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| 10/24/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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Journal/Sam Green
Water reflects the lights from mining helmets behind a dam in the Blain adit. The dam prevents contaminated water from flowing out and into Silver Creek. |
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On the opposite sides of the mountain
Rico’s molybdenum-mining future rests in Dolores County commissioners’ distant hands
Kristen Plank
Journal Staff Writer
The small towns of Dove Creek and Rico stand at opposite sides of Dolores County, separated by rugged mountains, a drive time of two hours and very different ways of life.
The metal molybdenum, however, is slowly closing that gap.
Outlook Resources, a company looking to jump-start a molybdenum mine, brought an application for exploratory drilling and mining in late 2008. Ever since the revelation of a large underground deposit, Rico has been sharing the spotlight with Dove Creek.
While the two towns could not be much more dissimilar - Dove Creek with its flat lands and farmers and Rico with its mountain peaks and snowshoers - the communities have been working together before deciding whether or not the metal should be processed.
In the end, the weight of that monumental decision will ultimately rest with the county government, for which decisions are made by three commissioners who live near Dove Creek, the county seat.
"This molybdenum deposit lies within Dolores County, so any legal issues would be with Dolores County," said Mike England, town manager in Rico. "Our jurisdiction is at the town limits."
This means the county trumps the city in land-use decisions and that Rico does not have the final say in there being a molybdenum mine established above the town. That doesn't, however, mean the town isn't a major player.
If there is going to be a resource extracted in Rico, residents and town officials will be putting their two cents in, as they have done since the application was submitted. Even with a mountain of government regulations attached to the process, creating a molybdenum mine will create impacts.
"The authority or discussion we brought to the table were the trucks coming into residential areas to access the mine, concerns over potable water exposure and pollution, and if (Outlook) acquired federal and state permits. That's where we had concerns," England said. "But all other aspects are dealt with by the Dolores County planning board and the board of commissioners."
But because Dolores County has a very lenient land use code - and absolutely no zoning - projects in the county are decided one at a time.
"On some of the projects, it makes it a little harder, but it depends on the project," Dolores County Commissioner Ernie Williams said about the county's lack of zoning.
Because of the situation, Outlook chose to submit an application to secure a "land development agreement." Outlook's owner, Mark Levin, hopes to be granted a "use by right" for the underground molybdenum.
Though the first application was denied by commissioners because too much of it was left open-ended, Levin plans to reapply. In the meantime, Rico is working on designating a three-mile planning area to minimize impacts to the town, said town planner Jennifer Stark.
"It's a way to be at the table for any (proposed) activity," Stark said. "Obviously an application like this does warrant some sort of recognition of that area."
The three-mile area is a way for other government parties to acknowledge that certain actions, whether it is game management or starting a molybdenum mine, could create impacts within that area.
"All it says to the county or to the forest service is, 'Hey, this is a high impact area, are you willing to recognize it,'" Stark said. "It's only as legally binding as the integrity between the two parties."
Rico officials hope that the planning area will give them additional influence when high impact projects turn up in town. Rico isn't the only town in the West that is dealing with a quick push for resources alongside a lack of government foundation.
"My sense is that there are a lot of counties like Dolores County, counties that didn't put structures for land use or future development in place," Stark said. "But with the upcoming energy boom and as resource development expansion occurs, there is more pressure for some of that (zoning) to occur."
If Dolores County did have zoning in place, Stark recognizes that it "could work for or against the town." Other towns have larger resources to handle whether or not they want a certain industry in their midst.
In Crested Butte, residents and town officials have pushed hard against the resurgence of interest in a potential molybdenum mine. These communities have the financial and staff resources to be aggressive as possible, Stark said.
"This county and this town are in the middle of a social shift," she said. "Policy and planning processes haven't caught up with that social shift, so complex situations like this are occurring.
"Everybody has been caught off guard. This expansion into the West was a little unpredicted."
This is the third set of stories in a four-issue package on a proposed molybdenum mining operation near Rico. Next Tuesday: mining and milling the mineral.
Kristen Plank is a former Journal staff writer.
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