Colorado Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

Colorado Citizens Against ToxicWaste, Inc. (a grass-roots group based in Canon City) filed a lawsuit against several defendants including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Cotter Corporation outraged over the state official's approval for Cotter to dump radioactive sludge from its uranium mill into one of their two impoundment ponds.

During the Cold War, the 1958 mill was built with federal support to process yellowcake uranium for the nation's nuclear arsenal and power plants. In the twenty years after the mill was built, radioactive liquid waste was sent to 11 unlined ponds. In 1984 the site was designated by the Environmental Protection Agency for a Superfund cleanup when well tests turned up contaminated groundwater. With their operating license being renewed, Cotter turned to processing ore until about five years ago. Cotter stopped processing yellowcake uranium in 2005.

In June, Denver District Court Judge Robert Hyatt denied a motion filed by the state health department and Cotter to dismiss the residents' lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Cotter is dismantling the mill without an approved plan required by Colorado radiation regulations.

In addition, claims are that state regulators made an informal deal with Cotter to reduce the $43.7 million bond Cotter must submit to guarantee cleanup to $20.8 million, a far cry from the $53 million proposed by the public. Cotter's initial cleanup bond was a mere $14.7 million, which they then agreed to increase to the $20.8 million. A Western Mining Action Project attorney representing the residents states that the bond currently in place is not enough.

According to John Hamrick, vice president for milling operations at Cotter, the sludge is about 95 percent kerosene. Kerosene was used to process the uranium. The plan is for the sludge to be mixed with a material, which Hamrick analogized as being sort of like kitty litter because it becomes solid. The new sludge neutralizes and is dumped into the impoundment pond. The health department claims the impoundment pond leaks, but Cotter disputes this allegation.

Recently, underground toxic plumes containing cancer-causing trichloroethylene have been detected moving toward the Arkansas River and Canon City. Cotter has been responsible for taking the water samples and doing the analysis and is continuing to monitor the situation. Meanwhile the old mill buildings are being decommissioned as Cotter is pondering building a new mill at the site.

To use the above stated kitty litter analogy, while Cotter may be able to make the waste neutralize and clump, the situation still stinks.

Denver station KUSA-TV reported January 11, 2010 that Krahl Construction has
halted work on a $1.5 million project at the main branch of the Denver Public Library as
the apparent result of a January 5 FBI search of Krahl's Chicago headquarters. Krahl also
has an office in Centennial, Colorado.

Krahl notified employees on January 8 that the company would be shutting down
the project. Neither the FBI nor Krahl disclosed why the raid took place, but an FBI
official said the search was part of an ongoing investigation and that the FBI was
"looking for evidence of a crime." No arrests were reported.

Krahl has been paid $430,000 for work already completed, but has been paid
nothing for unfinished work. New bids can be solicited after 10 days according to city
rules.

The company has an "A+" rating from the Chicago Better Business Bureau, and
reportedly does around $100 million a year in commercial construction work. It was
recently working as general contractor on an $81 million project at Riverside Medical
Center in Kankakee, IL, but hospital officials immediately hired another company to
finish the project.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have established an electronic system called E-Verify (formerly the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) to assist employers further in verifying the employment eligibility of all newly-hired employees. As most businesses with federal contracts know, effective September 8, 2009, compliance with the E-Verify system became mandatory. Executive Order 12989 mandates the electronic verification of all employees working on any federal contract. The amended Executive Order reinforces the policy that the federal government supports a legal workforce. In short, E-verify is mandatory if the prime contract for services or construction is more than $100,000 with a period of performance longer than 120 days. For subcontractors, the value of services or construction must exceed $3,000.

The E-verify system requires that employers run new hires, and existing employees hired after November 6, 1986, through the E-Verify system to determine the person’s eligibility to work in the U.S. E-Verify compares the information on the employees name, Social Security Number, date of birth, citizenship status, and any other non-citizen information provided.

As of October 12, 2009 there has already been close to 400,000 quires run through the system. E-Verify is an essential tool for employers committed to maintaining a legal workforce, and the number of registered employers is growing by over 1,200 per week.

According to a study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America (“AGCA”), construction fatality rates have declined 47% since the passage in 1998 of federal oversight legislation that introduced a “collaborative safety” approach, safety incidents declined by 38% over the same time period.

This collaborative approach rewards contractors for finding and fixing safety problems before an accident occurs. The legislation provides for stiff penalties for companies that permit safety problems to exist until someone is hurt or killed.

During the 1998-2007 study period, the value and size of the construction market grew significantly, according to Chuck Penn, the executive director of the AGCA’s Shreveport chapter. Thus, the major decrease in accidents and deaths is even more remarkable.

[Source: “National Construction Fatality Rate Declines 47%, Associated General Contractors of America,” 8/25/09 news release on housingzone.com]