Beneath a reservoir on the Colorado River, astride the border between Arizona and Utah, lies a vast pile of uranium tailings. This reservoir, called Lake Powell, is a popular holiday area, but a uranium mill has left behind at least 26,000 tons of waste contaminated by radium, polonium, thorium and bismuth that is yet to be remediated.
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Legacy of Mining
The Vanadium Corporation of America built a mill in 1949 where the
Colorado River and White Canyon meet for processing uranium ore from a local
mine. For around four years, about 20 tons of ore moved through that mill
daily.
A ton of ore yielded five to six pounds of
uranium. The ore had to be crushed and ground and treated with toxic chemicals
such as sulphuric acid to extract the uranium. Nearly every day around 39,900
pounds of uranium ore tailings were dumped outside on the riverbank.
Radioactive Water
In 1953 the mill closed, and the tailings were simply left where they were.
When a dam was built, and water backed up, it was allowed to flow over the
tailings, where you can find them today. Millions of people use the Colorado
River water that flows out of Lake Powell. Attracting millions of visitors a year,
the lake is an important reservoir for water supply and has been severely
affected by drought, according to this report in The Guardian. If water levels continue to drop, the
radioactive waste could be disturbed with repercussions for health. Radium,
for example, is very dangerous and can cause cancer and even kill.
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Cleaning up the lake would be an enormous and difficult project. Fortunately,
not all remediation is this difficult. If you are thinking about land
remediation and would like to find out more, you should talk to experts. A
reputable provider will be able to discuss the potential of land remediation
and tell you everything you need to know.
If your company produces a lot of rubbish or just generally needs a lot of help cleaning please contact a specialist office cleaning Cheltenham company and check out sites like intocleaning.co.uk before it gets to a point where you don’t know how to dispose of your waste. They can help with all sorts of jobs and have specialist training to meet your business needs.
With more land desperately needed for housing and other projects, remediation
of contaminated sites is an excellent course of action. And removing toxins
and restoring areas to their natural state is good for the environment and
everyone who lives nearby. In addition, it also gives these areas a new lease
of life.
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