Thursday, April 18, 2013

Stimulus Funds for Moab Uranium Tailings Cleanup




Comments:  Most mining cleanups are done by the taxpayers because the project could last 35 years, with numerous mining companies involved, hard to trace but the whole time it is ruining our water, air and land.


Posted by John Freeland


Lately, my go-to source for western U.S. water news and commentary is Coyote Gulch, a blog with it’s ear on the ground. Earlier this month, it reported here on a nice chunk of change from the U.S. Department of Energy going to clean up after the uranium industry. An excerpt:
Gary Harmon writing for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:
The federal government will provide $108 million from the economic stimulus package to push ahead more quickly with the cleanup of uranium mill tailings from Moab, Utah. The new spending will more than double the number of employees from 125 to at least 275, officials with the U.S. Department of Energy said. The cleanup is scheduled to begin April 20 and is estimated to cost about $1 billion, which will be paid by the Department of Energy: http://blogs.agu.org/terracentral/2009/04/27/stimulus-funds-for-moab-uranium-tailings-cleanup/

 
UPDATE:  Main Project Goals

Move tailings away from Colorado River,Protect river by reducing ground water contaminants,
Reclaim sites at Moab and Crescent Junction
Total project costs are estimated at about $1 billion:  Completion 2025-2029 depending on funding
Moab UMTRA Project
The U.S. Department of Energy has completed about one-third of a project to move 16 million tons of uranium tailings from the banks of the Colorado River, near the city of Moab, to a permanent disposal site 30 miles north, near Crescent Junction. This project is called the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project.
The Moab Tailings Project Site is located approximately 3 miles northwest of Moab in Grand County, Utah, and includes the former Atlas Minerals Corporation (Atlas) uranium-ore processing facility. The site is situated on the west bank of the Colorado River at the confluence with Moab Wash. The site encompasses 480 acres, of which approximately 130 acres is covered by a uranium mill tailings pile.

DOE restricts access to the radiological control area of the site where the mill tailings and the highest concentrations of soil contamination exist.

Security staff are on site 7 days per week, while maintenance activities, erosion control measures, tailings excavation and conditioning, ground water remediation activities, and health and safety oversight are conducted 4-5 days per week.

The Moab Project ships one trainload of tailings each day Monday through Thursday. The trains have up to 36 railcars, each holding four lidded containers, for a total of about 5,000 tons of tailings per shipment. Tailing shipments began in April, 2009, and are expected to continue through about 2025, depending on annually appropriated funds.