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This week is significant for the town of Moab as well as everyone who lives downstream from that huge toxic pile of uranium mill tailings that sits nearby along the Colorado River. Finally, after decades of political give and take, cleanup experts are beginning to move the waste by rail to a safe, permanent disposal site some 30 miles away.
The move is costing taxpayers a bundle - ultimately about a billion dollars. Better that, though, than to continue tempting Mother Nature. The tailings sit precariously close to the Colorado River. Geologic studies suggest the Colorado, like any river, experiences "episodic high flows and natural wandering (that) could undercut the tailings pile." Were that to happen, radioactive waste would be carried downstream at considerable danger and cost to humans and the natural environment.
The Obama Administration has acknowledged the importance of the cleanup by directing $108 million in economic stimulus money toward the "shovel ready" project. This additional funding will accelerate the site cleanup by several years.
KSL welcomes these important developments. Where it now sits, the tailings pile is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. The sooner the waste is moved the better, especially for the millions of people who live downstream.
