WIPP salt headed to feed cattle in West Texas

Having spent the past 250 million years or so half a mile underground, salt excavated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is now on its way to help feed cattle in Texas. The U.S. Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office has worked out an agreement to transfer 300,000 tons of run-of-mine salt from WIPP to Magnum Blue Ribbon Feeds over a five-year period. On July 26, the first truckload of stored salt left the WIPP facility for Hereford, Texas, which is located southwest of Amarillo. Salt tailings have accumulated on the surface of the WIPP site since mining began in the 1980s. In 2008, Magnum successfully responded to a request for interest in the salt tailings with a business plan to remove up to 10 truckloads of salt a day from the site. As part of the agreement, the Carlsbad Soil and Water Conservation District is administering the agreement, allowing proceeds provided by Magnum to remain in southeast New Mexico for educational and range improvement projects within the district. Magnum has provided all of the infrastructure improvements for the project, and the salt removal process has no adverse impact on WIPP's mission as a waste repository. The WIPP salt will mostly be used to add a mineral supplement to cattle feed...more