Read more about the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) decision to approve Energy Fuels’ license for the proposed Pinon Ridge Mill:

• The CDPHE’s Summary of the Case
• The CDPHE’s Executive Summary of their Decision to Approve the Mill
• The CDPHE’s Environmental Impact Analysis of the Pinon Ridge Site

Peruse news coverage about the CDPHE’s approval of the Pinon Ridge Mill license:

• "Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill Granted Radioactive Materials License", Grand Junction Free Press, December 2013.
• "Western Slope Mining and Drilling Takes Job-Hurting Hits", The Denver Post, December 22, 2013.

Browse these government, professional, activist and artistic explanations of Uranium’s risks to human health:

• Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry: Toxicological Profile, Uranium
• Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry: Public Health Statement, Uranium
• Environmental Protection Agency: Radiation Protection, Uranium
• International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War: Health Effects of Uranium Mining
• Information Is Beautiful Radiation Dosage Chart
• Wise Uranium Project: Uranium Radiation and Health Effects

Read more about the environmental impacts of uranium mining on these advocates’ websites:

• World Nuclear Association: Environmental Aspects of Uranium Mining
• National Resource Defense Council: Environmental Damage and Public Health Risks From Uranium Mining in the American West
• Sonoran Institute: Report on Mesa County and Uranium Development
• Earthworks: Nuclear Power’s Other Tragedy

Rural and urban communities have succeeded in finding innovative ways to revitalize local economies in ways that benefit citizens while upholding social and environmental justice. Read more about:

Community Foundations:

A community foundation is a tax-exempt public charity that directly connects donors with local and regional community needs. The grants made by these foundations are pertinent to community history and local issues and are made directly to area nonprofits. These foundations inspire and empower people to actively participate in creating change within the community. This model for local wealth transfer strengthens community resilience and has proven to be increasingly successful in rural communities throughout America.

To learn more about community foundations at work in rural SW Colorado read about the Paradox Trust

Worker Co-ops:

Worker co-ops differ from the traditional top-down business model due to the fact they are organized as a democratic cooperative meaning each employee regardless of company standing owns an identical share in the company. This model provides each employee with equal rights and responsibilities and provides each employee with opportunity for accountability. Rural communities are often characterized by poverty and low employment rates and worker owned cooperatives offer opportunity for the shared costs of materials and other assets.

Read this recent article about worker owned co-ops“Who Needs A Boss?”

Local Currencies:

Local currency is printed money that is only accepted within the locality where it is printed. It strongly perpetuates the practice of buying and selling within a local community, therefore creating a closed loop or circular economy which supports local innovation and can restore a depressed economy.

Learn more about active local currency programs in the United States visit theCenter for New Economics

Community Supported Enterprise:

Community Supported Enterprise (CSE) is a type of grassroots financing wherein business owners rely on community members to financially support their business. Instead of small business owners taking out loans to grow or keep their operation afloat the community invests in the business because they value the services provided to the community.

To learn more about CSE’s in small towns and neighborhoods check out this article.

Timebanking:

Timebanking is the exchange of goods or services for units on time. Instead of relying on paper money currency, time currency or credit allows a platform for skill sharing and reciprocal work exchange. Relationships are developed, communities are strengthened therefore increasing social capital all without the exchange of money.

Learn about the power of timebanking in Chicago, DC, and Vermont inthis article.

Banking for Sustainable Development

Read about the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, whose banks serve sustainable development in under-resourced commmunities.

Sonoran Institute

The Sonoran Institute inspires and enables community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of western North America.

Bill Lane Center for the American West

Dedicated to advancing scholarly and public understanding of the past, present, and future of western North America, the Center supports research, teaching, and reporting about western land and life in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Center of the American West

The Center of the American West serves as a forum committed to the civil, respectful, and problem-solving exploration of important and often contentious public issues.

Western Rural Development Center

The WRDC strengthens rural communities by sharing scientific discovery and application of sustainable practices with rural citizens via conferences, trainings, Web 2.0, and publications. The Center aims to help rural communities prosper, thrive economically, and become self-sustaining.

Rocky Mountain Institute

RMI’s mission is to drive the efficient and restorative use of resources. Their strategic focus, executed through specific initiatives is to map and drive the transition from coal and oil to efficiency and renewables.

SRIC Southwest Research and Information Center

A multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations.

Book List

• Uranium Widows New Yorker article by Peter Hessler
• Uranium by Tom Zoellner
• Yellow Dirt by Judy Pasternak
• Uranium Frenzy by Raye Ringholz
• Full Body Burden by Kristen Iverson
• Yellowcake Towns by Michael Amundson
• Yellowcake Road: Cotter Corporation's unfortunate journey from Nuclear Production to Nuclear Waste Recycle by Deyon D. Boughton
• Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes by John Sicelehoof and Jason Maloney
• Acting as if Tomorrow Matters by John Dernbach

Supporting Film List

• Zero Hot Water Filmmakers go to South Dakota following a story about uranium contamination only to discover that the problem flows much farther and runs deeper than they could have imagined.
• Pandora's Promise This Film asks whether the one technology many fear most could save the planet from a climate catastrophe, while providing the energy needed to lift billions of people in the developing world out of poverty.
• Into Eternity In Finland the world’s first permanent repository for large amounts of high-level radioactive waste is being hewn out of solid rock - a huge system of underground tunnels - that must last 100,000 years, as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.
• Countdown to Zero An exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present day threats and featuring insights from a host of international experts and world leaders who advocate the total elimination of nuclear weapons
• Switch Energy Project A film about the shift from coal and oil to the energies of tomorrow, advocating for how it should happen and how it most likely will happen. A film about a changing energy conversation from polarized and unproductive to a focus on practical realities and encourages a balanced understanding.
• Fixing the Future By featuring communities using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, a film that inspires hope and renewal in a people overwhelmed by economic collapse.
• Nuclear Savage A heartbreaking and intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for dignity and survival after decades of intentional radiation poisoning at the hands of the American government.