KLASTV.com - Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water

KLASTV.com - Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water: "George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water
Nov 29, 2005, 12:48 AM EST

Some 28 million people get their drinking water from the Colorado River, including nearly everyone who lives in Southern Nevada. Anything dumped into the river goes into our water supply. So why has the federal government failed to clean up a 12-million-ton pile of radioactive waste that sits directly on the river? It's a story the I-Team first brought you five years ago, and George Knapp is here with news of dramatic new developments.

At long last, the federal government has decided to clean up the massive pile of uranium tailings that sits right on the river's edge at Moab, Utah, a picturesque tourist town that has been on the frontlines of this fight for decades. The problem for Moab residents is -- some worry that cleaning it up might be worse than leaving it be.

There is also another danger looming, one that deserves the attention of everyone downriver. Each year, 20 million visitors trek to the Canyonlands area of Eastern Utah to check out scenery that's like Red Rock Canyon on steroids. In this outdoor paradise, the town of Moab is almost totally dependent on tourists who rent bikes or boats and who shop in funky little stores. But as Las Vegas well knows, tourism and radiation do not go hand in hand.

Looming above Moab, literally, is a 12-million-ton pile of trouble: 140 acres of uranium tailings situated just a few hundred feet from the Colorado River. Although no one can see it happening, every day 120,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater flows from under the pile right into the river.

Bill Hedden, with the Grand Canyon Trust, said, "We've created a killing zone in the river. Anything that swims into that plume of ammonia and stuff is killed in very short order, so it's clearly not healthy for anybody."

Environmentalist Bill Hedden was one of the leaders in the effort to get the federal government to clean up the uranium pile. The government inherited the mess after a private owner went bankrupt. The Department of Energy surprised nearly everyone earlier this year when it decided to forego further studies and just get on with a cleanup. That's when a scary thought occurred to residents.

Joette Langanese said, "Everybody was wondering, oh my gosh, what does this mean? We're going to start opening up this pile with 13 million tons of contaminant? Is that gonna have bad effects on us?"

Grand County Commissioner Joette Langanese says that while most Moab residents agree the pile needs to be moved, it's far from unanimous. Uranium put Moab on the map. It once had more millionaires per capita than anyplace in America. The town museum is largely a tribute to the tools of the uranium trade, and to the elusive yellowcake itself. There's even a building named for uranium. Some of those who worked in the mines back in the day and who believe that fears about the pile are overblown have become allies with those who worry what might happen if the pile is stirred up.

Langanese said, "We don't really know what's in that pile. We really don't know when they open it up what kind of chemical reactions will take place when it hits the air."

Bob Pattison, a former uranium company engineer, told the I-Team, "The last thing you want to do is to get it into the atmosphere. The thing is now stable."

Some residents worry that stirring up all of that radioactive dust might endanger the town. In addition to radiation, there are other bad substances in the pile. In addition to radioactive uranium tailings, the pile is contaminated with mercury, arsenic, ammonia and lead, all of it slowly, inexorably leaking into the Colorado River. To leave it or to move it is the question. The DOE has already made up its mind, and for once, environmentalists agree.

Bill Hedden explained, "The stuff is like toothpaste inside there, as long as you pay attention with keeping it moist, you don't have a problem with dust blowing it around."

Dust can be managed, but what can't is a possible flood on the Colorado. Flooded rivers are not exactly unknown in Utah and a massive flood there could be a catastrophe. It's the one issue that really couldn't be disputed in the debate.

Joette Langanese commented, "What happens if there is a major flood? Thirteen million tons of tailings are going to go into that water and it's going to impact everything downstream, not only water users but the whole Colorado Canyon corridor. There would be tailings on all the beaches, on the vegetation. It would be catastrophic."

Unfortunately for all of us, the concern about a massive flood that pulls the whole pile into the river with will be with us for years. The cleanup won't begin until 2007 and it will take ten years to finish the job of moving the waste to a site 30 miles away from the Colorado River. Leaders like Joette Langanese say they will stay on top of the Department of Energy to make sure this gets done as soon as possible, which is good for us too.

Question: It must have taken quite a coalition to finally get the government to commit to the cleanup. Was Nevada involved?

Senator Harry Reid helped, so did Governor Guinn. The one glaring omission was the Southern Nevada Water Authority. We heard it several times during our recent trip to Moab, that folks there couldn't understand why ours was the only water authority along the Colorado River to not take a hand in demanding a cleanup. "