Letter to the Editor
Fort Collins Coloradoan
July 29, 2007

Fort Collins may have spent $80,000 to create a new "brand" for the city, but it will have a hard time "selling" the city if we end up with a radioactive uranium mine a few miles outside town. It would be better for long-term economic development and community health if the city spent $80,000 fighting the proposal to mine uranium.

The nearest point that mining may occur is only 7 miles from Fort Collins. Of course, this will degrade our area's image, for starters. Here are some of the potential negative economic impacts of having a uranium mine just outside town: (1) property values will go down, as will property tax collections and real estate commissions; (2) growth and economic development will be restricted to the north and east; (3) loss of agricultural use and jobs; (4) negative impacts on tourism (who wants to visit a radioactive hot spot?); (5) increased health costs - whether through insurance or government medical programs; (6) increased road construction and maintenance costs for heavy truck traffic; (7) increased taxes - it has cost hundreds of millions of tax dollars to clean up past uranium operations; (8) further limits on water availability; and (9) mining a non-renewable energy resource does not fit with our area's efforts to become known as a renewable energy capital.

So let's get our priorities figured out. The city needs to take a stand against this proposal! This kind of proposal has been defeated when people react immediately and forcefully.

Lilias Jones Jarding,
Fort Collins