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Show THE ZEPHYRDECEMBER 1994 PAGE 18 mfaH, they won't base their reclamation decision on it anyway, but rather on their Technical Criterion Review. This is, folks, the same review they based their FONSI on last time around the track! As Casey Stengel would put it, its deja vu all over again. and This helps explain why Bill Hedden did some heroic pavement-poundin- g Block of Chicago, to take on to get a major law firm specializing in this sort of tiling, Jenner and our case pro bono (for public benefit, no legal fees charged). On November 14, the Grand County Council agreed to budget $5,000 towards travel expenses for Jenner and Block attorneys coming here to do their homework. It is looking increasingly likely that we will have to enjoin the NRC from plowing ahead with capping the pile and get them into court where a judge can (As John read the law to them, explain what it means, and instruct them to go out and follow "Your tax at dollars work.1) Maynard noted, The Borrowing of Round Mountain. . arm-twisti- ng Another episode in the case of our piles it By Lance Christie The High Cost of Hard Rocks An EIS is basically a analysis, emphasizing environmental costs and benefits but giving due consideration to "bang far the buck." To justify choosing to cap the Atlas tailings in place, Atlas and the NRC have to make a convincing case that leaving the tailings in place does not pose a very high environmental risk or cost, and that moving the pile would be much more expensive than capping it in place. If the cost of moving the pile is actually dose to the cost of capping it in place; then there is no contest - the Klondike Flats site meets all standards for tailings reclamation perfectly, while one has to do a lot of vigorous rationalizing with Orwellian logic to find the current tailings site meets reclamation criteria. Atlas continues to claim that they can cap the pile in place for $12-1- 5 million, while moving cost-bene- fit The Life History of a Bureaucratic Pretzel Back in 1977-7Atlas had studied ten alternatives for site reclamation in an Environmental Impact Statement (HIS) process. Nine alternatives involved moving the pile to various locations. The EIS was done at a time when nobody had reclaimed a tailings pile. Atlas estimated it would cost some five times more to move the pile than to cap it in place, and that the environmental gains to be had for the price difference were not worth it. The NRC agreed and approved the capping-in-plac- e plan in 1982, tor which Atlas posted a bond, currently $6J million. the Department of Energy (DOE) and NRC had worked on capping or 1990, By August, moving same 21 tailings piles which were abandoned as of 1978. With that experience in hand, the NRC issued its technical criteria for tailings pile reclamations. Atlas was asked to its capping plan in terms of these criteria. According to these criteria, a good tailings reclamation should be: -- below grade (the Atlas pile consists of 130 acres of colloidal "slimes" standing 110 feet high above grade); -away from population (the Atlas pile is sitting in the middle of the "Arches" voting prednct 9, across the Colorado from downtown Moab and next to the entrance to Arches National Park which is approaching 900,000 visitors this year); -away from faults (the Atlas pile is sitting dead on top of the Moab Fault, which is classified as quite active by the University of Utah for earthquakes up to Richter 41), which can cause surface fissures over a four square mile area around the quake epicenter); -- in a location where the radioactive and heavy metal contents of the pile will be isolated from groundwater and air for 200 and preferably 1,000 years without maintenance (the Atlas pile is discharging over 1,000 times the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concentration limit of alpha radioactive material into the groundwater under the tailings; it sits on the flood plain of the Colorado River and Moab Wash and will have steep side slopes exposed to erosion after "reclamation"). 8, The Atlas tailings site. Through a torturous bureaucratic reasoning process, the NRC managed to rationalize the condusion that capping the Adas tailings in place would meet its reclamation criteria. On July 20, 1993, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Finding Of No Significant Impact to execute the plan. However, the (FONSI) for fee Atlas Minerals capping plan; a FONSI was subject to public comment and review before being final. The EPA, Department of the Interior, Utah Department of Environmental Quality, and Grand County Council all argued in their comments that the proposed pile capping reclamation met rum of the NRCs eight major criteria for an acceptable tailings reclamation. In addition, we made the stunningly novel observation that there were some 21 tailings reclamation projects which had been worked on. We could use that experience to plan for actual costs and problems associated with capping a pile versus moving it to a stable, lined site below grade and away from population. When we applied actual costs per unit from other projects to the Atlas pile, we came up with $54 million to cap it, and perhaps as low as $51.7 million to move the pile by rail (cheaper than truck) to an ideal geophysical site in the Mancos Shale on Klondike Flats 22 miles west of the Moab Airport What everyone (except Atlas and the NRC) demanded was a new EIS on the Atlas reclamation. On October 8, 1993, the NRC withdrew its FONSI - the first time that ever happened. On February 25, 1994, the NRC announced they were doing a whole new EIS. "Scoping" meetings to identify the Issues which the EIS should cover were held in Moab on April go-ahe- it to Klondike Flats would cost $100 million. However, when (me looks at the origin of these numbers, one finds they describe different reclamation efforts than those currently proposed. As cost figure is simply the 1978 capping plan's cost adjusted the FONSI stated, the capping-in-plac- e extensions upwards from 1978 for inflation into 1994 dollars. However, the pile had two for in the original plan, we now to 1983, and instead of the light gravel coating on the day called have a requirement for a rock armor over the pile and in the Moab Wadi area, said rocks to be at least 0.70 hardness and ranging from 4" to 32" mean diameter in various arms; depending on erosion force potential. When we look at the cost of capping and armoring piles done to the wamp 1990 standard now required of Atlas, we get $54 million for the job. (This estimate has now been verified as reasonable by the Region 6 EPA, the DOE, and Envirocare, a Tooele County corporation.) The majority of the cost difference between $15 and $54 million lies in the cost of quarrying, Colorado transporting, and placing the hard rock armor required. The only rock available on the Plateau that meets hardness specifications is basalt The only basalt exposed locally is in the laocolithic intrusions of the La Sal Mountains. In September, Arches Superintendent Nod Poe obtained a copy of Atlas's response to the NRCs request for more information about several aspects of the capping plan, inducting "riprap borrow sites." In the response; dated August 19, Atlas stated: ad 16-fo- ot 14. The defining characteristic of an EIS is that it analyzes the financial and environmental costs and benefits of alternative actions, including no action. The agency preparing the EIS then selects their "preferred option" and presents the reason for their choice; which goes to public review. If you don't have serious and fair consideration of accurate information on realistic alternative actions, you don't have an EIS as defined by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Alas, it now appears that the answer to the riddle: "When is an EIS not an EIS?" is "When the NRC does one." We are now fairly certain that the NRC has done no new fact finding, particularly on the alternative of moving the pile. In a conference call a couple of months ago initiated by the National Park Service, we discovered that the NRC staff was dueless as to the location where the pile could be most economically moved. They thought the alternative location was the state section from which Atlas had leased day borrow material for the cap! Most recently, the NRC has been saying that their "EIS" is going to be out in December, but never Crushed igneous bedrock riprap will be obtained from Section 22, Range 23E, Township 25S in Grand County, Utah. This location is approximately 24 miles from the Mias Corporation (Atlas) site. An additional igneous bedrock riprap borrow site is located in the same general vicinity, approximately 30 miles from the Atlas site. This location cannot be identified at this time, as disclosure may result in increased product and access costs. Section 22, R23E, T25S, is "Round Mountain," the igneous volcanic neck just southeast of Rio Randio subdivision in Castle Valley. Round Mountain has been Inside the munidpal dty limits of the Town of Castle Valley since the late 70's. Section 22 is a state section administered by State and Institutional Trust Lands. Mineral leases are held on this and the other state sections local gold promoter in Castle Valley by George Marcantanio, who acquired them from long-tim- e Johnny Adams. About three years ago. Atlas acquired a "building stone lease for Section 22 your best We're ALL sick of the 'Santa Hat Look.1 4 WINTER HOURS.-I OAM r., i Yi W VJ j, y!i to 6:30PM MONDAY-SATURD- SUNDAY: w. XMS Fr certtf lores A. fcr cwr AY i. IMn'H!SjWy SALE N00N-4P- M Largest selection of Natin American music STOPFERS. In SE Utah. .15,16 |