A Denver District Court judge has issued a decision Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by the Colorado Citizens Against ToxicWaste against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment over the amount of the surety of the Cotter Uranium Mill.
Judge Robert S. Hyatt entered the judgement “in favor of Defendants Steve Tarlton, Colorado Radiation Management Unit, Colorado Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division, and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.”
“We’re pleased that the court ruled that the CDPHE had used the proper procedure and set the proper bond amount for our surety,” said Cotter Vice President of Milling Operations John Hamrick. “We’ve got confidence in our regulators.”
The suit, filed in September 2010, charged that the radiation control regulators within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ignored state law, including requirements of the Uranium Processing Accountability Act, which Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law in June 2010.
“To summarize,” the court judgement said, “the Court finds that Plaintiff did not prove that the administrative record was insufficient; neither did Plaintiff prove that Defendants acted in a manner that was arbitrary or capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by evidence in the record, or contrary to law, or that Defendants failed to act on a mandatory duty.”
Sharyn Cunningham, co-chair of CCAT, said during the two-and-a-half years since the suit was filed, the department has addressed some of the issues the group raised.
“It appears to us the judge has said he’s not going to interfere,” she said. “We do feel like a lot of really positive things happened during these two-and-a-half years. The lawsuit at least brought a lot of concerns into the light of day.”
