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La Sal Junction » Manuel Davis built his dream home over a year's worth of weekends and pre-retirement vacations from his job as a Boston hospital consultant. He and his wife, E. J. Gore, now live on Bridger Jack Mesa full time, and they call their place "Journey's End." But "Struggle's Start" might be a better name. A revival of uranium mining, they have discovered, threatens havoc in their redrock heaven. Last spring, South American Minerals Inc. began staking out test drill sites in the heart of their community, about 12 miles south of Moab.

Environment » Public input is sought on the air-quality effects. A public input period is under way to comment on an air-quality permit for the Pandora uranium mine in La Sal, San Juan County. "It's really just dotting I's and crossing T's," said Ron Hochstein, president and chief executive officer of Canada-based Denison Mines Corp. Maung Maung, an engineer with the Utah Division of Air Quality, said the biggest concern for the state is the amount of dust that could be created with trucks hauling ore from the mine. The company, which is bringing the historic mine back on line, is required to keep the dust down with water. Under the proposed permit, emissions are limited to 9.8 tons per year of PM10, .5 tons of nitrogen oxides, .043 tons of sulphur dioxide, .11 tons of carbon monoxide and .04 tons of volatile organic compounds. Radon emissions are governed by federal law. "They're just mining it and shipping it off to where they are going to process it," Maung said. Moab-based Uranium Watch has requested a hearing.

Recent dust storms from strong winds have had the communities of Norwood, Telluride and Mountain Village concerned about future contamination with radionuclides should uranium development in the Paradox valley ramp up. Winds measuring consistently above 40 mph have mobilized large quantities of dust from the west end of San Miguel County, bringing sands all the way from Utah. Paradox valley, the proposed site for a new uranium mill, is due west of the resort communities of Telluride and Mountain Village, and the ranching town of Norwood. The dust storms, which occurred over two days at the end of March and early May, brought thick quantities of red dust up into the mountains, obscuring the sky and reducing visibility. "It was like being in a red fog," said one Norwood resident. "I couldn't even see Lone Cone [mountain]." The dust filled the sky, covered cars and homes, and settled visibly on the slopes around Telluride. It was an eerie portent, a bloody sunset and doom-like sky. Each spring strong winds race up Wright's mesa, heading in from the desert. A strong differential is formed by the heat in the low-lying desert areas around Moab and the four corners, and the cool mountain air at elevation. Each year, winds roll in from the west. But this amount of dust was unusual.

"Two Utah conservation groups are fighting a proposed uranium mill in western Colorado. Moab-based groups Red Rock Forests and Living Rivers are challenging the company's application to pump groundwater from the Delores River basin. The Delores is a 250-mile tributary of the Colorado River that drains into Utah. Energy Fuels Resources LLC needs the water to process uranium ore. It wants to build the mill a dozen miles west of Naturita, Colo. The project is under evaluation by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. It could take the agency 18 months to make a decision. Red Rock Forests and Living Rivers filed their challenges Tuesday."

"The Energy Department will reduce the size of former nuclear waste sites needing environmental cleanup by 40 percent by the end of 2011, fueled largely by Recovery Act funding, a top official said. The footprint of Cold War-era sites to be cleaned up will be reduced from 900 square miles to 540 square miles during fiscal 2011, said Ines Triay, assistant Energy secretary of environmental management. The department's goal is to clean up 90 percent of contaminated areas by 2015. Energy received $6 billion in Recovery Act funds to accelerate cleanup efforts. To date, $5.6 billion in stimulus funds has been obligated and $1.7 billion has been spent, Triay told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces at an April 21 hearing. Stimulus funds will be used for many projects: Accelerate by seven years the removal of radioactive waste at 11 sites; remove 2 million tons of waste material from the uranium mill in Moab, Utah; and build the infrastructure required to support high-level waste processing operations. In addition, Recovery Act funds will be used to speed up completion of cleanup activities at three small sites: Brookhaven National Laboratory and Separations Process Research Unit in New York, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California."

Increased toxins likely as energy companies seek oil, gas, uranium When the Colorado River emerged as an important piece of his coverage, Lustgarten started working with The San Diego Union-Tribune's David Hasemyer, who has written about uranium mining's impact on the waterway for more than a decade. Together, they looked at the potential environmental and water-use consequences of increased mining and drilling in the river's watershed. The Colorado River has endured drought, large-scale climate changes, pollution, ecological damage from dams and battles by seven states to draw more water. Now the life vein of the Southwest faces another threat: Energy companies are sucking up the Colorado's water to support increased development of oil, natural gas and uranium deposits along the river's basin. The mining and drilling will likely send more toxins into the waterway, which provides drinking water for one out of 12 Americans and nourishes 15 percent of the nation's crops along its journey from Wyoming and Colorado to Mexico.

One of the great things about working at the longest-continually published magazine in the U.S. -- born in 1845 -- is thumbing through the archives. Our environment reporter, David Biello, was thumbing through some bound volumes earlier this week, and he came across a gem from our February 1947 issue. The piece, which has no byline, is quite timely, despite being more than 60 years old. It hits two of today's growing crises square on -- energy and the economy -- by suggesting a replacement for silver and gold monetary standards:

A few years ago, Ward wrote for Tomdispatch about various plans to dump radioactive waste, including 40 years worth of "spent fuel rods" from nuclear reactors, in his Utah backyard. People who lived downwind were alarmed. They had been exposed to radioactive fallout during the era of atomic testing in the 1950s and feared more of the same -- cancer for "downwinders" and obfuscation and denial from federal regulators. Since Ward wrote his account, local activists have successfully blocked the projects. Score one for the little guys.