County to get involved in Red Lady-related issues, discussions

VCUP, multi-party talks on the radar

Gunnison County continued to wade into the Mount Emmons, US Energy, Crested Butte, High Country Conservation Advocates, Red Lady Coalition soup this week.
In two decisions this Tuesday, the Board of County Commissioners opted to be open to involving itself through the Gunnison County attorney’s office in both the effort by US Energy to participate in a Voluntary Clean Up program at the old Keystone Mine water treatment facility, and in the multi-party talks currently underway by USE and several area stakeholders to determine the future of molybdenum mining on Mount Emmons.

The county first involved itself in the VCUP issue last month when it sent a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment asking that the state provide a technical analysis of the proposed VCUP that would include a review of the processes appropriateness at the site.
“We wanted to make sure there was an adequate technical analysis of it,” said county attorney David Baumgarten. “And that analysis needs to be accurate, complete and neutral.”
The state’s response to the county’s letter came this week and it prompted Baumgarten to suggest the county continue to keep tabs on the VCUP process, a situation to which the Board of County Commissioners agreed.
In the reply to the county, Superfund Brownfields Unit leader with the state’s Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division Doug Jamison said there would be no need for the state to require a third party analysis. “Both CDPHE and the Division of Reclamation and Mining Safety have expertise with these types of systems,” he said.
The county had also asked for a guarantee the project would be fully funded as a condition of approval. Jamison said the program was voluntary. “Since financial assurances are not required under the Voluntary Cleanup Act, they cannot be a requirement for program approval of an application,” he said.
A third request from the county was to ask that the project have a fully funded contingency plan should efforts under the VCUP falter or fail. Jamison said the state has required U.S. Energy “to submit a comprehensive monitoring plan and contingency plan to be considered as part of this VCUP application.” He again said the VCUP lacks the authority to require financial assurance as part of the approval process.
“The state said ‘No’ directly to two of our three requests,” said Baumgarten. “So the board felt it best for us to continue to monitor the VCUP process as it moves forward. The state has said the site qualifies for a potential VCUP but they are asking for a lot of information from U.S. Energy. After that information is provided is when the process will really begin.”
In its second move related to the Mount Emmons issue, the county expressed its desire to join the multiparty talks that are currently closed to all persons and groups not identified by several confidentiality agreements put in place by USE.
“I cannot tell you very much about these discussions because there have been at least three confidentiality agreements signed and everyone seems to be honoring those and no one is talking to me,” Baumgarten told the county commissioners. “Being very candid, the multiparty talks are not going to be a success unless some very key players, including the U.S. Forest Service, the EPA and probably the county are brought into the discussion. Until everyone is at the table the real conversation has yet to begin.”
The commissioners then determined that they might want to be part of the talks and requested that Baumgarten work with staff from the town of Crested Butte to determine how to best involve themselves in future discussions.
“We will wait and see if the entire group feels it is appropriate to invite us to the table,” Baumgarten said.