Use of trucks OK'd for cleaning up tainted Moab site

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 1, 2008 | by Stephen Speckman Deseret Morning News

The Department of Energy announced Friday that it will allow the use of trucking to haul away tons of waste from a uranium mill tailings site in Moab.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said last month that DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman was "dragging his feet" on removing radioactive tailings piled close to the Colorado River. Matheson wants the tailings gone by 2019, and he has pushed for $30.5 million in this year's DOE budget just for cleanup of the tailings.

Spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend said Friday that Matheson was pleased with the DOE decision. "Matheson has been concerned with foot- dragging by DOE, in light of the threat to health and safety posed by the location of the 16 million-ton pile," Heyrend said in an e- mail.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said the DOE is moving in the right direction toward achieving a 2019 deadline. Originally, rail was the preferred means of transporting the tailings to a disposal site in Crescent Junction, Grand County. But the DOE this week amended its 2005 decision to include trucking to "accelerate" the cleanup process.

Mark Clemens, manager of the Sierra Club's Utah chapter, said his preference would still be using the rail line close to the pile instead of opting for the huge increase in truck traffic it will take to reach the 2019 deadline.

"It's still a glass half full," Clemens said. "It accomplishes the objective, but in doing so, it unnecessarily diminishes the safety of travelers along (U.S.) 191."

But an appeal from the Sierra Club at this point, he said, may upset the "apple cart," and his group isn't interested in any more cleanup delays.

The DOE said a highway expansion and the cost of rail upgrades made truck transport the "optimal" method for relocating the tailings.

"The department is committed to ensuring the protection of human health and the environment in the Moab area and in the communities served by the Colorado River," Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Jim Rispoli said Friday in a statement. "Today's announcement is a step toward fulfilling our Cold War cleanup obligations by moving the tailings pile in a safe and expeditious manner."

DOE officials also said they will continue to clean up the contaminated groundwater near the Moab site. Since 2003, 103 million gallons of contaminated groundwater has been captured and prevented from spilling into the Colorado River.

Bennett took credit Friday for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2008 that, he said, moved up the deadline for removing the 130 acres of tailings from 2028 to 2019.

The so-called Moab Project Site was once a 400-acre uranium milling site located three miles north of Moab. The main concern has been about contaminating the Colorado River via groundwater. Scientists have said that it's a matter of when, not if, a flood will slam the Moab area and wash radioactive tailings into the Colorado River.

Contributing: Suzanne Struglinski

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com