The Utah Division of Water Rights has postponed a hearing on a company's plans to build a uranium mill near the Green River, and Moab-based watchdog group Red Rock Forests said Tuesday that the delay is a sign that the company isn't ready to face regulators' concerns.

Colorado-based Mancos Resources has applied for water rights on the Green River for use at a proposed uranium mill near the city of Green River. The Utah Division of Water Rights is supposed to hold batches of public hearings twice a year, if needed, in each county to discuss water-rights applications and any related protests.

Red Rock Forests issues director Harold Shepherd and other critics protested Mancos' water-rights application earlier this year, saying the state should not grant the rights.

The watchdogs say the company's request to use 800 acre-feet of water from the Green River is based only on the company's speculative uses for the rights, which doesn't fit the state's criteria for approving water rights.

The water-rights division issued a notice in October saying it was postponing a hearing on the company's request "until a later date" that was not specified.

Living Rivers spokesman John Weisheit said in a statement Tuesday that the state postponed the hearing because Mancos is "not ready to demonstrate that using this water for a uranium mill is either physically or economically feasible."

Mancos part owner Stephen Glass and assistant state engineer Kent Jones had a different version Tuesday of why hearings have been postponed.

Jones said attempts to set up a hearing this past fall failed because all interested parties were unable to agree upon a date and time. Jones said that Mancos partner Greg Hunt eventually called to say his company was not in a hurry to set a hearing date and that it would take time for Mancos to secure all of the necessary permits for the mill.

"I would concur 100 percent with that," Glass said. He added that it's a "quiet" time right now for his company, which is in the midst of doing environmental reviews related to their proposal to build the mill.

"Our plans have not changed," he said.

Jones said the state is planning on a hearing next spring to discuss Mancos' water rights application.

Shepherd said Tuesday that his group is concerned about the potential impact that Mancos' request could have on a "severe water scarcity" facing the Colorado River system.

---

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com