Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
YUCCA ROUTES: Three rural counties mull pact
AG spokesman says DOE proposal attempts to bypass state's authority
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
In a move that has caught state and local officials off guard, three rural Nevada counties and the city of Caliente are considering forming a new regional agency to coordinate transportation of nuclear waste to the planned Yucca Mountain repository.
The proposal has raised concerns with critics of the government's plans for disposing 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"They essentially want to cut the state and Clark County out of the process rather than deal with us," Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux said Tuesday, referring to the Department of Energy.
Sources familiar with the draft agreement said it was crafted by the rural counties at the suggestion of Energy Department officials who prefer to deal with an umbrella agency rather than the affected counties individually.
Caliente Mayor Kevin Phillips said, "The department has suggested that the governments along this transportation route take a regional approach."
Ultimately, the agreement would have to be approved by Attorney General Brian Sandoval. Sandoval could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but in a statement conveyed by his spokesman, Tom Sargent, Sandoval said, "They bypassed us, they bypassed the governor, they bypassed the Nevada Department of Transportation. This is something we're going to have to deal with as a state."
A copy of the unsigned, draft agreement for the "Regional Transportation Cooperative Authority," calls for forging a pact between Nye, Lincoln and Esmeralda counties and Caliente to receive federal or state funding to "develop information, formulate proposals, recommend plans, (and) adopt policies regarding transportation corridors."
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he believes the Department of Energy instigated the draft agreement and that "the health and safety of rural residents is as important as those living in metropolitan areas, like Las Vegas."
"There are some who think this stuff is safe. Transporting this stuff isn't safe. Putting it in Yucca Mountain isn't safe," he said. "DOE and the president might be willing to gamble with our safety but I don't think we should."
Allen Benson, a spokesman for the Energy Department's Office of Repository Development, fielded questions for the department's civilian radioactive waste chief, Margaret Chu, saying, "Our view has always been that local governments should work cooperatively.
"If they can come forward with a concept that we believe would be helpful, we would consider funding it," Benson said.
While attending the independent, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's September meeting in Amargosa Valley at the Longstreet Inn, Chu met across the street at the Stateline Casino with representatives from the rural counties and some consultants.
"The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas and explore possibilities for cooperation," said Benson who attended the informal meeting. "Nothing was decided, nothing was settled, it was just an information exchange."
Ben Viljoen, chairman of the Esmeralda County Commission, said officials from his county and Lincoln County "have worked four years on this thing and Nye has been in and out of the mix.
"Basically we're trying to stand united because the waste will be going through all three counties. We want to stand as one voice before the Department of Energy," Viljoen said.
Nye County Commission Chairman Henry Neth said his commission rejected the draft agreement at a recent meeting because it would have created a separate agency to funnel Yucca Mountain grant money outside of the commission's direct control.
The other entities have yet to act on the proposal.
"We believe an authority, as it was put to us, would be more consultant top-heavy and wouldn't be the true will of the elected officials," Neth said.
He said he expects the Nye County Commission, however, will revisit the issue.
Despite Nye County's rejection of the first draft, Clark County's principal planner for nuclear waste, Fred Dilger, who was privy to the conference-call discussion about it, said he was "very surprised" when he found out how the proposed agreement emerged.
"We were deliberately excluded," he said. "Director Chu didn't want to meet with anyone from the state or any of the other affected governments."
Energy Department officials are still hashing out their strategy for transporting highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial power reactors across the nation to Yucca Mountain. They have yet to submit a license application for the project to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and they predicted after Congress approved the project last year over Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto that a license application won't be ready until December 2004.
Nevertheless, the environmental impact statement for the repository project gives preference to rail shipments with five alternatives for rail corridors in the state, including one from Jean and another modified route through the Las Vegas Valley, both of which are in Clark County.
Phillips said his concern is more about good planning than taking a position on the repository's location at Yucca Mountain.
"There's got to be some way to make sure the tracks abut one another on the county line," the Caliente mayor said. "Take emergency response. Whether it's rail capability or temporary highway, it's intuitive we would need an emergency response capability here in the city if transportation comes this way."
