Nov 10, 2008
La Sal Mountains, Utah

I just woke to frost-covered windows, had some granola and yogurt, finished off the cold remnants of yesterday mornings coffee, and now I’m curled up under blankets writing.

Yesterday I left Moab and headed south to a place called Paradox. I know, it was bound to happen. I came in search of a woman named Marie Moore who is working to fight against a Uranium Mill being planned for the eastern end of the Paradox Valley.

Driving into the Paradox Valley was breathtaking. Hwy 46 takes you out of the desert and up along the southern slope of the La Sal Mountains, on the other side you drop back down into tree-filled canyons twisting and turning beside the roadway. Finally you head back up a final rise and the Paradox Valley is revealed before you.

There’s not too much here, three hundred people, cows, and pure unadulterated beauty. The place reminds me a little of Zion Canyon in the sense that it appears to be an oasis. Water, grasslands, trees, and animals all protected by the valley walls on either side. It blows my mind that they are planning to build a uranium mill here.

I find Marie at her home nestled up against one of the canyon slopes. (Her son Joss later tells me that that slopes act as a heat storage unit, and after a hot day the hillside emits warmth long after the sun has gone down) Marie has been living here off the grid for seventeen years. She has a well, solar power, and wood heat when needed. Seventeen years, it blows my mind. Her home is broken into out buildings, her kitchen in a round straw bale structure, two green houses that hold all sorts of vegetables, a pond storing water in case the pump or solar panels break down, the battery bank shed with the inverters and battery bank, the two buildings holding sleeping quarters and libraries, and a small sweat lodge. It’s almost a small village. She tells me that on cold days it would be nice if everything was connected but for most of the year it’s warm and pleasant outside. I think it’s a nice idea to have a home that forces you to be connected to the elements, but would dread those cold winter mornings walking to the kitchen to make bread.

Marie and I easily fill a tape with dialog about the proposed uranium mill. While baking pumpkin pie she explains that uranium ore itself isn’t too harmful, but the mill will grind it down into a fine dust, once most of the uranium is extracted the dust will go into large evaporation ponds, and once the water has been separated the dust tailings will be piled in tailing piles. Big storms will likely carry this dust east out over Telluride. Not to mention wherever else it may travel contaminating clear air, water and soil. If it goes ahead, I wouldn’t be too interested in eating Paradox Valley beef, I tell you that. Marie tells me that the fact is it only takes one radioactive molecule to cause cancer. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s all it takes.

What I’ve found most interesting down here is that most of the companies involved in uranium mining down here are Canadian. And what is even more strange is the question of where all the uranium is going… Australia is the world leader in uranium extraction and the markets seem to have been flooded and prices are extremely low, yet the mining continues. The question I have is where is all the uranium headed to? What is it being used for and why is Canada importing large amounts of it? Where is it going? Into nuclear power plants, weapons of mass destruction, is there anything else they use uranium for? I’m pretty ignorant on the whole subject, so it’s something for me to look into.

But in any case, it makes you wonder…

peace,
d