CANON CITY, COLO. -- Jerri Fry's father, Lynn Boughton, died in 2001 from lymphoma cancer. On his death certificate it states the cause of death as "contaminate exposure" from the address of the Cotter uranium mill in Canon City.
Boughton had been a scientist recruited to come help establish the Cotter uranium mill in Fremont County in the late 1950s. He was also the initial whistleblower to contaminates being let off site.
Boughton always wanted to see clean-up happen at the mill and Fry hopes a new bi-partisan bill will finally accomplish that.
The bill, which will be introduced to the legislature in the next month, with attempt to hold Cotter and any other uranium mill in the state to stricter standards of accountability.
Clean Bill of Health
Cotter has been cleaning up for the past forty years, but haven't cleaned up some of the largest problems residents are worried about. The new bill, if passed, would force Cotter to clean up all of its leaks and contamination before they are allowed to even apply to reopen or expand their mill.
"Essentially they have to prove they have a clean bill of health. That way they can't let the contamination keep spreading and blame the source of problem on previous spills or leaks," explained one advocate for the bill.
Contamination Notification
Sharyn Cunningham's son is only thirty years old. Already he's had his gal bladder removed and has thyroid disease. Cunningham has it too and her husband has had cancer.
Cunningham lives only a mile from the uranium mill and blames the slew of her family's health problems on contaminated well water she and her family drank unknowingly for eight years.
There is no law in Colorado that requires residents to be told about possible ground water contamination before they buy property. However, this new bill would require they are and require an annual letter to be sent to well owners altering them of possible ground water pollution. "If we had gotten a letter within a year of purchasing our property we never would have used that toxic well," said Cunningham.
Taxpayers Off the Hook
Over the last nine years Cotter has been cited with 99 violations. Ongoing issues which include expanding groundwater pollution, unaddressed radon emissions at tailing ponds (the second leading contributor of lung cancer worldwide) and on-site spills and contamination.
Cotter did not respond to several calls from FOX21 Tuesday morning to give a response. But the issues at Cotter are not unique to just their mill. In Colorado taxpayers have spent more than $1 billion dollars cleaning up past uranium milling operations according to the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S EPA documents.
This new legislation wants to make sure taxpayers are no longer the ones left on the hook for cleaning up toxic messes if a uranium facility goes belly up.
Lastly the bill would also require operators to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of "alternate feed" such as radioactive, toxic waste from other industrial or medical operations with recoverable minerals.
Why Now?
Environment Colorado and CCAT with support from the nonprofit law firms Western Mining Action Project and Energy Minerals Law Center brought forward the legislative idea to Rep. Buffie McFadyen in response to Cotter's announcement last year of plans to reopen in 2014 and the proposal by Energy Fuels for a uranium facility in Montrose County.
More than thirty organizations and businesses in Fremont County and more than fifty organizations and businesses across the state have endorsed the legislation.
McFayden (D-Pueblo West), Sen. Ken Kester (R-Las Animas) and Sen. Bob Bacon (D-Fort Collins) are sponsoring the state legislation expected to be introduced in the House in the next month.
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