Program leads from LM met with the San Miguel County, Colorado, Board of County Commissioners via videoconference on April 1.
April 14, 2020
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Program leads from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) met with the San Miguel County, Colorado, Board of County Commissioners via videoconference on April 1 to address questions regarding the Uranium Leasing Program (ULP), the Defense-Related Uranium Mines (DRUM) Program, and a planned reclamation project for the Burro Mines Complex in relation to San Miguel County.
The county initiated the meeting in response to a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) notification letter it received in December 2019. The NEPA letter provided notification about the preparation of an Environmental Assessment (EA) for a proposed reclamation project at the Burro Mines Complex located in Slick Rock, Colorado. While the meeting was held primarily with the county commissioners, a few members of the public also participated.
In addition to defining the ULP and DRUM programs, LM addressed the commissioners’ questions regarding status of the ULP program, responsibility for the abandoned mines cleanup program, and prioritizing the projects that the program chooses to accomplish each year. Discussions also addressed the Burro Mines Complex, which includes three separate and distinct mine sites: Burro Tunnel mine, Burro No. 3 mine, and Burro No. 5 mine. The EA will analyze items such as air quality, biotic resources, and historic and archaeological resources.
“The Board was very appreciative and thanked DOE for taking the time to provide thorough responses to questions from the Board as well as those from interested citizens of San Miguel County,” said Jay Glascock, LM Uranium-Related Programs manager, in summary of the April 1 meeting.
Currently, there are 438 DRUM sites in San Miguel, and land ownership for the mine sites is as follows:
- Bureau of Land Management = 295
- Mixed ownership (Bureau of Land Management and other) = 40
- Private property = 35
- Unknown ownership = 62
- U.S. Forest Service = 6
Under ULP, there are 11 lease tracts located entirely within San Miguel County on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The twelfth lease tract is located on the county line between San Miguel and Montrose counties.
Burro No. 5 Mine, looking east. The site road and the waste rock pile indicate the type and scale of the historic mining activity that once took place here.