DOE’s Moab Federal Project Director, Don Metzler, described progress on building facilities at the Atlas site. He said employment at the tailings pile and the disposal site now averages about 40 workers. He projects about 80 employees for next year, with a potential maximum of 150 as work progresses.
Metzler said that Union Pacific Railroad is being more cooperative, which means the problems associated with shipping the 16 million tons of Cold War-era uranium waste by rail may not be as great as he first believed. He also said that everything workers are now doing will facilitate accelerating the completion schedule to 2019 if Congress makes funding available. Funding for the project would have to range between $70 million and $100 million per year to meet the 2019 completion date, he said.
Keeping pressure on Congress, and keeping tabs on the Atlas operation, are among the reasons cited by Grand County Council member Joette Langianese for wanting to keep the steering committee in operation. Langianese has chaired the committee since its inception.
The vote to formalize the committee was 4-2, with Gene Ciarus and Jerry McNeely voting against. Ciarus objected to including The Nature Conservancy on the committee, although the non-profit group owns the major portion of the land across the river from the tailings site – the Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve. “I have a problem bringing an environmental activist group into this agreement,” Ciarus said.
The purpose of the steering committee is to be a forum and mechanism for communication and monitoring of the project, to advise the council and seek appropriate future uses of the site. It will track progress and “address federal and state elected and executive officials on issues related to the project,” the resolution passed by the county stated.
Members will include two county council members, and the county director of emergency medical services, the travel council, the road department, and community development. The state Department of Workforce Services, the National Park Service, Moab city, the cities of Thompson Springs and Crescent Junction, and the Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency will be represented, along with Utah’s congressional delegation, the state Department of Environmental Quality, and The Nature Conservancy.
A county council member will serve as chairman. Except for elected officials, whose terms are limited, terms of committee members are indefinite.
The council voted to appoint Bob Greenberg and Pat Holyoak to represent Grand County on the committee. Ciarus and McNeely voted against the appointments because, Ciarus said, he would prefer to wait until next year for the new council to make the appointments.
Langianese said she would be gone next year and it is important for the new council representatives to have time to get up to speed. The new council can reconsider who should be on the committee if it wants, she said.