Cleanup near Moab given 2019 deadline

More on the issue……

Feds say money lacking for planned removal of Moab-area radioactive tailings By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 02/08/2008 06:38:45 AM MST

WASHINGTON – The radioactive waste pile on the banks of the Colorado River will just have to wait. Despite a congressional mandate to remove the mountain of uranium tailings and contaminated soil by 2019, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told House members Thursday that his department won’t finish the project until 2025 or later. That infuriated Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who has repeatedly pressed the department to quickly remove the pile outside of Moab, which threatens the drinking water of 30 million downstream users. “It just seems like this thing is going on forever,” Matheson said after the House Energy and Commerce hearing. “More disturbing is that they would ignore an act of Congress.” Matheson added a provision in the latest defense bill requiring the Energy Department to remove the Moab tailings by 2019. This was only the latest deadline in a plan that has remained in flux. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, “I have no doubt that, with a little creativity, the earlier deadline can still be met. I certainly haven’t given up on that.” The uranium tailings span 130 acres at the edge of the Colorado River, where studies have found that uranium and ammonia are contaminating the water. The tainted dirt is left over from a uranium-processing mill that was operated by Charlie Steen’s Atlas Mineral Corp. The Advertisement

company closed the mill in 1984 and filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Two years later the Energy Department took control of the site. Its original plan was to move the uranium tailings out on rails, finishing up by 2012. But last year Bodman told Congress that budget constraints have pushed that deadline back another 14 years to 2028. And even when pushed by Matheson on Thursday, Bodman reiterated that his department won’t rush to clean up the Moab site, saying it is less of a priority than other “higher risk” contamination projects throughout the country. Bodman named the Savannah River site as one of those priority projects. The site in western South Carolina is loaded with chemical and nuclear waste. But the department has awarded a contract with EnergySolutions and is moving forward with plans to ship the tailings to a safe site in Crescent Junction, according to department spokeswoman Megan Barnett. “We are committed to moving the mill tailings pile in a safe and expeditious manner away from the Colorado River,” she said. In the end, it all comes down to funding. President Bush has budgeted $30.5 million for the next fiscal year. But the department would need more than $45 million next year to keep on pace to reach the 2019 deadline. Matheson promised to fight for more money, but he also said Bodman has used the funding as “an excuse.” “It seems like every step of the process is taking longer,” Matheson told the secretary during the hearing. “I don’t understand why it is one delay after one delay after one delay, and I don’t think it is simply budget.” He claimed the staffers charged with leading the removal effort are dragging their feet on a number of issues, including the debate about whether to remove the tailings by truck or by train. Matheson also criticized the Energy Department for not releasing a year-by-year budget for the Moab cleanup, which could cost as much as $500 million in all. “My question is: Where is the plan?” Matheson said. Barnett said that plan is in the works. The department is teaming with EnergySolutions to develop an annual cost and work plan. Right now, the department is only looking five years in the future, when it hopes to have removed 2.5 million tons of the 16 million tons of contaminated waste. mcanham@sltrib.com

— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “adkramoo” wrote:

It is always so comforting to drive by, when the wind is blowing and > see the trucks there hosing down the huge mound, so the “hot” dirt > doesn’t just blow away. Talk about a dirty job!! So where they plan to > store it near Crescent Junction, that wind swept waste land?

Cleanup near Moab given 2019 deadline > By Patty Henetz > The Salt Lake Tribune > Article Last Updated: 01/26/2008 12:49:48 AM MST

Cleaning up an immense pile of radioactive waste that flanks the > Colorado River near Moab just got a new deadline. > Under a provision Rep. Jim Matheson pushed into the defense > spending bill enacted this past week, the U.S. Department of Energy > must finish the entire project by 2019. > Trucking radioactive tailings and contaminated soil from the > 435-acre former Atlas Uranium Mill site 30 miles to Crescent Junction > is expected to take five years. And that means the DOE has to get to > work, Matheson spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend said. > “That’s what the law is now,” she said. > But the Energy Department appears confused about what it is doing > to bring water to Crescent Junction for construction and maintenance > of the new dump site. > A proposal crafted by Salt Lake City waste-disposal company > EnergySolutions, chosen in 2006 to do the project, says the water > would be conveyed 21 miles through a 6-inch pipeline from the Green > River to Crescent Junction. > Grand County officials and a Green River rancher stepped up with > requests to piggyback on the water delivery. > Grand County suggested DOE build an 8-inch line so the county > might someday be able to develop the land near the waste site. Rancher > Tim Vetere, with the support of the State Institutional Trust Lands > Administration and unnamed financial backers, proposed to build a 10-inch > line that Vetere might use to irrigate alfalfa fields and SITLA might > employ to service industrial development. > Matheson opposed any changes in DOE plans because of the potential > to delay the project, which Heyrend said already has dragged on too long. > Cincinnati, Ohio-based DOE spokesman Bill Taylor twice confirmed > to The Salt Lake Tribune that Vetere’s proposal was under consideration. > But Don Metzler, who is managing the tailings removal project from > his office in Grand Junction, Colo., emphatically told Heyrend that no > such project is under evaluation. > The Atlas mill processed uranium during the Cold War. The company > shut down the mill in 1984 and went bankrupt in 1998. The tailings > have posed a threat to the Colorado River, the primary potable and > agricultural water used by more than 30 million people downstream. > In 2000, the federal government assumed ownership. Four years > later, the Energy Department agreed to remove the tailings; in 2006, > the agency hired EnergySolutions as the project contractor. > EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said the company would > evaluate any proposal the DOE brings to it, but didn’t know about the > Vetere-SITLA idea. > “We obviously do not want to delay the progress of this project,” > Walker said. “We’re hopeful they make this decision quickly.” >