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Show THE ZEPH YR/F EBRUARY-MARCH 2005 On a personal level, the fall-out from the Boom days has deeply affected my family as | know it has others. I was treated and cured of thyroid cancer. Ironically, radiation caused to this behemoth called progress. Progress is fine. It's great. BUT, what is going to happen when there isno more land to grow crops or water to flush toilets and ward off dehydration? it and radiation cured it. Today, my oncologist is keeping close tabs on a condition he calls sleeping multiple myeloma. If it ever wakes up, 1am a goner. It's a malignant condition of the bone marrow, but at my age I don't fret about it, even though I will fight when the time The most visible reality of the aftermath is the heap of debris from Atlas Mill on the banks arrives. My husband died of bone cancer, indirectly. He stood on the loads of uranium he hauled and probed the ore with a Geiger counter for all the years he hauled the stuff. When the cancer metastasized to the pancreas, he died in 1982 at age 62. He never had a chance to retire from driving his beloved trucks and enjoy the fruits of his labors. Strangely, I never got mad at the radiation that killed him. I got mad at him forleaving me to face the aging process alone. We had such ambitious plans to travel the country and visit every museum we could find. I still wheel my little wagon up and down the Interstate between Ashton, Idaho and Tucson, Arizona on a regular basis. Recently, my granddaughter underwent treatment for thyroid cancer. All three of my children have heart and blood conditions. I don't know if any of these conditions can be traced to uranium and/or its by-products, but it seems highly suspect to me. There are On a personal level, the fall-out from the Boom Days has deeply affected my family, as I know it has others. ] was treated and cured of thyroid cancer. Ironically, radiation caused it and radiation cured it... of the Colorado River at Mob. For over thirty years there has been a constant harangue over what needs to be done about this pile of toxic waste. Studies on the problem have been continuous since Atlas closed. This week in the Salt Lake Tribune, there was yet another article about new studies and recommendations. I have a nephew, also raised in Moab and Developers have caused real estate values to increase alarmingly. This, in turn, has escalated taxes unreasonably high for those whose ancestral homes are in jeopardy of being lost to modern day ideas of living standards... many of my old Moab acquaintances whose demise was directly attributable to the Uranium Industry. Some families received a government pay-off. Some are still in litigation and some will never receive restitution. : Now, I'm going to tread in an area of hear-say. Some individuals will come down on me like a ton of bricks. I'm not noted for backing off but I am also honest enough to say these observations are from friends and relatives still living in the area. It concerns high costs, low wages, and loss of agriculture. It seems that both partners, in a wedded or unwedded state, must work two jobs each to keep body and soul alive, as we old-timers say. Rent, food, utilities, childcare, transportation costs, and medical care are so pricey, the blue collars are robbing Peter to pay Paul, as we also say. Even so, they are going deeper in debt every day. The real victims here are the children. Latch-key kids receive minimum supervision, and those raised by care-givers whose standards may not conform to the parents’ standards, result in confusion and chaos. Developers have caused real taxes unreasonably high for modern day ideas of living unsettled remoteness, of the THOSE TIMELES FOOT PRINTS BOYS... still has strong family ties there, who is a diagnostic engineer and micro-biologist on toxic wastes. He is called to assess such dumps all over the United States and foreign countries. He recently returned from a job in the Marshall Islands. He is presently in Arizona and says his heart's desire is to come home and retire on the Moab clean-up, which once it gets underway is expected to take ten years. In the meantime, the leaching process into the river and the ground, goes on, and on, and on, ad infinitum. The powers-that-be obviously hope the whole mess will quietly go away and the generations-to-come will take it for granted the poisons have become non-existent. All the fish and creatures that once inhabited its waters and shores will be extinct, plants and crops will be contaminated, and people drinking the water will be at a loss to pinpoint unusual medical conditions. So much for retirement plans and dreams. I wish I had tears to shed, not over what was, or whatis, but over what will be. Sadly, I don't. estate values to increase alarmingly. This, in turn has escalated those whose ancestral homes are in jeopardy of being lost to standards. Ancestors, who fought arid conditions and the present owners, are being forced to give up lands they cherish Where there is no money, there is no change of any kind, not of scene or routine. © Moss Hart WINNEROFTHE2004 EXCELLENCE IN TECNOLOGY WHAT DO WE DO? (ee hts 7 i) Ww i Jip WY “ Ay We write custom software for the big people and the little...OK:..We take that real big file cabinet full of paper and put it all into your computer. 121 E. 100 S. #108 Moab, UT 84532 435.259.4384 800.635.5280 |