Bill out to guard Vegas water from uranium

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 | 7:40 a.m.

The Energy Department would have to more quickly move a radioactive uranium pile away from a site in Utah near the Colorado River, which supplies Southern Nevadans' drinking water, under a bill approved last week by the House of Representatives.

The amendment to a Defense Department bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, would require the 16 million-ton pile near Moab, Utah, to be moved by 2019 from a site 750 feet from the river to Crescent Junction, Utah, about 30 miles away.

The Energy Department, citing budgetary constraints, had planned to move the pile but not before 2028.

"DOE has a miserable record here to be honest and I've fired many shots across the bow before , but this was the time for the direct hit," Matheson said in prepared remarks. "This business to say 2028 is just unacceptable."

The uranium tailings, representing waste from mining activities for the manufacture of nuclear bombs, were produced by a mine that closed in 1984. The Energy Department took possession of the site in 2001 after the mine's last owner, Atlas Minerals Corp. of Denver, declared bankruptcy.

It has been estimated that it would cost $407 million to $472 million to move the pile, currently secured by a temporary cap.

"There's overwhelming scientific evidence that this site is unstable and that the contamination already migrating under the river toward the town of Moab could, with one major flood event, be dumped into the Colorado," Matheson said. "That disaster would put the health and safety of 25 million downstream users at risk."

Although environmental groups also have urged the Energy Department to move the uranium pile as soon as possible to guard against potential contamination of the river, the Southern Nevada Water Authority says there is no immediate threat to Southern Nevada's drinking supply.

The defense bill awaits Senate action.