The Durango site was originally the site of a lead smelter. In 1942, the site was bought by the U.S. government agency of Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) with the intention of using it as a plant that could recover vanadium from carnotite ores. The conversion and operation of the plant was handled by the private company the U.S. Vanadium Corporation (USV). The vanadium they processed would be shipped to the Metal reserve Company, a subsidiary of the RFC.

In 1943 USV was contracted by the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) to build and operate a "green sludge" plant at the Durango site. The purpose of the site was to recover uranium from the vanadium mill tailings, which are a sand like waste. The green sludge was then shipped to Grand Junction, Colorado where a USV operated refinery would produce uranium concentrate, or yellow cake, for the MED.

USV, and its successor company Vanadium Corporation of America, continued operations at the Durango plant mill until 1963, when it moved operations to Shiprock, New Mexico.

After it was determined that uranium mill tailings were a radioactive health hazard, Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) were charged with reducing radiation emissions at the most dangerous mill tailings sites in the U.S, including the Durango site.

Surface cleanup activities occurred between October 1986 and May 1991. This included removing all contaminated mill tailings, building debris, and soil from the mill site and from 129 properties in the vicinity. The area was then backfilled with clean soil, contoured to promote drainage, and re-vegetated. The radioactive waste from the site was shipped a few miles southwest of the site to the Bodo Canyon disposal area. The cost of site cleanup totaled $53.5 million.

References

http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/Umtra.htm

http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/Umtra.htm

http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/Umtra.htm

http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/Umtra.htm

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/durango_title1.html