U.S.E. no fan of HCCA

As might be expected, U.S. Energy was not happy with the decision by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to suspend its decision allowing the company to pursue a Voluntary Clean-up Program (VCUP) with the historic Keystone Mine site on Mt. Emmons just west of Crested Butte. Read More »

The mine issue blew up over the weekend. Through some quick local action and common sense review by the state, the situation appears to have calmed. It is all ultimately enlightening but the communal blood pressure sure went up fast. Understandably.

Let’s try to remember some of the realities.

• U.S. Energy is hoping to make money—a lot of money—with the their rights to the high-grade molybdenum in Mt. Emmons.
• As has been pointed out, U.S. Energy is a corporation whose primary purpose is to return money to their shareholders.
• U.S. Energy stock has done quite well this fall, going from under $2 per share to about $3.19 per share on Tuesday.
• U.S. Energy does not want to run a wastewater treatment plant because it costs well over $1 million a year to operate.
• I don’t think it would be out of line to state that U.S. Energy makes decisions not based on general community welfare but on money. That is what a corporation does. They’ve never said otherwise that I can remember.
• Real miners of molybdenum and financial analysts of such hard-rock mining have seemed to conclude that the infrastructure costs of putting in a mine on Red Lady is prohibitive—at least until the price of moly rises substantially. I don’t think anyone who looks at this situation expects a mine anytime soon anywhere near here.
• U.S. Energy slyly went and got a state approval (it has since been suspended) to do a voluntary clean-up plan (VCUP). Sounds so benign. But the reality is that the application calls for a plug in the mine adits and tear-down of the water treatment plant that has kept Coal Creek relatively healthy and not the orange poison conduit it was 35 years ago. This VCUP idea would be an expensive project costing probably tens of millions of dollars. That says something from the corporation.

Now, on the community side, the Town Council seemed hurt and surprised that the guys they’d been chatting up about a potential solution went behind their back and filed for a state VCUP without telling them. Other interested parties in the issue were plenty upset with the move as well. Rightfully so. The general feeling was that the state should have alerted nearby parties that would be impacted by such a move.
The state took the application at face value and determined, based on the information provided by U.S. Energy, a VCUP was appropriate. They said the application fit the parameters of such an action.
After hearing from myriad concerned individuals and organizations, the state “suspended” that approval and will be evaluating new “readily available” information. Now the town, HCCA and RLC and others must supply the state with the facts of a VCUP of this magnitude, given the hydrologic realities of that mountain, that mine, and this community.
The state folks deserve credit for stepping back and agreeing to reevaluate that decision based on a more complete picture. It’s up to our representatives to give them the facts.
So that’s where we are. On the surface, it probably sounded good. It’s not. It appeared the sky started to fall on Friday when people around here discovered the VCUP approval. This move by the mine would not enhance our community and in fact could have damaged it quickly and permanently. There is a good chance implementing this VCUP plan could someday soon poison the upper valley. Water studies show how porous that mountain is. The treatment plant is a need, not a want, for the upper valley.

So the short of it: U.S. Energy is a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Don’t forget that.
It seems obvious the miners want out. They don’t like the liability of operating the wastewater treatment plant.
If there were any chance of a partner on the nearby horizon, they wouldn’t be pursuing this VCUP route. I remain comforted by the decision of legitimate moly miner Thompson Creek to pull out of here after spending millions of dollars looking at the situation. With a billion dollars in new infrastructure needed, I don’t think the community should fear a mine any time soon.
But…the best thing would be to get the threat of a future mine out of our realm. Toward that end, the town and other partners must do a better job of communicating with one another. Even the good cop needs to talk to the bad cop to make sure they are on the same page. We are supposed to be on the same page after all.

If U.S. Energy wants out, we should help them. But it will take honest and open dialogue and this latest incident should remind us of that as we move forward.

P.S. Congratulations to Huck, Deli, Roland and Chris for being elected to the Crested Butte town council. Those numbers were bigger and the gap wider than most expected. One thing it does do in relation to the mine issue is provide the opportunity to temper some volatility and have someone like Ladoulis be the council’s point person if and (maybe) when U.S. Energy wants to resume “talks” with the town. That should ease some of the concern brought up during the election by sitting councilmembers and town partners on this issue.

How will future talks be structured?

Town of Crested Butte officials felt more than a little tricked the day after Halloween when they learned on Friday, November 1 that Mt. Emmons mine company owner U.S. Energy had quietly received approval from a state agency to literally put a plug in the current molybdenum mine exploration activity and walk away from the existing wastewater treatment plant. Read More »

Balance, traffic flow, Red Lady and HCCA

(Editor’s note: Given the length of the forum and candidate responses, we are breaking the report on the Candidates’ Forum into two stories. This is part one. Next week, we will print the rest of the story, which includes thoughts on sustainability, sales tax and a plastic bag ban…)

For almost two hours on Wednesday, October 9, seven Crested Butte citizens hoping to be representatives on the Town Council answered questions from the public. Local citizens—people who have lived in the area from two weeks to 40 years—wanted to know about parking and traffic fixes, sales tax, a potential plastic bag ban, a possible mine, how the council can promote more sustainability and how council meetings can be briefer. What wasn’t asked was anything about the ski area or retail marijuana outlets.

Read More »

Sales tax up but Open Space fund down
The second quarter of the year looks mostly healthy for the town from a financial perspective. Most revenues so far this year are higher than anticipated—due to more sales tax being collected, more tap fees coming in and more construction permits being issued. One area where revenues are down is the real estate transfer tax (RETT) that helps fund open space and some capital projects. Town finance director Lois Rozman expects to make the budget, but warned the council that the RETT funds are well below where they were just a few years ago. Read More »

Some weeks there is lots of news. Other weeks, it is pretty lean. Early August was lean. It appears to be fattening up. A few examples…

—Holy guacamole. The Crested Butte Community School is bursting at the seams…this just three years after a major expansion. So people appear to like it enough here that they are moving their families to the valley. The school is one big reason our population base is increasing. The CBCS is a quality learning institution that provides a top-notch education for those hoping to move on to the country’s finest universities. It is probably one of the biggest draws for people moving here and it is becoming too small. With another 10 percent increase in enrollment, it won’t be long before another expansion will be needed—or those mobile classrooms will have to return.

—The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is departing Crested Butte. There’s something odd about that. Maybe as a local mountain biker, I took it too much for granted and I shouldn’t have. After talking to Hall of Fame co-director Don Cook this week, I understand the decision. I don’t like that it is moving but it might actually help the sport’s exposure by relocating to northern California. Thanks to those who have maintained it here in the valley throughout the decades and good luck as it moves to a new home in Marin County.

—U.S. Energy Corporation, the owners of the molybdenum mining rights on Red Lady, are publicly talking up the potential of a mine on Mt. Emmons. It appears they really want to sell the “opportunity” of a mine. In a conference call with investors last week, company executives said they expect to have Forest Service approval for the mine through NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act). They said they hope to be fully permitted in three or four years. They insinuated they’ve had some nibbles of interest from real miners that may want to take on the project. Sure. It just seems USE shouldn’t expect any sort of easy NEPA process from this community and if they expect to be fully permitted in three years, they’re dreaming. Even if they eventually do get mining permits from the feds, the price of moly better skyrocket to pay for the billion dollar start-up costs involved. The last “real” miner they partnered with, Thompson Creek, came, saw, spent and ran after getting a feel for the real situation. Smart mining company.

—The monsoons are here but the lakes aren’t filling. The moisture is a blessing but Blue Mesa is still really low so understand that the drought conditions haven’t totally evaporated. We have a long way to go. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill the Mesa next spring from the copious amount of snow we receive this winter.

Big risk for water and wallets

The High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA) is expressing concern with the lack of official permitting and bonding that is tied to the Mt. Emmons Water Treatment Plant.

Read More »

The mine:
I spent more than a few minutes this past week looking over the Plan of Operations (PoO) submitted to the U.S. Forest Service by U.S. Energy. A couple of things strike me as interesting. First, that it is called a PoO. Love it.
Second, the mine would be operating every minute of every day for 33 years. That’s a lot of activity. Two 12-hour shifts per day for those 33 years would employ about 335 people. That doesn’t seem like a lot of people if one of the mine company’s big arguments for approval is employment.
They’d bring in close to 1,000 workers to get it up and going for four years prior to actual mining. Like it or not, that usually brings with it a high number of transient workers who oftentimes (not always) bring with them a transient attitude—and that can mean trouble. I’m sure the local cops will love it. I smell more money in the law enforcement budgets.
The company plans to push the operation toward the railroad line, which means using Kebler Pass Road—a lot. Summer, fall, winter, spring. They don’t plan to pave it but “upgrade” it. A plowed dirt road over Kebler in March, April and May? How messy could it really be? Real frickin’ messy. And following big mining trucks over the pass as you go to pick up apples and peaches? Fun stuff that. And you might as well post a tow truck somewhere up there all winter. Kebler gets a tad more snow than Crested Butte in the winter so the vision of massive trucks navigating steep twisty turns in a blizzard is pretty interesting.
“The top of the Mt. Emmons molybdenite deposit lies approximately 1,000 feet below the surface of the west flank of Mt. Emmons. The full deposit is about 2,300 feet in diameter and is approximately circular in view, resembling an inverted cup.” I just found that interesting. And the plan to have giant crushers processing literally tons of earth underneath the mine sounds like a television show on Discovery. If it wasn’t in a place that could get screwed up so permanently in our valley, it might be fun to watch the giant machines. But the potential ramifications to a tourism-based economy are so intense it’s a little upside-down to consider it and I don’t want us living in some bad second-rate TV show.
Tailings ponds. Those are essentially poison lakes that will be located south of the mine toward the Ohio Creek valley. Pristine areas of this neighborhood will be turned into storage areas for trash with three new dams.
And I always like the disclaimer that “Although a temporary shutdown of operations is not planned, circumstances beyond the control of the Project may require a temporary cessation of operations. In the event that the facility has to be temporarily closed due to severe weather conditions, unfavorable economic conditions…” What this is acknowledging is that mining is inherently a boom-and-bust industry. Heck, my understanding is that most moly mines in this country are either closed or operating at super slow rates right now.

The trial:
There is a long murder trial taking place in the Gunnison County courthouse. It could go on for another month. Apparently 600 local people were called as potential jurors. I sat in the courtroom and listened a bit last week. Expecting to go for about a half hour, I sat riveted for closer to an-hour-and-a-half. That too was like a TV show…but one that was interesting and real and wild. Talk about reality television. The guy is accused of killing his wife near Lake City. Wow.
And that trial started about the same time a Gunnison guy allegedly killed his uncle. The thing that gets me is that the guy’s rap sheet more than indicates he shouldn’t have really been out in a position to possibly hurt someone. He apparently did some nasty, violent things in the years prior to this incident but never spent a long time in prison. Instead, the prisons are too often clogged with dudes who dealt drugs to a narc. The United States incarcerates more people for drug offenses than any other country. And possibly as a result, we see a tangible example of someone with a violent past who gets let out time after time. That just isn’t right.

The cold:
Last January I spent a few days at Hartman Rocks riding the mountain bike. It was pretty darn pleasant. This year it is back to normal. The past weekend recorded a high of 5 degrees. Gunnison hit 38 below. Crested Butte was 30 below just before the sun rose on Tuesday. The snow squeaks, car engines groan, exposed skin stings and there is no melting going on outside. It feels like January is supposed to feel in this high mountain valley. Now, having said that, I am glad that the temperatures are climbing back into the 20s and 30s during the day. It may feel like a day at the beach. It will be February before we can truly count on the turn. That is when we pray for decent snow at night and pleasant days to play in it.

The X Gamer:
Local phenom and half-pipe skier Aaron Blunck was invited to participate in the 2013 X Games this week. That’s the big time. In the young demographic, the X Games continue to be cooler than the Olympics and it will be a tad more affordable for the 16-year old since it’s happening at the end of the month across the mountain range in Aspen. Described on NBC Sports this past weekend as a “Young Gun in the sport,” the smooth skiing Blunck is another of this mountain town’s really good people. He’s a special athletic talent and he will be a wonderful ambassador for this town as the event is broadcast around the world. Good luck to a good kid.

The Broncos:
When you play not to lose you cannot win. When you stray from your strengths, you have a tendency to flounder. When you choose to take a knee and surrender opportunity, you lessen the chances of victory. When you keep making mistakes you worked so hard to avoid but keep trying to do the same unsuccessful thing time after time hoping it might work the next time, what do you really think is going to happen? Those are lessons that might be learned here. Just saying…

Stay classy, Crested Butte.

Kebler is proposed to be a year-round road

If a molybdenum mine in Mt. Emmons is approved and becomes operational, it would be a 24-7-365 operation for the next 33 years. Once up and going, it is expected to employee about 335 miners. More people would be employed to run the water treatment plant and work in the office. Approximately 1,000 people would be needed for mine development and mill construction in the four years before the mine got going at full bore. Read More »

It is the first day of 2013. It is late morning and still -6 degrees. It’s the way it is supposed to be. The valley is a bit foggy, as am I. Apparently the Crested Butte lottery syndicate I was part of didn’t win the Powerball, since I am at work. Apparently the Mayan Apocalypse slid by without incident unless, like the phrase many locals cite continuously, we are living a dream.
And based on a few episodes in 2012, there is reason to sometimes think we are indeed living a dream where rules of reality sometimes take a hiatus. A few examples that in hindsight make me smile on this first day of 2013:

* A Mt. Crested Butte councilperson insinuated recently that marijuana wasn’t very “consistent” with a resort town. Neither then is alcohol, public restaurants, waitrons or tourists. Dope is more common in resort towns than parking problems. Look, abuse of any substance, whether it is beer, sugar or marijuana, can be dangerous. But ask any cop and they’ll tell you they hate dealing with drunks and would much rather deal with someone who is stoned. That’s a topic for a whole separate editorial but for a town council to think they can rid their community of the demon weed is truly living a dream. The thought brings a New Year’s smile.

* In what seems at times to be an overzealous effort to make sure everything is safer and “family-friendly” for the community, the traditional Chainless Race had less party pop in 2012 but was able to keep its fizz. In what at first appeared to be an obvious overreach, more rules were implemented and less opportunity to “celebrate” was afforded those bold enough to fly down Kebler Pass on a bike without a chain. The Chainless ended up coming off as a good, fun, costumed event but I’m never a fan of taking all risk and “illegal smiles” out of every local affair.

* The downtown council isn’t afraid to chat amongst themselves and that can be enough to put anyone into a REM state pretty quickly. They spent more than a few minutes of their precious lives delving into the great issues of the day in 2012. Hours and hours were spent discussing details of a bathroom expansion in town hall, where to put directional signs on Elk Avenue and which corner would be best suited to locate a donated clock. God love ‘em, these men are not afraid to yak for days over things like late night food trucks, lighting for local businesses, or the virtues of stick figures in advertisements. They are on the job for your benefit and you are getting your money’s worth if you are paying by the word. Happy New Year, fellas.

* The Gunnison County Commissioners approved cutting-edge regulations for oil and gas development. That will be a big issue for many years and the commissioners walked a thin line to go where local government hadn’t gone before. Months of debate concluded with the most conservative commissioner praising the environmental community and the most liberal commissioner commending the oil and gas companies for all their input and work…and that’s how real legislative compromise is achieved. It’s not perfect but it’s real.

* Speaking of real—not. U.S. Congressmen make $174,000 a year and get regular cost of living raises. Seriously? Why? To take the country to the brink of calamity? To bow down to a dude named Grover Norquist? To not understand that once elected you can represent those that voted for you but your responsibility is to the greater good and not the fringes? This Congress isn’t a dream; it’s a night sweat. They could learn a few things from our local elected representatives.

* Water in the valley. Blue Mesa has never looked as low to me as it did this past fall. Local rivers were razor thin and the drought never really subsided. If we don’t get a big winter to help refill local reservoirs and saturate our valleys, next summer could be brown and bleak. Rumors are we’ll soon see the church steeple at Sapinero. Nightmare.

* There was (and to a lesser degree still is) opportunity between local environmental groups and U.S. Energy, the company that owns molybdenum mining rights on Mt. Emmons, to strike a deal with state and federal governments to finally eliminate the potential for mining on Red Lady. That opportunity has taken a setback, given timing and details, but remains a possibility in 2013 and beyond. We can only dream.

* The Denver Broncos traded a guy who turned a season around and took them into the playoffs on a wave of miracles last season. But they end up with one of the most businesslike, efficient true leaders at the quarterback position and now have the real chance to play in New Orleans. That is a great reality.

* And speaking of real sports dreams—the town rallied around local athlete Emma Coburn and her quest in the 2012 Olympics. In London, she represented us, and all of America, in the steeplechase event. The town shut down as she raced in the finals in early August. The Majestic Theater broadcast her run on the big screen and it was standing room only. Since she was the youngest athlete on the U.S. track and field team at 21, we can hopefully count on her returning to the Olympics and dream of one of our small-town kids bringing back gold to this mountain village.

Turning the calendar is always an opportunity for reflection. This year is no different. Here’s to a great 2013 and may we try to stay grounded in reality while reaching for the good dreams. Now I need to go get another Powerball ticket.