Local groups join together to ask for VCUP reevaluation extension

Town of Crested Butte, HCCA and Red Lady Coalition on the same page

The three primary local “stakeholders” in the potential Mt. Emmons molybdenum mine issue are asking the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to give the groups until December 15 to submit new information in its re-evaluation of the Voluntary Clean Up Program (VCUP) application submitted by U.S. Energy.

That VCUP approval was okayed in October but “suspended” in early November in an effort to give interested and impacted parties an opportunity to comment on the VCUP approval. The letter was signed by the Red Lady Coalition, the town of Crested Butte and the High Country Citizens’ Alliance.
The letter makes it clear that the community feels the VCUP application by U.S. Energy was not complete. “The community believes that insufficient information was provided to the Department in the initial submission,” the letter states. “Therefore, before making a decision, the Department should have additional information regarding the potential impact of the proposed molybdenum mine on the site, a greater understanding of water flows on Mount Emmons and their interplay with the subject property, the consent decree relating to the operation of the water treatment plant, and the proceedings before the U.S. Forest Service and their relationship to remediation of the site.”
The groups say that additional information is needed for the state agency to assess if the VCUP truly would “promote the protection of human health and environment.”
In the letter, the groups say they will provide information to the agency about ownership of the property and contamination of the site by December 6. They plan to provide information about the effectiveness of using passive treatment on other similar sites to meet water quality standards and the possible effect on local drinking water by December 15. They will also provide the state with information on the current and future uses of the subject property.
CDPHE Superfund/ Brownfields unit leader Doug Jamison said the agency has not crafted a response to the letter. “We are trying to move this process forward as quickly as possible. We have not set a deadline yet,” he said.
During the November 18 Crested Butte Town Council meeting, town manager Todd Crossett said he has been in contact with CDPHE officials and no firm timeline for gathering information has been set. “They said they are under some pressure from U.S. Energy to move the process along but the two-week deadline reported in the newspaper last week isn’t set in stone,” he said. “We want to have time to submit information on things like the hydrology of the mountain, the ownership issues and if the VCUP is even applicable in this situation.”
The letter was sent to the CDPHE as well as to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.