Washington » The House this week added more money to remove radioactive tailings on the banks of the Colorado River near Moab and some funds to continue building the water pipelines for the Central Utah Project — but much less than officials were hoping for.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, pushed through a $4.22 million bump to the cleanup of the uranium mining tailings over what President Barack Obama had suggested in his budget. The extra funds, if ultimately approved, would allow the radioactive material removal to continue year-round.
 |
Join the Discussion |
 |
Post a Comment |
"I’m a fiscal hawk but we need to clean up that mess in Moab," said Chaffetz, who began representing Grand County in January following a redrawing of the congressional districts. "I assured voters this is a priority. I’ve been working closely with the committee and I’m thrilled that they’ve seen fit to increase money for the cleanup of the Moab tailings."
Last year, Congress appropriated $30 million for the cleanup, an amount that kept work going for nine months. The House-passed bill offers $40 million.
A mountain of uranium-processing waste, about six million tons, has been shipped to a special landfill about 30 miles north of Moab, but another 10 million tons remain; the project could take until 2018 to complete.
Lynn Jackson, the vice chairman of the Grand County Council, says the extra funds will help, especially so that workers don’t have to expect unemployment for part of the year.
"It solves two problems: the short-term employment problem," he said. "And two, to get those things out of there and store them where they should be."
Funding isn’t certain.
The Senate is still working on its water budget legislation and the White House has threatened to veto the House measure because officials believe it shorts "critical investments."
The overall bill is significantly smaller than what the president asked for and what is in current law.
-
As Rockport 5 Fire burned, Rafter B gas station was a refuge
Published Aug 18, 2013 05:46:53PM -
Decoding Shakespeare: Utah festival teaches the teachers
Published Aug 18, 2013 05:43:24PM -
Teens get wiggy for Japanese anime in West Jordan
Published Aug 18, 2013 05:41:53PM -
NecronomiCon to celebrate horror writer Lovecraft
Published Aug 18, 2013 05:40:12PM
—
CUP fight » White House advisers specifically called out the Central Utah Project as part of the veto threat, noting that the legislation doesn’t, as the president requested, move the effort under the authority of the Bureau of Reclamation. The Eisenhower-era CUP — meant to move water from the Colorado River system to growing communities on the Wasatch Front — was moved away from that agency in 1992 after complaints it was slow-walking the project.
The White House said moving CUP back under reclamation would consolidate administrative and budget tasks while "not adversely affecting project performance."
The House this week declined to go along with the change.
But lawmakers did add more money to the project than Obama had asked for. The president’s budget called for spending $3.5 million for CUP when the project had received $25.4 million the year prior.
The House appropriated $8.72 million for CUP.
"It’s so much better than zero or $3.5 million," says Christine Finlinson, government affairs director for the CUP. "We’re grateful for what we can get. We still have so much project left to build that, of course, we are scrambling to get done what we can."
Finlinson and other CUP officials have argued that working as a stand-alone project has helped them run efficiently and keep construction on schedule.
"What we have been able to achieve with the dollars we have received is quite phenomenal," she said, noting the CUP will continue to push for more funding.
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
