Matheson unhappy with tailings cleanup

The U.S. Department of Energy says the cleanup of the Moab radioactive uranium tailings has reached a milestone: 100 million gallons of contaminated groundwater has been extracted.

But Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, thinks the cleanup should be moving much faster.

According to the DOE Office of Environmental Management in Grand Junction, Colo., which is overseeing the project, the agency began taking remedial actions in 2003 to address concerns about ammonia and uranium concentrations in groundwater.

Using 40 wells, the DOE extracted groundwater, preventing it from flowing directly into the Colorado River. The water is piped to a lined, four-acre evaporation pond outside the river's 100-year floodplain, said a DOE news release. The pond is on top of the tailings pile.

Eventually, the DOE is supposed to move all 16 million tons of the tailings pile to a permanent disposal site at Crescent Junction, Grand County.

By Oct. 24, the wells had captured 100 million gallons of contaminated groundwater, which carried about 449,250 pounds of ammonia and 1,900 pounds of uranium, says the release.

Asked to comment on the DOE's announcement, Matheson said, "The serious contamination threat to the Colorado River cannot ultimately be resolved without removal of the tailings pile."

That's why he is continuing to push the DOE "to end the delays and move forward with the cleanup," Matheson said.