More on Moab, Utah

[Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

	RADSAFERS....

	Below is another article (which appeared today in the San Diego Union) on
the situation in Utah (USA)...  The article address is here: 

		http://www.uniontrib.com/news/state/981227-0010_1n27nuclear.html

		The article without the photos (etc.) has been downloaded below.  When I
down-loaded it, the fonts and margins were REAL funny.  I've tried to clean
it up - hope its not too much of a mess when you get it...jb


		Pressure mounts to move threat to drinking water

                By David Hasemyer 
                UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 

                December 27, 1998 

                An immense radioactive waste pile, almost inconspicuous
among Utah's 		  red rock canyons, has become the focus of a debate
stretching from San 		  Diego to Washington, D.C.

                The 10.5 million-ton heap of nuclear waste and poison
chemicals sits 		  750 feet from the Colorado River, the primary source of
water for 		  Southern California, Arizona and southern Nevada. San Diego
County draws 		  62 percent of its water from the Colorado.

                Until recently the pile appeared likely to stay put, even
though 		  scientists say it is oozing a stream of toxic pollutants into
the river.

                But in the last few weeks, momentum has built to block the
Nuclear
                Regulatory Commission's long-standing plan to have the
abandoned pile
                capped -- a cheaper alternative to moving it -- and left
near the 		  tourist boom town of Moab, Utah.

                "I am convinced that I am going to see the pile moved. I
wasn't 		  convinced of that a year ago," said Sam Taylor, longtime
co-publisher of 		  Moab's weekly Times-Independent newspaper.

                Opposition growing

                What has convinced Taylor, whose paper won awards for its
decade-long
                coverage of the waste pile, is the mounting political and
legal 		  pressure.

                  A coalition of environmental groups, Utah businesses and
tiny Grand
                County, Utah, has filed a federal lawsuit to stop a
proposal to let the 		  pile sit by the river. The lawsuit claims the
Nuclear Regulatory 		  Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
violated the 		  Endangered Species Act because the chemicals leaking into
the water are 		  killing two rare kinds of fish.

                Further, the coalition has asked a federal judge in Utah to
stop the 		  NRC from finalizing plans to leave the pile in place until a
better 		  strategy can be developed to protect the river.

                  Representatives from California and Utah are planning to
push 		  Congress to appropriate money to pay for moving the pile.
Legislation is 		  being drafted for congressional consideration next year.

                  Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has taken notice of the
growing
                controversy. After a recent visit to the site, Babbitt said
that 		  relocation seems a reasonable solution to protect the water supply.

                  Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, has drafted a letter to
President 		  Clinton urging him to get involved in efforts to move the
pile "to avert 		  an environmental and financial fiasco."

                "We have a pretty strong force behind the efforts to move
the pile," 		  said Republican Utah Congressman Chris Cannon, who intends
to introduce
                legislation that would provide the legal foundation.

                Pile grounded in Cold War

                In August, a San Diego Union-Tribune story called attention
to the fact 		  that Moab's nuclear waste pile is the nation's largest
radioactive dump 		  remaining by the edge of a major river.

                Sitting by a bend in the river near the small town of Moab,
the 130-		  acre pile represents the toxic legacy of the Cold War and of
America's 		  jump into the atomic age.

                In the 1950s and '60s, a mill there was one of the
country's largest 		  producers of processed uranium, the highly
radioactive heart of atomic 		  weapons and an economical source of fuel
for nuclear power plants. But 		  for every ounce of uranium produced, 6
pounds of waste -- including 		  ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury -- were
generated. The mill closed 		  March 15, 1982, after operating for more
than 25 years.

                Today, studies have shown that the mix of chemicals and
radioactive 		  waste leaking from the pile can kill wildlife and is
dangerous to humans 		  in high concentrations.

                A report done for the federal government shows as much as
28,800 		  gallons of the dangerous waste seeps into the Colorado River
every day 		  and will continue leaking for hundreds of years. The
radioactive 		  contamination is 31 times higher than Environmental
Protection Agency 		  standards allow.

                Although the toxicity diminishes as the river flows past
Moab on its 		  thousand mile journey to Southern California, the potential
harm to the 		  water supply has heightened the concerns among those who
depend on it.

                Tests on the water coming to San Diego shows traces of
radiation are
                present, but nowhere near the danger level.

                But making sure the water remains safe has drawn the
attention of 		  Babbitt and others, who say moving the pile away from the
river's edge 		  is the reasonable answer.

                Nine smaller nuclear waste piles in the Southwest already
have been 		  moved and buried at locations safely away from rivers and
streams. Some 		  of those piles are less than one-tenth the size of Moab's
pile and much 		  less dangerous "It seems that makes a pretty strong case
for doing that 		  here," Babbitt said in a recent interview about the Moab
site.

                Babbitt, who spent a summer prospecting for uranium when he
was in 		  college, said he is mindful that preserving the quality of
drinking 		  water must be given priority over costs associated with moving
the pile.

                "The public has consistently said that when it comes to our
water 		  supply we don't want to cut corners," he said.

                Regulatory maneuvering needed

                The first step in that process would be to transfer
regulatory 		  responsibility for the pile from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to 		  the U.S. Department of Energy, which has the money and
the clout to get 		  the pile moved.

                When the government decided in the late 1970s to tackle the
radioactive
                messes left behind from uranium milling, it appointed two
agencies to 		  deal with the problems.

                The Department of Energy would clean up the piles of
radioactive 		  material at abandoned mills and pay for the work with
public funds. The 		  Nuclear Regulatory Commission would supervise
cleanups of sites owned by 		  existing companies, with the owners paying
most of the bills.

                The Moab mill fell under the jurisdiction of the NRC
because its owner,
                Denver-based Atlas Corp., was still in business.

                Although the NRC's own environmental impact report said it was
                "environmentally preferable" to move the pile to a desert
plateau 18 		  miles away, it didn't have the regulatory muscle to force
Atlas to move 		  the waste.

                So the NRC has endorsed a plan by Atlas to cap the pile
with 		  impermeable clay and scatter rocks on top and along the edges.

                That remedy has a price tag of about $16 million, compared
with 		  estimates as high as $155 million to move the pile.

                While the Atlas plan is far cheaper, Filner and others
don't want to 		  leave a mess for future generations to clean up. Moving
the pile now, 		  Filner says, will be much less costly than relocating
later when it 		  becomes apparent that is the responsible solution.

                The NRC has postponed granting final approval for capping
the pile 		  until early next year. Even if approval is granted, Filner and
Cannon 		  say they will fight for congressional relief.

                Along with Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, Filner has
drafted a letter 		  to President Clinton urging him to include money in
the federal budget 		  to pay for moving the pile.

                "We . . . ask you to work with federal agencies and the
Congress to 		  craft a strategy that will result in clean-up worthy of the
primary	  		  water supply for the entire Southwest," Filner requests in
the letter.

                "A shortsighted reclamation is a terrible legacy to leave
future 		  generations who will find the Colorado River -- particularly its
		  drinking water and its wildlife -- ever more precious." 

                In the end, Filner, like Babbitt and Cannon, wants to see
the matter 		  shifted from the NRC to the Department of Energy, which has
spent nearly 		  $1 billion relocating the nine other sites.

                Cannon's proposed legislation would authorize the transfer
and set in 		  motion steps needed to secure funding to move the pile.

                Endangered fish part of debate

                The small town of Moab has found itself on the map before.
First as a
                boomtown where most of the nation's uranium was found. And
most 		  recently as the spot where daredevil river rafters, mountain
bikers, 		  climbers, hikers and 4-wheel enthusiasts come to launch their
adventures 		  in some of the nation's most desolate and wildly scenic
country.

                As a kid, newsman Sam Taylor wiled away his summers in a
shady spot 		  along the Colorado River, a fishing line drifting in the
current of the 		  muddy water.

                Hoping to reel in a giant catfish, tasty when rolled in
cornmeal and 		  cooked with a little salt and pepper, Taylor often found
two especially 		  ugly fish wriggling at the end of his line.

                Disappointed, he'd toss them back.

                What Taylor had hooked was either a Colorado squawfish or a
razorback
                sucker, two disgusting-looking fish now at the center of
the legal 		  battle over the pile's future.

                If the politicians somehow fail to get the pile moved,
	  environmentalists hope a federal law that protects endangered animals
 will.

                Those fish offer a slim legal foothold to those who are
demanding that 		  the pile be moved from the river.

                The lawsuit filed in federal court in Salt Lake City claims
the U.S. 		  Fish and Wildlife Service and the NRC have failed to ensure
that the 		  endangered fish are protected from the contamination leaking
into the 		  river.

                "It's ironic that two fish that I use to catch as a boy and
throw back 		  because they were so ugly may stand a better chance of
changing things 		  than the hazard to our health and water," said Taylor,
who still 		  sometimes drops a line in the river.

                He doesn't eat fish near the pile though.

                And he says he won't until the pile is moved.


	Hope you all enjoyed this...

	Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)
	SSC-SD, San Diego, California, USA
                  




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