Moab update - DOE press release

["Phil V. Egidi" <7pe@ornl.gov>]

This is a DOE press release fr*m a few days ago.
Phil


Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson Moves to Protect Southern California 
Water Source
Major Initiative To Cleanup Uranium Mill Tailings Moves Ahead

At the Weymouth Filtration Plant in La Verne, Calif., Energy Secretary Bill 
Richardson today signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will help ensure 
clean drinking water for 17 million Southern Californians. The agreement 
commits the Energy Department to cleaning up 10.5 million tons of uranium 
mill tailings in Moab, Utah that are sitting on the bank of the Colorado 
River, the source of drinking water for millions of Americans in the 
Southwest and Southern California.

"Millions of Americans depend on the Colorado River for their water," said 
Secretary Richardson, flanked by water filtration tanks with the San 
Gabriel Mountains. "I believe that this regional problem represents a 
national responsibility. The agreement we signed today is the next step in 
making sure that this water is protected."

The agreement commits the federal government, the State of Utah and the Ute 
Tribe to three interrelated actions:

The Department of Energy will seek funding and authority to remove the 
tailings and clean up the site. The clean up would be regulated by the U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), with participation by the state of Utah;
The Department of Energy's Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2, an undeveloped 
tract of land in the northeastern corner of the state, will be returned to 
the Ute Indian Tribe. In return, the Utes would give a portion of any 
royalties fr*m future energy production on the lands to a fund to help 
clean up the uranium mill tailings near Moab, Utah. The land, which is rich 
in oil shale deposits, was taken fr*m the Ute reservation in 1916 for use 
as a potential source of fuel for the Navy's oil-burning ships.
The Ute Tribe agrees to establish a 1/4-mile land corridor for a 75-mile 
stretch of the Green River that will be protected as environmentally 
sensitive. The Green River, one of the nation's most scenic and famous 
rivers, winds across eastern Utah through miles of undeveloped backcountry 
and ancient canyons.

The uranium mill tailings are the radioactive contaminated waste products 
fr*m nearly three decades of uranium mining operations. The waste sits in a 
110-foot mound at the doorstep of two national parks, Arches and 
Canyonlands. The tailings contain low levels of radioactivity fr*m uranium, 
radium, as well as hazardous materials such as arsenic, lead, mercury and 
other chemicals and metals left by the processes used to separate the 
uranium from the ore.

Moving the tailings away fr*m Moab is estimated to cost up to $300 million. 
The uranium waste resulted fr*m mill operations at the site from 1956 to 
1984. Denver-based Atlas Corp., which owned the site fr*m 1962 through 
1984, filed for bankruptcy two years ago. The NRC, which had been working 
with the Atlas Corporation for more than a decade to select and implement a 
final clean-up plan, recently appointed a trustee to manage the work. The 
Energy Department has successfully cleaned up 22 similar sites.

The memorandum, which was also signed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, 
Ute Tribal Business Committee Chairman O. Roland McCook Sr. and Utah 
Governor Michael Leavitt, is the next step in the Clinton-Gore 
Administration's efforts to removing the 150-acre site fr*m the banks of 
the Colorado River. The agreement will require Congressional approval.

"Today's signing moves the process along and will speed up congressional 
action," Richardson explained.

                                                             - DOE -

                          R-00-036

Phil Egidi
ORNL/GJ
7pe@ornl.gov
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