CRWUA 2006 Resolutions and Supporting Position Statements

• Description: Proposed resolutions for adoption by the memebers of the Colorado River Water Users Association at their annual business meeting in 2006.
• State: CO
• Date: 12/16/2005
• Author: Colorado River Water Users Association
• Title: 2006 Resolutions and Supporting Position Statements
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

The Lower Colorado River Multi- Species Conservation Program is a partnership between State, Federal, Tribal,
water, power, local government and private entities with interests in Lower Colorado River resources. The purpose of the
partnership is to participate in the development and implementation of a multi- species ecosystem -based conservation
program while accommodating the management and potential future development opportunities of water and hydroelectric
power resources within the Lower Colorado River Basin. This partnership functions as the LCRMSCP Steering
Committee.
In January 1997 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the LCRMSCP Steering Committee as an
Ecosystem Conservation Recovery and Implementation Team (ECRIT). The designation is pursuant to Section 4(f)(2) of
the Endangered Species Act that authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to procure the services of appropriate public and
private agencies, institutions and other qualified persons to help implement recovery actions.
A Memorandum of Agreement, signed by representatives of the Lower Basin States and the Department of the
Interior in August 1995, specified the goals and objectives of the LCRMSCP. These goals and objectives include the
following:
• Conserve habitat and work toward the recovery of included. species within the 100 -year floodplain of the Lower
Colorado River (LCR), pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and attempt to reduce, the likelihood of
additional - species listings under the ESA; and,
• Accommodate current water diversions and power production and optimize opportunities for future water and
power development, to the extent consistent with law.
In summary, the Lower Colorado River MSCP is extremely important. It is an innovative and proactive program
intended to address endangered species issues, prevent future listings of species and still provide for continued and future
use of Colorado River resources. The LCRMSCP is intended to meet endangered species compliance requirements in the
Lower Colorado River Basin for the next fifty years.
Resolution No. 2006 -12 - -- URANIUM MILL TAILINGS PILE NEAR MOAB, UTAH
The Colorado River Water Users Association ( CRWUA) urges the United States Congress to appropriate
sufficient funding to allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to implement appropriate protection of Colorado River water
supplies due to ongoing contamination being caused by the Atlas Corporation's uranium mill tailings pile near Moab, Utah.
Position Statement - -- Uranium Mill Tailings Pile near Moab, Utah - -- (Resolution No. 2006 -11)
The Colorado River provides important water supplies for about 27 million Americans in Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Nearly 4 million acres of farmland are irrigated in the United States.
The Colorado River also supplies water to about 2.3 million people in Mexico and half a million acres of irrigated
farmlands in the Republic of Mexico. Therefore, protection of water quality from sources of contamination is critical. The
CRWUA is committed to source protection as a strategy preferable to treatment by downstream users.
The 11.9 million ton pile (covering 130 acres; 94 feet high) of uranium mill tailings (located 750 feet from the
Colorado River, 150 miles upstream of Lake Powell) left by the Atlas Corporation near Moab, Utah is currently leaking
uranium and other contaminants into the groundwater under the pile at an estimated rate of 20 gallons per minute. This
groundwater is seeping into the Colorado River. The original remediation proposal by the Atlas Corp. called for leaving the
tailings pile in place and capping the pile to reduce the current infiltration into the Colorado River.
Public Law 106 -398 enacted by Congress in October 2000 directed DOE to prepare a plan for remediation,
including groundwater restoration, of the Moab site, and to commence remedial action at the Moab site as soon as
practicable after the completion of the plan. Subject to the availability of appropriations for this purpose, DOE was directed
to conduct remediation at the Moab site in a safe and environmentally sound manner that takes into consideration the
remedial action plan prepared including:
groundwater restoration; and
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