Atlas uranium mine site tailing ponds

Moab, Utah (UT), US

Atlas uranium mine site tailing ponds

Moab, Utah (UT), US

Pretty, Pollution, Resources - Minerals/Metals
By: nic

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Comments

Anonymous

@ 2005-06-29 22:32:03

Unfortunately, it's not potash (which is used in the manufacture of glass and soap, and as a fertilizer.) What you see here are tailing ponds from the mining of uranium. This is the Atlas mine site, the first commercially operated uranium mill. At 130 acres and 13 million tons, the Atlas tailings pile is the fifth largest in the United States. It covers an estimated 118 football fields in the floodplain of the Colorado River.
http://www.gct.indigo8.com/programs/landscapes/atlas-cleanup.php

Anonymous

@ 2010-06-14 16:31:50

Those are the potash mine evaporation ponds. The uranium tailings are just to the west of hiway 191 just north of Moab. They are north of the Colorado River. One drives by them as he/she drives west to the potash mine. I've been to Moab a number of times so I know where these sites are located.

UMTRA_Liaison

@ 2010-06-25 14:39:57

Evaporation ponds of Intrepid Potash are shown in thumbnail. Go upriver to 38.5990 -109.5982 to see uranium tailings pile, on alluvial plain between SR-279, US-191 and Colorado River in NW end of Moab Valley. As of June-2010, about 10% of pile has been moved away from river by DOE's Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project team. Us Moab residents expect the pile to be completely removed by about 2025.