DOE wants to move radioactive waste away from Colorado River

Thursday, April 7, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

The Energy Department wants to move a 12-million ton pile of radioactive waste away from the Colorado River, a major source of drinking water for about 25 million people, including Las Vegas.

The radioactive waste, more than 100 miles north of Las Vegas, did not pose an immediate acute health threat to the local water supply, but officials are glad it's moving.

The Energy Department on Wednesday said it plans to move the radioactive waste on the banks near Moab, Utah, from the old Atlas uranium mining operation, to a closed storage facility about 30 miles to the north, near Crescent Junction, Utah.

Although the Southern Nevada Water Authority did not demand the move from 750 feet from the river, the news that something will be done was welcomed.

"This is an important step forward, but certainly not the last step," said J.C. Davis, spokesman for the authority, who has monitored the longstanding issue since he came to the agency seven years ago.

"Our stand on it has been that we wanted the responsible parties to do the research to determine if removing the pile created a greater problem by stirring it up. We weren't proposing a specific course of action -- we just wanted a course of action to be taken."

While Wednesday's announcement was a victory for environmentalists and Western politicians who fear the debris could poison the drinking water supply for Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and other cities, Davis said there was no immediate, threat to Las Vegas' water supply.

The levels of both alpha and beta radiation from the pile and other potential hazards remained "well bellow acceptable health standards for drinking water as set by the Safe Drinking Water Act," Davis said.

Davis said government standards allow for 15 picocuries per liter for alpha radiation, but the readings are 3.45 at Lake Mead, into which the Colorado River water winds up. The government standards for beta radiation is 50 picocuries per liter, while Lake Mead is at 1.85, Davis said.

Also, Davis said, the government's acceptable uranium level limit is 30 parts per billion, while Lake Mead is at 4 parts per billion.

Davis said concerns were that a major flood or earthquake possibly could have dragged the pile into the river and that could have caused environmental problems.

"There was a concern downriver and of course within the environmental community, but we do not know how much contamination the tailings could have caused to the Colorado River system," Davis said, noting a more immediate concern was that over the course of time, rainfall could have caused the leaching of contaminants into the river.

"As far as we are concerned, it is good to have the descision on how the DOE will handle this so we can get it behind us. We are going to monitor their progress," Davis said.

Among the other plans studied was leaving the pile where it was and capping it, Davis said.

The Energy Department said it will recommend in an environmental impact statement that the waste be moved. The department will review all public comment before issuing a final decision, probably early this summer, according to Don Metzler, who manages the site from the department's Grand Junction, Colo., office.

After that, it will be up to Congress to come up with the more than $400 million needed to move the waste.

"I certainly hoped for this decision," Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said. "Moving the pile has always been, in my opinion, the right thing to do. Short-term cost considerations, I feared, were driving us to look at keeping the pile in place."

The site, covering 130 acres near the town of Moab, is the only decommissioned uranium mill overseen by the Energy Department that has yet to be cleaned up. The 94-foot-tall pile contains dirt, toxic chemicals and traces of radioactive substances left behind from decades of uranium ore processing.

Environmentalists say the contamination is already killing fish.

The larger, doomsday fear is that a major flood on the Colorado could wash the stuff into the river and poison the water with residual uranium, radon, ammonia and other dangerous material.

At the new location, the waste would be covered and buried in a hole, lined with a protective layer to keep the material from seeping into the groundwater. Depending on how the waste got there -- by rail, truck or pipeline -- the cleanup would cost an estimated $407 million to $472 million.

The waste began piling up in the 1950s. The department took control of the site in 2001 after the most recent owner of the mill, Denver-based Atlas Corp., declared bankruptcy in 1998 when it realized it could not afford to deal with the mess.

In November, the Energy Department outlined four options for the site. Three of them called for moving the waste and burying it anywhere from 17 to 85 miles away in a hole. Option No. 4, which could cost only half as much, called for leaving the pile in place but covering it over with dirt and rocks.