Officials said the EPA budget request is a substantially higher annual amount than requested under any previous administration and is intended to strengthen the EPA’s program implementation, research, regulation and comprehensive enforcement activities.

Included in the proposed EPA budget is $3.3 billion to assist states in providing low-interest loans to communities to finance wastewater and drinking water infrastructure and $1.3 billion to help states and tribes protect their air, water and land. That represents a 14 percent increase from fiscal 2010 and is the highest level ever requested.

An additional $300 million would be allocated for restoration efforts in the Great Lakes basin, the largest freshwater system in the world, with a focus on contaminated sediments and toxics, non-point source pollution, habitat degradation and loss, and invasive species.

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Gov. Gary Herbert has asked the department to stop the train bringing the uranium from the Savannah River in South Carolina, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“We are planning a briefing with the governor and his staff tomorrow,” Jen Stutsman, a department spokeswoman, said Wednesday. “But this shipment is continuing as planned.”

EnergySolutions Inc. had agreed to take the depleted uranium for disposal in Utah. The company has already buried 5,000 barrels of waste from the Savannah River in a landfill in Toole County and has disposed of a total of 49,000 tons at the site.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently said new rules are needed for disposal of depleted uranium in shallow burial sites. Herbert had asked the Department of Energy to delay any shipments until the Utah Radiation Control Board has had an opportunity to draft interim regulations.

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