Moab Uranium Tailings Cleanup Reaches 17 Million Tons, Future Site Plans Considered

Crews have now shipped 17 million tons of uranium tailings from the banks of the Colorado River north of Moab, Utah, to an engineered disposal cell 30 miles away in Crescent Junction since 2009, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE posted this milestone on September 29, 2026, marking significant progress in a decades-long cleanup effort.

The tailings, which are what remains after uranium is extracted from rock, accumulated next to a processing plant that operated under private owners from 1956 to 1984 on a 480-acre site. The pile, which grew to 90 feet high, posed environmental risks due to contaminated groundwater flowing into the Colorado River, as noted in a July 2026 review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Grand County Commissioner Jacques Hadler observed the progress, telling KUER 90.1, "It’s been amazing in my time here watching that pile dwindle." Mary McGann, now a Grand County Commissioner and chair of the Moab Tailings Project Steering Committee, saw the pile grow, as her father was a superintendent at the old Atlas Minerals mill. McGann told The Times-Independent, "We lived here in the ’50s. We drove into this town and there wasn’t a pile, and we had the misfortune, or the fortune, because it was our economy to watch it grow to 90 feet high."

Moab Mayor Joette Langianese, who has worked on the cleanup for over 25 years, recalled being told that "Forty million water users downstream, California, Arizona, Nevada, they’re going to move the deal. And they did." She also remembered U.S. Sen. Mike Lee's stance that "The federal government created this problem. They need to fix it. They need to take care of it." Langianese expressed relief in April, saying, "Finally, finally this project is almost completed. There was a time when we never thought this project would end."

The project reached an initial estimate of 16 million tons removed on April 9, 2026, when the last of 16 movable tiles, representing each million tons, was transferred to a second plaque at the Crescent Junction cell. Federal cleanup director Matt Udovitsch said that day, according to The Times-Independent, "What once was a longstanding environmental liability is now a meaningful opportunity for reuse." Jeff Scott, president of the contractor North Wind Portage, praised the "truly amazing team" involved in the work.

While 17 million tons have been transported, work continues, with DOE crews now focused on removing remaining contaminated soil beneath and adjacent to the surface tailings pile. The disposal cell at Crescent Junction is designed to hold the waste for 1,000 years, or at least 200 years, under federal standards, but still requires its final top layer, an evapotranspiration cover.

The cleanup cost about $970 million through fiscal year 2025 and is projected to reach around $1.16 billion, all funded federally, according to the GAO. Officials once aimed for completion around 2034, but the target is now 2029. After that, the DOE’s Office of Legacy Management will take over responsibility for both sites.

Looking to the future, the DOE expects to give most of the 480-acre mill site back to Grand County, though a final decision is pending. The agency prefers the community to determine its reuse. Commissioner Hadler proposed using the land for a park, potentially with a musical venue or a boat ramp, drawing a comparison to Grand Junction's Las Colonias, an old tailings site transformed into a national-level musical venue. Grand County Commission Chair Melodie McCandless noted, "We are looking at a community vision for enhanced recreation, community assets and economic diversification."

However, concerns remain. The GAO report indicates that groundwater was contaminated and flowed into the Colorado River, posing environmental risks. DOE expects to submit a final groundwater remedy design to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2027, but groundwater cleanup and monitoring may continue for decades. Due to this, KUER reported, the land is unlikely to be safe for housing or lodging. The health implications are also unclear; Moab resident Meg Bigler noted a friend's lung cancer diagnosis after living in the path of winds from the pile, but a direct link was never confirmed.