Colorado River at Moab, UT
An estimated 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings have been left behind following the cessation of processing operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Action (UMTRA) project site in 1984. Site-related contaminants such as ammonia and uranium have leached from the tailings pile into the shallow groundwater, which have migrated downgradient into the Colorado River, exceeding federal criteria and impacting critical habitats. Currently, the long-term impact of the applied remediation methods on the amount and variability of groundwater contaminants discharging into the Colorado River and how this effects critical habitats for fish within the backwater areas of the Colorado River is not well understood. Furthermore, climate change is expected to affect groundwater recharge as well as surface water flow conditions of the Colorado River, which is anticipated to impact groundwater flow and the applied remediation; however, the manner and extent of impact is unknown. This project proposes to develop an integrated framework to monitor and verify the effectiveness of the applied remediation method for DOE’s Moab site and provide proposed adaptations where needed by combining smart monitoring, ML/AI, and high-resolution models to validate and verify the impact of remediation on the shallow groundwater system and critical habitats of the Colorado River.