So. California backs bill on radioactive water tailings

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board has endorsed a congressional bill requiring the Department of Energy to remove 10.5 million tons of radioactive mill tailings, 600 feet from the Colorado River, near Moab, Utah.

A major portion of Southern California's tap water is drawn from the Colorado River, about 650 miles downstream from the Utah site, Mark Beuhler, MWD director of water quality, said. The river also serves Nevada and Arizona residents.

"Our tap water is safe today, but we're concerned about the future," Beuhler said after the board approved the resolution Tuesday. "Merely covering this dangerous dump won't keep the uranium from reaching the river."

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has increased testing for radionuclides in Lake Mead, the Las Vegas Valley's major supply of drinking water.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission suggested leaving the radioactive pile in place and capping it. The NRC is expected to decide on a solution in May.

But environmentalists and Utah officials are worried that a major flood could wash the pile into the river, contaminating it. The tailings are residue from a commercial mill that processed uranium ore for defense and other government uses from 1956 until it closed in 1984.

Polluted ground water under the pile is leaking into the river at about 50 gallons a minute. The DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimates that if covered, the site would continue to seep almost 4 gallons per minute for more than 200 years. That equates to 57,600 gallons a day going into the Colorado River.

More than 12 members of the House of Representatives co-sponsored a bill this year that would require the DOE to remove the pile spread across 130 acres.

archive