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Colorado III III III IIIIIII III 4210 East Eleventh Avenue <br />Department of Health Denver, Colorado 80220 <br />ass <br />_~ ~ ~~ <br />(for immediate release) <br />September 17, 1982 <br />DENVER--The Colorado Department of Health will hold an informational meeting on <br />a draft radioactive materials license for Cotter Corporation's Schaartzwalder Mine <br />northwest of Golden Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 1:30 p.m. and continued at 7:30 p.m. in <br />Room 150 of the Health Dept., 4210 E. 11th Ave., Denver. <br />Al Hazle, director of the Radiation Control Division, and his staff will explain <br />the license process and will take comments and answer citizens' qu~:stions. <br />The 47-page draft license is for an ore crusher-sorter, ore transfer pad and mine <br />water sludge handling operation at Schwartzwalder. The wet uraniwn ore comes out of <br />the mine into the ore crusher-sorter and is then trucked to an ore transfer pad where <br />it is loaded in covered trucks to be taken to Cotter's Canon City uranium mill, Hazle <br />said. <br />There is no chemical processing of uranium ore at this site, '.gut the draft radio- <br />active materials license requires many of the same occupational arv3 environmental mon- <br />itoring steps as are required of uranium milling operations, due t~~ the ore crushing <br />and sorting and the potential for worker exposure, he said. <br />The operations began a number of years before trie Health Department and the U.S. <br />Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decided they were licensable. At the Health De- <br />partment's request, Cotter filed an application in August 1978. T:~e original applica- <br />tion was amended and supplementary information was added later. <br />Review of the application has been complicated and delayed by Cotter's attempts <br />to improve various aspects of the operation in response to regulat~~ry changes, Hazle <br />said. The application has been reviewed by the NRC, Environmental Protection Agency <br />and state agencies. <br />Cotter plans to eliminate: its old, unlined earthen mine water treatment ponds <br />after installation of a new mine water treatment system with a new engineering design <br />for removal of radium and uranium is complete. It is expected to '.~e operational in <br />early 1983. <br />Radioactive sludges left from the water treatment's plant operation will be <br />trucked to Cotter's Canon City mill. <br />(more) <br />CONTACT: Ann ). Lockhart 320-8333, ext. 3348 <br />