April 25, 2014 04:33 PM UTC

Is Cotter the toddler ever going to clean up?

• 3 Comments
• by: ConservationColorado

A basic lesson we all learn early on in life is that if we make a mess, we need to clean it up. It's a common courtesy thing – we take responsibility and clean up after ourselves so that our neighbors don't have to.

But the Cotter Corporation is throwing a big tantrum while refusing to clean up their mess in Cañon City. One of Colorado's biggest messes has been going on for over 30 years. Residents in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Cañon City have been exposed to contaminated wells for over 30 years. An entire generation has grown up in Cañon City surrounded by uranium pollution and now their children are growing up in it too. Ranchers have struggled. Businesses have shuttered. And Cotter doesn't care.

How would you feel if that was your water? 

The Uranium Processing Groundwater Protection Act or SB 192, which would finally get crybaby Cotter to clean up its mess and protect Coloradans from future messes, is a smart bill. It's also long overdue. Residents are depending on this bill to get their town and livelihoods back. They're tired of their backyard being a notorious Superfund site. That's why the Act has 111 local, diverse businesses and organizations in support.

Senator Grantham (R- Cañon City) has heard their stories – from the local monastery that depends on well water, to the ranchers who rely on clean streams, to the residents of the Lincoln Park neighborhood who have dealt with contamination since the – all deserve their water to be clean and protected. They have the right to use their water without worrying about radioactive contamination.

Yet, Senator Grantham still voted against his own constituents. Party politics and special interests apparently deserve more protections than his neighbors.

The Act would also safeguard Colorado citizens by regulating a new water intensive technique of extracting and processing uranium, which has never been tested or used in a commercial setting in the U.S. The bill will ensure that the same licensing process required for other uranium processing and radioactive waste disposal projects should also be required for these new technologies and also bring Colorado into compliance with federal requirements.

Unfortunately, if SB 192 doesn't pass before the end of the session, it may be too late to protect Coloradans and the residents of the Lincoln Park neighborhood from future contamination and force Cotter to clean up their mess as they try to work a backdoor clean up deal. That's just not right.

Cotter can throw a tantrum all they want, but in the end Coloradans deserve to be able to use the wells on their land for irrigation and the water rights they are entitled.