wastes,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cTailings are byproduct materials under the Radiation Control Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

department noncommittal on future plans amid opposition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1030,174,1745,668,1897],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environment","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-la-plata-county-officials","tag-public-health","tag-uranium"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91763"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}