Editorial: Right step taken on cleanup

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

It is promising that Congress has sent legislation to President Clinton that finally would begin the cleanup of a dangerous legacy of the Cold War. Tucked inside the Department of Defense's appropriations budget are the start-up funds to remove more than 10 million tons of waste left over from an abandoned uranium mill in Moab, Utah. The tailings from the uranium, which was sold to the federal government for its weapons program during the arms race, now sit precariously next to the Colorado River. The wastes from the processing are hardly benign: not only are the remnants radioactive, they also include ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury -- all seeping into the Colorado River.

The problem can't be overstated. Environmentalists and public health advocates have long been concerned about the poisonous liquid leaking into the Colorado River, which is the source of drinking water for 23 million people downstream in Nevada, Arizona and California. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission thought it was acceptable to just leave the tailings where they were, capping them with either clay or concrete in an attempt to prevent the toxic materials from escaping. But the DOE, to its credit, said capping the tailings wasn't an adequate safeguard. Instead the DOE now will oversee the cleanup, moving the million of tons of tailings to a safer location elsewhere in Utah. As the Sun's Mary Manning reported, environmentalists hailed the legislation. "We are removing a major source of contamination from the most important water source in the Southwest," s aid Bill Hedden of the Grand Canyon Trust.

For years now the Sun has been pointing out the dangers of the uranium tailings, a deteriorating situation that the NRC never took seriously. The $10 million appropriation will give the DOE about two years to study the site and then determine what will work best in cleaning up the radioactive and toxic materials. During this period the DOE also will hire a contractor to clean up the tailings, which could take anywhere from five to seven years. It is incumbent on the next administration and succeeding sessions of Congress to closely monitor the progress of this endeavor. For that matter, both the legislative and executive branches must build upon this initial commitment and provide enough funding to completely clean up this dangerous site.