Matheson gets no answer on Moab tailings

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, wants to know if U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is going to adhere to existing federal law and remove uranium mill tailings from the Atlas Mill site next to Moab rather than cap them in place, but he received no promises Wednesday.

"I can't comment on what alternatives are being considered," Bodman told Matheson during a House Science Committee meeting. He added that the department will not knowingly violate federal law. But "there may be disagreement as to what the law means."

"I encourage you folks to consider what the law says," said Matheson, who was irritated that a DOE environmental impact statement even includes the option of leaving the tailings at their current site in direct contradiction to the federal law.

The law in reference is Public Law 106-398, passed in 1999 as part of a defense reauthorization bill, which specifically says the Moab tailings must be removed from their current site, which is now eroding into the Colorado River

Numerous scientific studies, including one by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, have maintained that the current location is unstable, and the radioactive waste could threaten 25 million downstream users. Other studies show the radioactivity has already begun to contaminate the underground water supply used by Moab residents.

Grand County Councilwoman Joette Langianese was in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with DOE officials about the mill tailings. Although Bodman did not hear what she had hoped to hear — that the tailings would be moved — she did come out of her meetings with other DOE officials encouraged and optimistic.

"Those tailings should not be on the river. That much is obvious to everyone," she said. "No matter how many studies you do, the bottom line is they have to be moved."

DOE officials, she said, cannot mistake where state and local officials stand on the issue, and the agency is under increasing pressure from elected officials in Arizona, Nevada and California — all states that rely on the Colorado River for drinking water — to remove the tailings.

Langianese also met with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who expressed concern about capping the wastes.

On Tuesday, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. joined in the opposition, writing to the DOE that "good science and good sense tell us the tailings must be moved."