drink up enjoy the kool-aide

Feds say money lacking for planned removal of Moab-area radioactive tailings…By Matt Canham …The Salt Lake Tribune …Article Last Updated: 02/08/2008 06:38:45 AM MST .. WASHINGTON - The radioactive waste pile on the banks of the Colorado River will just have to wait. Despite a congressional mandate to remove the mountain of uranium tailings and contaminated soil by 2019, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told House members Thursday that his department won't finish the project until 2025 or later. That infuriated Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who has repeatedly pressed the department to quickly remove the pile outside of Moab, which threatens the drinking water of 30 million downstream users. "It just seems like this thing is going on forever," Matheson said after the House Energy and Commerce hearing. "More disturbing is that they would ignore an act of Congress." Matheson added a provision in the latest defense bill requiring the Energy Department to remove the Moab tailings by 2019. This was only the latest deadline in a plan that has remained in flux. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, "I have no doubt that, with a little creativity, the earlier deadline can still be met. I certainly haven't given up on that." The uranium tailings span 130 acres at the edge of the Colorado River, where studies have found that uranium and ammonia are contaminating the water. The tainted dirt is left over from a uranium-processing mill that was operated by Charlie Steen's Atlas Mineral Corp. The company closed the mill in 1984 and filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Two years later the Energy Department took control of the site. Its original plan was to move the uranium tailings out on rails, finishing up by 2012. But last year Bodman told Congress that budget constraints have pushed that deadline back another 14 years to 2028. And even when pushed by Matheson on Thursday, Bodman reiterated that his department won't rush to clean up the Moab site, saying it is less of a priority than other "higher risk" contamination projects throughout the country.

So, there’s contamination of uranium and ammonia in your drinking water, your political leaders determined you’re not a high priority…?

Hey, just because it’s along the bank of the Colorado River the major source of drinking water for the majority of Arizona citizens so what. You think you’re special…? OK, the new target date to move this contaminated material is now projected to be in 2028.

Yea, they missed the deadline, so what, Gov. Napolitano and her ADEQ continue to report that your water is safe.

So drink up, enjoy the “kool-aide” your leaders are passing out.