SCR 6

This concurrent resolution urges the U.S. Department of Energy to expedite and fully fund the removal of approximately 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings from the banks of the Colorado River at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project site. The resolution documents that while the project was originally targeted for completion by 2019, budget cuts have significantly slowed progress—reducing annual removal from over 2 million tons in 2010-2011 to as low as 480,000 tons by 2018—with approximately 30% of the contaminated material still remaining as of 2020. By calling for maintained funding at a minimum of $45 million annually (2018 inflation-adjusted), the resolution aims to accelerate the cleanup of this environmental hazard that has been ongoing since 2005, when the Department of Energy decided to relocate the radioactive tailings to an engineered disposal site at Crescent Junction, 30 miles north of Moab.