The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week that, as of the end of September, 330,000 tons of tailings have been shipped by rail from the Atlas mill tailings site to the permanent repository near Crescent Junction, according to a DOE press release dated Oct. 6.

The project also moved 47 truckloads (1,034 tons) of contaminated scrap metal from the Moab site to the repository.

Construction of an underpass beneath the Potash Road began in mid-September and will be completed by mid-November. At that time, trucks hauling containers of tailings from the mill site up to the railroad siding will no longer interfere with traffic on Potash Road, the press release states.

“Almost a third of the [330,000 tons], 100,000 tons, was shipped using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding,” the press release states, adding that movement of the scrap metal and underpass construction were similarly funded.

ARRA funds allocated to the project amount to $108 million, much of which was used to create or save 205 jobs. That is in addition to 121 jobs already in place using DOE funds, according to Wendee Ryan, public affairs manager for the project. Of the 121 jobs, 29 are in the Grand Junction office, she said.

Rail shipments of the tailings to the repository, 30 miles north of Moab, began on April 20. At that time DOE had just learned it would receive the ARRA funding, prompting immediate efforts to ramp up the project in order to move the tailings faster, according to the press release.

The original plan was to ship four trainloads of tailings each week, Monday through Thursday. Currently two trains run every day, Monday through Friday, with the extra shipments covered by ARRA funds.

The new schedule means the project will ship an additional two million tons of tailings by Sept. 30, 2011, according to the press release. At that time the ARRA funds will run out.

The 330,000 tons of tailings shipped means that two percent of the 16 million tons total were moved in just over five months.