by Matt King, WCC Organizer

Aerial view of the San Miguel River and the Uravan tailings depository (lower left).
Photo courtesy of Ecoflight.org.

On July 27, members of WCC’s Uranium Committee hosted an aerial tour in the West End of Montrose County to highlight the economic development potential of federally funded reclamation of inactive uranium mines. After the flight, members discussed the issue with staffers from the offices of Colorado’s US Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner.

There are nearly 1,400 inactive uranium mines in the Uravan District of Montrose, Mesa and San Miguel Counties. This region is coping with a legacy of toxic waste, health effects and unemployment. We believe that a different future is possible for Western Colorado by putting people back to work cleaning up old mine sites and developing our potential as a renewable energy producer.

Dudley Case (Ridgway), Joan May (San Miguel County Commissioner), Katie Langford (Montrose Daily Press), Craig Pirazzi (Paradox Valley resident), and Karen Winkel (Montrose) participated in the uranium aerial tour.

Special thanks to EcoFlight for flying us and to INFORM for technical information and assistance.