Getting Waste To Dawn Is Half The Battle

Transportation promises to be the next big issue in the Dawn Mining Co. plan to import uranium mill tailings to pay for cleaning up its abandoned uranium mill here.

Dawn and the state Transportation Department are in sharp disagreement about the best route for shipping the waste, and there are questions about how much Dawn will pay to improve the roads it uses.

Critic Owen Berio, of the Dawn Watch coalition of environmental organizations, contends the company “has requested that the state of Washington subsidize an estimated $10 million worth of road improvements which will be necessary.”

Berio’s claim is based on the company’s contention it should have to pay only for the percentage of truck traffic it causes. Other trucks also will benefit from road improvements, the company says.

Actually, Transportation Department officials say the road improvements could cost more than $50 million if the company chooses to truck the waste from a rail yard in the Spokane Valley to Reardan and then north on state Highway 231 to Ford. But the company hasn’t picked a route or asked for a subsidy.

A state Health Department license for Dawn to import the uranium tailings requires the company to negotiate a deal with the Transportation Department for road improvements. The Health Department has the last word.

The open-ended arrangement leaves room for both Dawn and the Transportation Department to seek advantage.

Some Ford-area proponents of the Dawn cleanup plan believe the Transportation Department has neglected their area and should provide improvements for trucks that already use Highway 231. They think Dawn’s public commitment to pay for needed improvements was limited to the portion necessitated by its trucks.

Regional Transportation Director Jerry Lenzi doesn’t rule out the possibility that Dawn would pay only its percentage. He said the Transportation Department has no money for unexpected projects.

Anyway, Lenzi said, “My tum tum tells me right now that, with the low truck volume that we have on that route (Highway 231) right now, their pro rata share might be a very high percentage.”

The mill cleanup plan would add an estimated 38 daily round trips by truck to the road for 260 days a year.

Dawn and some Ford-area residents say Highway 231 already is heavily used by trucks.

“I hear trucks rolling all night long out here on 231,” Ford-area resident Gary Mullica said.

Mullica thinks the Transportation Department is trying to milk Dawn for improvements the department already should be providing. The Washington State Patrol and other agencies also “want a part of the pie,” he said.

Dawn will hire a trucking company to choose a route, but officials acknowledge that going through Reardan - using Interstate 90, U.S. Highway 2 and state Highway 231 - makes the most sense to their company.

But to state transportation officials, “that’s our least preferred route,” said Lenzi, noting that Highway 231 is “like a territorial wagon road” in the 19.5 miles from Reardan to Ford.

Needed improvements in that section probably would exceed $50 million, Lenzi said in an August 1994 memo to the Health Department.

Instead, he recommended shipping the waste by rail to Springdale and trucking it the remaining 11.8 miles to Ford on Highway 231. Only about $10 million worth of road improvements would be needed that way, Lenzi said.

But Dawn President Chip Clark said there is no rail siding in Springdale, and Dawn can’t afford to build one.

, DataTimes