Uranium mill still poisons Colorado River

An aerial view of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, shows the tailings pond of the defunct Atlas mill, where 10.5 million tons of toxic waste are stored approximately 750 feet from the river

By Environmental News Network staff

April 6, 2000
Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EDT (1552 GMT)

Waste left from the Atlas uranium mill near Moab, Utah, is poisoning endangered fish that live in the Colorado River, according to a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

For years, environmentalists have fought to clean up radioactive tailings left behind by the defunct Atlas mill. The USGS study may strengthen their campaign.

Conducted from August 1998 to February 2000, the study shows that 10.5 million tons of waste left from the mill are poisoning four endangered fish species in the Colorado River.

The Atlas mill has leaked ammonia and other poisonous contaminants into the river for the past 40 years. The USGS study confirms that ammonia levels are far too high for the fish to survive.

According to the report, ammonia levels in a stretch of the Colorado River about three miles north of Moab are as high as 1,500 milligrams per liter, greatly exceeding the 12 milligrams per liter that the fish can survive. When researchers put experimental fish into the river below the waste site, most of them died in less than one hour.

The same area has been designated as critical habitat for the recovery of the endangered Colorado pike minnow, the razorback sucker, the humpback chub and the bony-tail chub.

Levels of ammonia vary according to the seasonal flow of the Colorado River. Higher levels occur during the low-water period between August and March.

The razorback sucker is among many endangered fish populations living in the Colorado River

"It's no longer a supposition that the ammonia is killing the fish. It's slam-dunk evidence," said Bill Hedden, a conservation director for the Grand Canyon Trust. "The USGS study shows the ammonia concentration to be several hundred times more than the acute legal dose that has been designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Every fish that swims through that section of the river dies."

Once a major supplier of uranium for the government's nuclear weapons program, the Atlas site covers 130 acres. The tailings pile is the fifth largest in the United States.

Reducing toxic threats to endangered fish is only part of the battle to clean up the site. Residents of California, Nevada and Arizona, who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water, also want the mill removed.

When Atlas Corporation declared bankruptcy in December, the responsibility for cleaning up the site fell to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC proposes capping the waste site with clay and rock to prevent more leakage into the Colorado River. But environmentalists say the site should be removed entirely and that the Department of Energy is more suited to the task because of its track record with such projects.

The DOE has moved nine smaller, less toxic nuclear waste piles from other waterways in the Southwest.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is expected to introduce a bill that would put the cleanup in DOE's hands and guarantee funding to get the job done.

"The NRC does not have the financial and technical resources to remove the site itself," said Hedden. "[Giving the NRC cleanup responsibility] would be like having the park service regulate airplanes."

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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The Grand Canyon Trust U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Department of Energy The U.S. Geological Survey
The Endangered Species site

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