UTAH OIL SHALE LANDS RETURNED TO INDIAN TRIBE

In January 2000, United States Department of Energy Secretary B. Richardson signed an agreement for the largest voluntary return of land to Native Americans in the Lower-48 states.

The return of the 90,000 acres in the Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2 to the Ute Tribe will provide funding for the cleanup and removal of 10.5 million tons of radioactive mill tailings near two national parks: Arches and Canyonlands. The agreement also will provide for additional environmental protection for a 75-mile stretch of the Green River.

The reserve was withdrawn from the Tribe’s reservation in 1916 to provide naval vessels with fuel in time of war. Now many ships are not as reliant on petroleum products and the reserve is not as critical to national defense.

The agreement was signed by Secretary Richardson, Interior Secretary B. Babbitt, Ute Tribal Business Committee Chairman R. McCook, Sr., and Utah Governor M. Leavitt. It will have to be presented to Congress for approval.

Twelve percent of federal royalty payment on natural resources currently leased on the lands will be put in a fund to clean up the uranium mill tailings south of Moab. The Ute Tribe will receive the balance or 88 percent of any lease payments.

The Ute Tribe has agreed to establish a 0.25-mile corridor for a 75-mile stretch of the Green River that will be protected as environmentally sensitive.

The uranium mill tailings are the radioactive contaminated waste products from nearly 3 decades of uranium mining operations. The waste site is a 110-foot mound. The tailings contain low levels of radioactivity from uranium and radium, as well as hazardous materials such as arsenic, lead, mercury and other chemicals and metals left by the processes used to separate the uranium from the ore. Under the agreement reached in January, the Department of Energy will seek funding and authority to remove the tailings and clean up the site. The clean up would be regulated by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission with participation by the State of Utah.

Estimated cost to move the tailings away from Moab is about $300 million. The uranium waste resulted from mill operations at the site from 1956 to 1984. Atlas Corporation, which owned the site from 1962 through 1984, filed for bankruptcy 2 years ago.

The proposed cooperative undertaking for the Reserve is designed to also help the Ute Indian Tribe seek new opportunities to achieve self determination, protect their sovereignty and provide for the economic and social needs of its members.

The Naval Reserve appears to be rich in conventional oil and gas reserves, but the size of the reserve has not been explored, according to the director of the Naval Reserve with the Department of Energy.


Return to Synthetic Fuels Report 7-2 table of contents
Return to J.E. Sinor Consultants homepage