This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
MOAB - Bobbe Kidrick and Bette Lange recall a bucolic childhood growing up in the 1930s in the remote desert community of Crescent Junction, in northern Grand County.
"Our first year there we lived in a tent," said the 71-year-old Kidrick. "We had to haul water. We didn't have electricity at first. But it was a fun life. An interesting life."
Now, the sisters, whose grandfather and great aunts were among the last settlers to acquire Grand County land under the federal government's 1862 Homestead Act, are worried that about 200 acres of family-owned property will be rendered worthless.
The Department of Energy has decided to relocate to a disposal cell, just a few miles from their land, 11.9 million tons of radioactive waste now perched north of Moab, on the banks of the Colorado River.
"I was really concerned. I thought it would just trash the area," Kidrick said. "The north end of the county has been overlooked for the past 50 years or so. I want to know that [the county and DOE] recognize this is valuable commercial land."
Lange reacted angrily to the news.
"I was livid," she said. "I've calmed down a little now. But [the family is in its sixth generation of] owning that land. We don't know how this will affect us."
Kidrick and Lange are also uneasy about how the DOE's plan to transport the toxic waste by rail will affect Lange's daughter, Lani Asay, and her husband. The existing rail line runs through the center of the family's 200 acres, and passes about 1,000 feet from Asay's back door.
After the DOE announced the decision earlier this month, Asay contacted county officials to voice the family's fears. Aside from suspicions that property values would plummet, Asay's main worry was that toxic waste would leak from the rail cars or become airborne, posing a health threat to her family.
She met with County Councilwoman Joette Langianese, who promised to address Asay's concerns during upcoming meetings with the DOE. The family also will be invited to meet with the DOE sometime in the near future, Asay said.
And the federal agency plans to host public meetings in Grand County to allay citizens' fears.
"I'm feeling a little bit better about it, but I still don't like it," Asay said. "They didn't even talk to any of us about it. We're hoping that the county now will keep us better informed."
Neither the county nor the DOE contacted Crescent Junction property owners, but the possibility that the tailings could be moved to the northern reaches of the county has been well publicized and under consideration for at least two years, Langianese said.
The DOE's draft environmental-impact statement (EIS), released in November, listed three alternatives for off-site disposal of the Cold War-era uranium mill waste - White Mesa Mill near Blanding, Klondike Flats, about 25 miles north of Moab, and Crescent Junction, about 32 miles north of town.
The EIS also included the option of capping the tailings in place, a choice assailed by residents of Moab and by downstream communities in Arizona, Nevada and California where more than 25 million residents rely on the Colorado as their main source of drinking water.
"It's not that we didn't care about Crescent Junction. But since we didn't hear from them, we never thought it was going to be a problem," Langianese said. "People get anxious about things. And this is going to be right in their back yard.
"But they're not going to be the sacrifice. I have confidence that the DOE will do this safely."
The DOE received more than 1,500 comments on the proposals from concerned citizens, but none of those came from Crescent Junction property owners, according to Don MetzĀler, Moab site project manager.
"They have reasonable concerns, and the DOE will make sure we're there to answer all of their questions," Metzler said. "That's my challenge."
Metzler's team is still exploring options for safely transferring the nuclear waste from the pile to the nearby rail line, then transporting it to the Crescent Junction site where it will be buried in a lined disposal cell and covered with rock.
It will take months to determine the safest alternative, but Metzler said he is hoping to use specially built, sealed, lined, 110-ton containers that were originally designed and used in a DOE cleanup project in Ohio. Those containers are leak-proof and covered to prevent toxic dust from becoming airborne during transport, he said. Borrowing the containers will also help keep down the cost of cleaning up the 130-acre site, currently estimated at $330 to $400 million.
"We will do it safely," Metzler promised.
In other communities where the DOE has completed similar projects, the influx of workers to the area has actually increased property values and boosted the economy, he said.
But Crescent Junction property owners remain skeptical.
"People in Moab don't want to live next to [the tailings,]" said Keven Lange, Asay's sister. "Is anybody else going to want to live next to it?"