Editorial: Innovative cleanup of toxic waste

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.

Atlas Corp. ran a uranium mill in Moab, Utah, from 1960 to 1984. As part of its operations, the company sold uranium to the federal government for use in its weapons programs during the Cold War's arms race. But Atlas filed for bankruptcy two years ago, leaving behind an environmental disaster. More than 10 million tons of waste, which not only was radioactive but also included a hazardous mix of other materials -- ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury -- had contaminated 150 acres. This danger wasn't confined just to land, though. The wastes also were flowing into the Colorado River, which is the water supply for 25 million downstream users in Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico.

Despite the near unanimous agreement that the uranium tailings pile had to be moved in order to protect the environment and the public's safety, the agency responsible for its cleanup, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, decided that the wastes should be left where they were and simply capped by clay. This, of course, was a Band-Aid approach that was unacceptable. Requests to get the intervention of the Department of Energy, which had cleaned up other uranium tailings sites around the nation, didn't appear as if they would be answered.

Even when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced in June 1999 that he would review whether his department should take over the Atlas site, his own staff opposed assuming this task. But Richardson upended conventional wisdom, announcing Friday that the department would take responsibility for the site and move the radioactive tailings about 30 miles north of Moab to land owned by the federal government. To partly address the financial questions that dogged the NRC, Richardson announced an innovative approach to aid the program's funding. The DOE would return 84,000 acres of northern Utah land, rich in oil and gas, to the Northern Ute Indian tribe. As part of this deal, the federal government will receive a royalty on the sale of these reserves, a fee which would be used to partly offset the costs of moving the tailings.

But these royalties are just a small portion of the entire costs of the cleanup, which could total $300 million. Legislation was introduced last year by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, to get additional financial support to pay for the removal of the toxic wastes. Richardson said that the Clinton administration would seek $10 million for the next fiscal year to start the effort. While other environmental proposals undertaken by the Clinton administration have been met with GOP opposition, this is a situation where even many Republicans -- including Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt -- have approved of what will be a costly project. While the Clinton administration has done its job in finding a path to resolve this potentially dangerous situation, it is now up to the Republican-led Congress to approve the funds needed so that the long-term answer of removing the wastes can be accomplished.