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Show 8 - HARVEST TIMES - OCTOBER 1994 More ROUND MOUNTAIN from Page 1 “ an old T-shirt. Then I’m going to put a few precious stones inside. Not diamonds or rubies, but little pieces of igneous intrusion. Then I’m going to send the pouch to Scott Hershey (Director of Utah State Trust Lands Administration in Salt Lake City) with a note: “THIS IS THE ONLY ROCK ATLAS GETS FROM ROUND MOUNTAIN." There are a bunch of names and agency titles and dates in this story. Please bear with me: At our February 16 Town Council meeting, Mayor Valli Smouse reported Bill Hedden’s concern about the Atlas plan to take rock from Miner’s Basin in the La Sals and haul it down past Castle Valley, down River Road, and spread it over their tailings mountain. The Gross Vehicle Weight Limit on Loop Road and the portion of Highway 128 leading to Moab had recently been changed from 15,000 pounds to 55,000. We agreed to write the Utah Department of Transportation and urge them to restore the original limits. At our September 21 meeting, Mayor Smouse shared another message from Bill Hedden. This one was about a conversation he had with Superinten- dent Noel Poe, Arches National Park. Atlas had their eye on another chunk of rock—Round Mountain. The Council asked me to look into the matter. I was eager to do it. The Mountain is in our backyard; better yet, we're in its backyard. The Mountain doesn't belong to us, we belong to it. And they want to take a beautiful and healthy mountain, bust it up, and haul it away to cap their ugly, toxic mountain? Like hell. Poe had requested from the “Uranium Recovery Branch of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Division of Low-Level Waste Manage— ment and Decommissioning” office copies of letters and documents pertaining to Atlas and the tailings pile. On September 19 he received Atlas’s letter of August 19 to the NRC, plus their response to NRC‘s Request for Information for an Environmental Impact Statement. Poe looked it over and the next day called Jan Parmenter, Regional Manager for State Trust Lands, based in Moab. Jan was surprised to learn that Atlas‘s letter claimed “Crushed igneous bedrock riprap will be obtained" from six sections of primarily State Trust suppressants on the primary travel routes.” Chemical dust suppressants sprayed over our watershed? Lands, including Round Mountain. The Atlas plan is specific in terms Parrnenter had not been notified, except of the heavy equipment used at the for a call two days before from an Atlas TAILINGS site, dust generation, etc. It executive, wanting to know application says nothing about their operations at procedures for getting “borrow the EXCAVATION sites; no informamaterials” from State Lands Trust. He tion is provided about the process or asked for an application form. That equipment to be used. Are they going means in July Atlas tells the NRC to be using explosives to blast Round where they “will obtain” borrow Mountain? Are they going to crush materials, then waits for three months large rocks into cobbles at Round to make application to the Land Trust. Mountain? Look at the language of the Atlas At our October 5 meeting, Town Reclamation Plan. They don't call our Council members unanimously mountain Round Mountain, it’s a accepted, and signed, a letter to Scott “riprap borrow site.” Borrow implies payback, but neighbors, we’re talking about taking away and not replacing. In response to the NCR's questions, Atlas proposes the following: A. “The reclamation process is expected to be performed in a phased manner over a period of several years . . . . Riprap and clay will be trucked to the site during winter months when tourist traffic is reduced.” Great for the tourists, but leaves us residents to share narrow and often icy winter roads with large trucks. B. “It is anticipated that reclamation will be performed in five 15—week phases starting in the summer of 1995 and concluding in the summer of 1999.” C. “Approximately 30 weeks will be devoted to the haulage and placement of clay and rock materials.” D. “The rock and clay will be delivered to the site by a fleet of 20—ton on-road trucks at an approximate rate of 10 to 12 trucks per hour.” Figure 12 trucks an hour, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 30 weeks. That's 96 truck trips a day for 150 days—14,400 total trips; 288,000 total tons of “riprap borrow.” E. "Approximately 50 acres will be subjected to potential dust-raising activities at any one time. This will include haul roads, excavation and dumping areas, and staging areas.” What about the dust blowing down on our homes when the winds start whipping around Round Mountain? F. “During reclamation operations, water trucks will be used to spray water and/or chemical dust Hershey outlining Castle Valley concerns. Copies were sent to Hedden, Poe, Parmenter, our Town Attorney, our consulting attorney for the Watershed Protection Ordinance, Atlas Corporation, NCR, CV POA, CV Times, SUWA’s attorney, UDOT, and the State Highway Department in Moab. As a Town, we are proceeding with all deliberate speed to get a Watershed Protection Ordinance in place, providing legal leverage in matters where the integrity of our aquifer is threatened. Likewise a Subdivision Ordinance, which will limit how State Trust Lands within the incorporated area of town can be used after they are sold. Many other actions are contemplated. This issue will be on the POA Annual Meeting agenda Saturday, October 15. We will talk more about strategies to confront this threat to our valley. I’m going to have the little pouch there, and you can toss in a note if you care to. We’re also going to have names and addresses of persons/ agencies you can write and letters you can sign. We need volunteers to do various types of research, lobbying, letter writing, and telephoning. This is serious business. The price for doing nothing is too great to pay. See you on the 15th. -Donovan Roberts |