NRC and state choose trustee to clean up Atlas tailings pile

Robert Gehrke

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999 | 9:14 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY - A Los Angeles firm has been picked as trustee to oversee capping of 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings on the banks of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah.

But Bill Hedden, chairman of the Grand Canyon Trust environmental group pushing to have the tailings moved, worries the money left behind by the bankrupt Atlas Corp. won't be enough to pay for the project, and taxpayers will have to cover the shortfall.

Dames & Moore, based in Los Angeles, was chosen Monday to oversee cleanup of the sprawling tailings pile after Denver-based Atlas, which operated the uranium mill from 1962 to 1984, filed for bankruptcy last fall.

A required cleanup bond left behind by Atlas contains between $7 million and $8 million, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Hedden contends the number is inflated by near-worthless water and land rights, and is actually closer to $5.25 million.

Either way it's not enough. Atlas estimated it would cost $20 million simply to put an earthen cap on the pile. The NRC estimated capping the pile and cleaning up groundwater would cost about $47 million. The state's estimate for groundwater cleanup alone is about $77 million.

Joe Holonich, deputy director of the NRC Division of Waste Management, said it's still unclear where the additional money will come from.

"We don't know," he said. "There is no other source of funds out there other than the Title X funds."

Title X funds are money from the Department of Energy to clean up tailings from mills that sold uranium to government weapons programs. In Atlas' case, 56 percent of the mine's uranium was sold to the government, meaning the DOE will pay for 56 percent of the cleanup.

However, since Atlas has filed bankruptcy, there is nobody to pay the additional 44 percent.

"There's no other source of non-DOE payments we can identify at this point," said Holonich.

He said the $5 million will allow Dames & Moore to begin the first step of the cleanup - draining 500 million gallons of contaminated water from the pile over the next 30 months.

"We're very concerned. We are concerned there wasn't sufficient bonding there when the NRC was working with Atlas prior to the bankruptcy filing and we've raised that issue with the NRC for a number of years," said Dianne Nielson, executive director of the Department of Environmental Quality.

Hedden criticized the NRC for plowing ahead despite the uncertainty.

"Somebody needs to do a mercy-killing on NRC and take this project away from them because they don't have the financial, regulatory or administrative wherewithal to deal with this site in the wake of Atlas' bankruptcy," Hedden said.

If the remediation of the pile is inadequate, Hedden said, the tailings will continue to jeopardize three species of fish - the southwestern willow flycatcher, razorback sucker, and Colorado squawfish - that the Fish and Wildlife Service identified as being threatened by contaminants from the pile.

It would then fall to the DOE to protect the fish, again with taxpayer help.

"There's nothing Dames & Moore can do for $5 million that's going to fix (the contamination)," said Hedden. "DOE's going to get this massive site that is in slam-dunk violation of the Endangered Species Act."

Gov. Mike Leavitt, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Rep. Chris Cannon have said capping the pile is inadequate and want it moved. Cannon has introduced a bill enabling the DOE to move the pile at an estimated cost of $150 million.

"Even to cap the pile is a situation that leaves us looking for funds. If we're going to move the pile there's additional expense beyond the groundwater cleanup," said Nielson. "What we now need to do is go out and find the additional funding to get the pile moved and get the groundwater and the contamination of the Colorado River cleaned up."

The uranium sediment spans 150 acres, stands 40 feet high and can be seen from the two-lane interstate running to Arches National Park, just north of Moab.

The appointment of Dames & Moore as the trustee releases Atlas from any future liability for cleanup of the site. Richard Blubaugh, Atlas' vice president of environmental and governmental affairs, said the resolution will help the company restructure its debt and continue operating.

"Clearly, the biggest single burden that Atlas was faced with as a corporation was the uncertainty associated with the potentially large liabilities associated with the site," he said.