Federal funds may benefit Lakeview site
Radioactive tailings pose disposal problem
By CATHERINE SIEGNER
Of the Emerald
A few miles north of the town ol
Lakeview in southeastern
Oregon, 30 acres of glistening
white sand lies beneath waving
grass and behind a six-foot fence
a sign reads. “Caution —
Radioactive Material.”
The "sand” is really radioactive
tailings from an abandonee
uranium mill nearby. The pile
emits about 54 microrems o
radioactivity per hour. That results
in 500 millirems per year — the
maximum limit allowed by law.
Congress passed a law in Ot
▲ A > ▲ A « A i
tober targeting federal funds fcx
cleaning up some 18 such sites ir
Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nev
Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona
Texas, Idaho, Utah and Oregon.
The bill, passed by the House
calls for 90 percent federal fund
ing for the projects. The Senate
version directs the federal gov
ernment to pick up the whole
. tab — estimated at $200 million.
Environmental impact state
ments would have to be done on
the cleanup operations, which
’ would involve covering the tailings
with several feet of dirt and erect
ing fences to keep unsuspecting
persons away.
k A ▲ A A A A A A
Michal Pollock, environmental
specialist for the state Department
r of Energy, says a legislative act
last session poses a dilemma to
the cleanup plans.
“The Oregon law says you can’t
dispose of radioactive materials in
the state. We're now involved in a
rule-making procedure to define
radioactive materials. If we adopt
new rules, all disposal would be
illegal," Pollock says.
The Lakeview site is one of
many where uranium ore was
mined from 1945 to 1960, first
from shafts and later from an open
pit. The uranium — about one
AAAAAAAAA
tenth of one percent of the
ore — was extracted through a
grinding and dissolving process
and used for military weapons.
The tailings were left.
The mill stopped operations in
1961 and the tailings were used
by locals for motorcycle practice.
Finally, in 1975, the state Health
Division contacted the mill
owners — ARCO — and sug
gested they clean up the site.
“We said that under current
conditions, the tailings posed a
health hazard," recalls Marshall
Parrott, manager of radiation con
trol for the Health Division. "The
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mill was dismantled and hauled off
to Texas. Two to three feet of
compacted earth was bulldozed
over the tailings and the fence was
put up. It must have cost ARCO
$300,000.”
The federal government will find
the Lakeview site is a piece of
cake compared to other areas. In
Grand Junction, Col., tailings
were used for land fill at construc
tion sites, and some wound up in
kids sandboxes.
In downtown Salt Lake City, a
firehouse was built over a pile of
tailings. Firemen were later ex
posed to high levels of radon gas.
“The federal project will
stabilize tailings in a method ap
propriate to the site,” Pollock
says. ‘The Salt Lake City site is
totally inappropriate. The pile is
right in the middle of a populated
area.”
Pollock says there is still
uranium ore at the Lakeview mill.
There's prospecting being done
around Lakeview and further
east.”
Parrott says the new federal
legislation may mean ARCO will
be paid for the cleanup it has al
ready done, and that the Lakeview
site may not even need further
work.
‘‘I’ve seen some of the other
places. The one in New Mexico is
the toughest one to handle.
Lakeview is the easiest one of all
to take care of," he says.
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