Documentary examines effects of proposed uranium mill in rural impoverished Colorado

"Uranium Drive-In," a documentary film now available on DVD, follows the plight of a proposed uranium mill in rural Montrose County, Colo., offering "an honest look at people facing matters of rural poverty, sustainable development and the long reach of environmental advocacy," Natalie Axton reports for the Daily Yonder. The mill would provide jobs to residents in Nucla, where 17 percent of people live below the poverty line, and Naturita, where 10 percent of people live below the poverty line.

Filmmaker Suzan Beraza told Axton that the residents "are between a rock and a hard place, and they are willing to make sacrifices in order to survive. They don't see the uranium industry as being that dangerous. It's something they are very used to; their families have been doing it for generations. It's not that the people there necessarily want the uranium industry. They just want something. And that's when it became more clear that it was a rural issue. That thousands of small towns across the United States are in a similar situation, whether it’s a resource extraction town or a town where the major industry has left." (Read more)