If I might, Mr. Chairman, the list on page 8 of this testimony, because of typographical errors is inadequate. I would refer you to the addendum which does a more complete job of stating the individual State cost estimates. And for purposes of this testimony please disregard that. We just discovered that this morning. If I might, before concluding my testimony I would like to read the resolution which was passed just this past Saturday by the western Governors at their annual meeting. This resolution was passed on behalf of 13 Governors from the States of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, California, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington. XIII. URANIUM MILLTAILINGS Whereas, uranium mill tailings located on inactive uranium mill sites contain a radiation level exceeding maximum permissible safety standards and thereby present a real or potential hazard to the public; and Whereas, the uranium tailings piles are the results of mining for uranium fuel under Federal contracts for purposes of energy production and national security; Whereas, the production of uranium ore enured to the benefit of all U.S. citizens, and the cost of elimination of the health hazard created by uranium mill tailings is prohibitive to those States where they exist; and Whereas, legislation is presently before Congress calling for appropriate remedial action to limit the exposure of individuals to radiation enamating from the various inactive mill tailings sites; and Whereas, the President, the Congress of the United States, and the Department of Energy all have the necessary powers and financial capabilities, as well as the duty and obligation, to rectify this problem, and their assistance is vital to the immediate and proper resolution of this environmental and health hazard; Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the western Governors recommend: (1) That any remedial measures on inactive tailings piles created prior to the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 be accomplished at total Federal expense; (2) that the abandoned uranium mill tailings be classified as radioactive wastes and placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government; (3) that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission be charged with the establishment of standards and criteria for disposal and handling of mill tailings; and (4) that when such remedial measures are taken, they should be developed with the participation and ultimate concurrence of States directly impacted by this health hazard. With that, I as well would like to submit for the record, although I will not take the time to read, a brief statement to be submitted for the record, on behalf of the State of New Mexico. They have some very specific concerns with particular sites, both active and inactive, in their State. I would request submission of that threepage testimony for the State of New Mexico. Mr. GORE. Without objection, it will be included. [The attachments to Mr. Watson's statement follow:] I have your letter dated March 6, 1978, wherein you state that your office intends to take a position that the radioactive tailings at the old Vitro chemical site are an exclusively federal responsibility and therefore 100% of all remedial action should be funded by the federal government and asking for a memorandum which would indicate the legal feasibility of such a position. Specifically, you have asked: 1. Is there any legal basis for an argument 2. Is there any legal basis upon which the During the post World War II era, the increase in nuclear weapons production in the United States created an immediate demand for uranium. The need for expertise in the development of ore refining facilities required technological efforts to be concentrated in that area, and as a result, there was little attention given to problems relating to disposal of the wastes. The tailings piles resulting from those operations are now creating a problem. The Vitro tailings site in Salt Lake County is but one of 22 such pilings located in various western states. However, it probably constitutes a greater threat than any of the others because of its location in the center of a rapidly growing urban industrial complex of about one half million population. The process used to recover uranium from the ores did not extract the radium. The tailings at the Vitro plant still contain nearly all the radium originally present in the ore. This element gives off potentially harmful radiation. In addition, it decays into radon, a gas which defuses readily through most construction materials including concrete. The radon is also radioactive and fairly rapidly decays through a series of radioactive elements, which if inhaled are potentially hazardous. There are actually two radiation health hazards present at the tailings site, gamma radiation activity from the pile and radioactive radon and its decay products. Stabilization of the pile could only offer an interim solution and sooner or later the ultimate solution of complete removal must be faced. A United States Department of HEW, Public Health Service, evaluation of radon 222 near uranium tailings piles issued in March, 1969, stated: "At distances more remote than one-half mile, radon daughters might more nearly approach equilibrium conditions, but the total concentrations will have been so diluted as to be essentially negligible." And then went on to conclude: "Development of point recommendations to control public exposure to radon from The Vitro pile in Salt Lake City was one of the four piles studied by the Public Health Service, however, as a follow-up to the United States Public Health Service study issed in March, 1969, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report concerning a 1974-1975 evaluation of ambient radon 222 concentrations in Grand Junction, Colorado. The recent Grand Junction data supports a new conclusion that: "In the predominant day time wind direction, there was a significant power curve relationship of radon concentrations to distance out to about one and one-half miles from the center of the tailings pile. Based on this data, the public exposure would certainly be significant. The Vitro tailings site is a 128 acre tract of land located southwest of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, a distance of approximately four miles. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began purchasing uranium concentrate from Vitro's privately owned and operated plant site in Salt Lake County in 1949. AEC's first contract with Vitro for the purchase of uranium concentrate produced in the Salt Lake City mill was signed on October 25, 1951, and was revised and extended several times thereafter. The last contract for uranium was dated January 1, 1962, and extended to December 31, 1963. This contract provided for extensions but not beyond December 31, 1966. AEC's contractual relationship with Vitro for uranium ceased entirely in 1965 and by January 4, 1967, Vitro had sold and shipped to Atlas Corporations mills in Moab, Utah, most uranium bearing residues other than the tailings. Vitro thereafter utilized the Salt Lake County mill to process ferrophos from the Idaho Phosphate Industry to recover the contained vanadium which it sold to the AEC. The tailings from this operation were then piled on top of the uranium tailings. During the summer of 1967, Vitro arranged with the Salt Lake City sewage plant adjacent to the plant site to pump the sludge onto the tailings pile. This sludge, as it dries, forms a crust and helps to prevent wind erosion. Early in June, 1968, Vitro shut down the plant entirely. Although I have not had an opportunity to study the contracts between Vitro and AEC, it is my understanding they were cost plus contracts and that they did not allow for any cost for long stabilization or disposal in accordance with state of the art procedures. The AEC licensed Vitro's mill operations from the start of operations in 1949 until the license was terminated in 1968. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, subsection 161 B and I (3) of the Act authorized the Commission to: "B. Establish by rule, regulation or health or to minimize danger to life or I. Prescribe such regulations or orders In Under date of April 15, 1960, L.K. Olson, the then General Counsel to AEC, directed a letter to H.L. Price, the then Director of Division of Licensing and Regulation. that letter he addressed the question as to the extent of the Commission's jurisdiction over the waste material produced by a uranium (source material) mill when such waste did not constitute a source material as defined in the Commission's regulations because of the concentration of uranium is less than 1/20 of 1% by weight, in that the use of the waste may present a radiation safety problem because of the presence of radium. The letter, which was made a part of the record, in the hearings before the Subcommittee on Raw Materials of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Second Congress First Session, October 28th and 29th, 1971, contained the following comments: "I am advised that a typical uranium milling operations produces, as waste materials: (1) a liquid waste containing dissolved or suspended particles which, during the milling operation, is discharged into a nearby stream or settling pond; (2) solid tailings which accumulate at the site while awaiting disposition. Each of these wastes is assumed, for purposes of this opinion, to contain concentrations of uranium below those specified in the regulations as constituting source materials. These discharges of the liquid effluent and accumulations of the solid tailings are intregal parts of the milling operations. For this reason, it is my opinion that they are subject to the Commission's regulatory control under the Act." It seems clear from that opinion that, at least in 1960, the Commission was fully aware of the radiation safety |