Cotter Corp Says It Lacks Funds to Post Cleanup Bond at Colorado Uranium Superfund Site
Why It Matters
Colorado’s Lincoln Park Superfund Site near Cañon City has been under federal cleanup oversight for more than four decades, and the potential insolvency of the company currently responsible for remediation work raises serious questions about whether contaminated soils and radioactive waste will be properly addressed — or whether taxpayers may eventually bear the cost.
The site holds approximately 5.3 million tons of radioactive waste buried in impoundments that community members and historical technical reports suggest may already be leaking. With the responsible party now signaling financial distress, residents and local advisors fear a repeat of a 2023 collapse that halted cleanup work entirely.
What Happened
At a public meeting held May 19 in Cañon City, the Environmental Protection Agency disclosed that Cotter Corporation — the company responsible for remediation at the Lincoln Park Superfund Site — has claimed it is running low on funds and may be unable to post a $4.7 million bond required to ensure completion of ongoing risk assessment work.
Closed-door financial discussions between Cotter and the EPA’s enforcement division are underway, according to Paul Stoick, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the site. Stoick told the roughly 20 attendees that the agency was evaluating how best to deploy whatever resources Cotter still has available.
One option under consideration is a “targeted cleanup” approach, which would involve relocating known contaminated soils into existing on-site impoundments where the bulk of the radioactive waste is already buried. EPA toxicologist Will Folland said the move could help prevent groundwater contamination from spreading further.
Community members pushed back, questioning the logic of adding more toxic material — including zirconium ore piles — to an impoundment system that historical records indicate may not be structurally sound. Technical reports from the 1980s through the early 2000s, presented at the meeting by the Community Advisory Group, indicate the primary impoundment’s Hypalon liner was likely inadequate and prone to tearing, and that the clay soil used as a secondary barrier was not fully impervious.
When one attendee asked why regulators were not considering a newly constructed, properly lined impoundment to house the toxic waste, Stoick acknowledged the Superfund process had not advanced that far. “We know these areas need to be cleaned up and Cotter has limited funding,” he said.
By the Numbers
- $4.7 million — the financial assurance bond Cotter is disputed to owe for ongoing risk assessment work
- 5.3 million tons — radioactive waste currently buried in on-site impoundments
- 2,600 acres — total size of the former uranium mill property south of Cañon City
- $45 million — amount Cotter transferred to Colorado Legacy Land in 2018 along with the mill property and related assets
- 42 years — the length of time the Superfund process has been ongoing at this site, which was listed in 1984
A Pattern of Abandonment
Cotter’s financial claims drew immediate comparisons to a similar breakdown three years ago. Emily Tracy, president of the Community Advisory Group, noted the parallel to March 2023, when Colorado Legacy Land — the company that had taken over Superfund responsibilities from Cotter in 2018 — informed state officials it was insolvent and halted all work at the site.
“It’s like a flashback to 2023,” Tracy said at the meeting, warning that any cleanup action should not be allowed to slow the formal Superfund investigation and environmental testing process.
Cotter had originally operated the uranium mill from 1958 to 2011, processing yellowcake uranium for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and discharging radioactive materials and heavy metals into unlined ponds for much of that period. The EPA placed the mill and surrounding area on the Superfund list in 1984. A 2014 order required Cotter to conduct a full remedial investigation, but progress has been slow.
Under the 2018 arrangement, CLL received the mill property and $45 million from Cotter and assumed both the Superfund obligations and the radioactive materials license issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. State agencies required CLL to post bonds. The EPA, which does not mandate financial assurance until a final cleanup plan is in place, is now reconsidering how to apply that standard given Cotter’s stated financial position.
What’s Next
The EPA’s enforcement division is continuing confidential financial negotiations with Cotter to determine what remediation work, if any, the company can fund going forward. No timeline has been announced for a resolution, and the formal Superfund cleanup plan for the mill site remains incomplete.
Community advocates are pressing regulators to keep environmental testing on track and to avoid allowing interim cleanup measures to substitute for the comprehensive remediation process. The situation mirrors broader concerns about federal agencies managing complex, long-term environmental liabilities when private responsible parties become financially insolvent before cleanup is complete.