Gov. Bill Ritter Thursday praised the feds for choosing to bury tons of mercury currently languishing in Tennessee deep in the heart of Texas instead at the Grand Junction Disposal Site in Mesa County.
Ritter lobbied Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the issue last summer, saying the Grand Junction site was only meant for uranium tailings and not intended to become a national dumping ground for toxic waste.
Ritter also was concerned about the site’s proximity to the Colorado River and the potential for downstream contamination, as well as transporting the mercury through the state en route to Grand Junction on the far Western Slope.
“We have made it clear to the federal government that Colorado’s Western Slope is not the right place to store thousands of tons of mercury, so this is a promising development,” Gov. Ritter said in a release. “This plan would have meant an unacceptable risk to communities, major waterways and air quality in Colorado.”
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