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Show BEAUTIFUL TIMES RECLAMATION OF ATLAS MINERALS’ URANIUM TAILINGS PILE - NOVEMBER 15, 1995 - 5 comparison of the alternative of bury- it is left where it is. No sandstone ing the stuff at a stable, isolated loca- meets the specifications, so Atlas con- Company began processing uranium ore at the mill site located beside the tion. Instead, NRC did an extraordinarily sketchy analysis of moving the pile to several other sites, concluding for each one that it was too far away, fossil fuels would be wasted in transport, Colorado River in the Moab Valley. potential for accidents existed, and it from erosion. This area happens to be- After six years of operation, the mill long to the State School and Institu— tional Trust Lands Administration, and objective of reclamation is to achieve would be too expensive. Moab was ba— sically a company town at that point, and nobody protested. Ever since. NRC and Atlas have considered the issue of how to reclaim the pile settled. Consequently, in 1993, when NRC released the Final Environmental Assessment that authorized the start of reclamation, the only alternatives com— pared were Atlas’ reclamation plan and the plan of doing nothing whatsoever with the tailings. Not surprisingly, NRC found that it would be safer if the pile was covered up. This action was protested by the Grand County Council, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Utah on three basic issues: the pile had been made significantly larger and higher and more unstable since the reclamation plan was developed: there had never been an adequate analysis of the alternative of moving the pile and “long term isolation of the waste from burying it, a plan which appeared to the human and natural environment without the need for on-going mainte— nance.” And the preferred method of achieving that goal is “below-grade en- have good potential to achieve most of the objectives of reclamation better ‘ than Atlas’ plan; and finally, the estimates of the costs of various plans were based on no information at all, yet they appeared to drive the whole de— cision. (Atlas estimates reclamation in In 1956, the Uranium Reduction was purchased by Atlas Corporation which ran it until it closed down in 1984. Ultimately, 11 million tons of radioactive tailings accumulated at the site. The process of preparing to reclaim the mill and tailings has been going on ever since. The clean-up of uranium mills is performed under the regulations con— tained in the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMI'RCA). Under the Act, orphaned piles are re— claimed by the Department of Energy as Superfund sites; and piles owned by a responsible party (like Atlas) are cleaned-up by their owners under the oversight of the Nuclear regulatory Commission (NRC). To implement the Act, a generic Environmental Impact Study (EIS) was performed in 1978 which set goals and standards for reclamation at all sites. The primary tombment at a suitable geophysical site.” In 1982 the NRC wrote an EIS on reclamation plans for the Atlas site. This document recommended reclaiming the tailings where they sit on the riverbank by covering them with sand, clay, and a protective armoring of ig~ neous or metamorphic rock. These coverings are supposed to isolate the tail— ings from the environment even place to cost $12—15 million, and relo— cation to cost $200 million. Actual experience with other reclamation pro— jects indicates that the costs for both options may be very similar, about $60 million.) The comments on the Environmental Assessment were per- ducted a search and discovered that Round Mountain in Castle Valley is the only reasonably nearby place to get igneous and metamorphic rock in the large sizes needed to protect the pile in 1992 Atlas secured a lease to mine the rocks from there. The plan is to mine some 14,000-15,000 truck loads of rock from the south side of Round Mountain and haul it down the river road to Moab This would be unnecessary if the tailings were hauled by rail and buried in the mancos shale north of Moab. That kind of disposal would not require any ‘rip—rap’ or it could be done with the small cobble rock available in gravel pits in'the Moab Valley. It is important to send your comments to the NRC, Senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, Congressman Bill Orton and Governor Michael Leavitt. We will be preparing a fact sheet so that interested people can make substantial, persuasive comments in their letters. A public information meeting will be held in Moab on Nov. 16 at 730 pm at Star Hall, and there will probably be another meeting soon after the EIS is released. Bill Hedden ATLAS TAILINGS W For copies of the EIS contact: Myron Fliegel Project Manager United states, Nuclear Reg. Com. Washington DC, 20555-0001 Send written comments to: Governor Michael Leavitt State Capitol Building Salt Lake City, UT 84114 though they sit in the middle of a suasive enough that Senator Orrin major wash, astraddle a geologic fault, next to Arches National Park, directly across the river from southern Utah’s Hatch stepped in and told NRC to do a complete Environmental Impact Study, comparing alternatives. That process Senator Onin G. Hatch 6317 Dirkson Senate Office Building Washington DC, 20510 Senator Robert Bennett 6317 Dirkson Senate Office richest wetland, and next to one of the has been going on since spring of Building West’s fastest growing towns. The 1994, and we expect to have a draft worst contamination is coming out of the bottom of the pile into the ground- document in very early 1996. It is very Washington DC, 20510 Congressman Bill Orton 1129 Longworth House Office water, which is loaded with arsenic, radium, thorium, polonium, uranium, molybdenum, chromium, lead and a still be NRC’s preferred alternative. People wishing to comment on the draft will probably have only 3045 host of other poisons. NRC considers days to do so, so time will be short. this unimportant because the pollution The reason that all of this is important to people in Castle Valley, is diluted in the Colorado River. Since this plan fails to meet most likely that reclamation in place will aside from concerns about the river or of the criteria listed for reclamation, the Moab Valley, is that the pile must one might have expected a detailed be armored with sturdy, durable rock if Building Washington DC, 20510 Letter of Thanks encouraging continued support: William Sinclair Division of Radiation Control Dept. of Environmental Quality 168 North 1950 West PO Box 144850 Salt Lake City, UT 841144850 |