Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NUCLEAR WASTE PROJECT: Porter limits access to Yucca e-mails hearing

Berkley, Gibbons asked to stay away so he can broaden probe

WASHINGTON -- Concerned that a Yucca Mountain investigation he is leading might be perceived as too parochial, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., asked Nevada's two other House lawmakers not to take part in a hearing today on the nuclear waste project, congressional officials said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., readily agreed. But Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., objected. She said Porter was making a mistake not to include fellow Nevadans who have fought the proposed waste repository.

"I wanted to take part and I was not invited to," Berkley said Tuesday.

"My understanding is that (Porter) has a misplaced idea that if other Nevadans participate then Congress will consider this a Nevada-only issue," Berkley said. "If it wasn't for the Nevada delegation this issue would have been dead a long time ago."

Nonetheless, Berkley said she planned to stay away while Porter conducts the hearing as chairman of the House federal workforce and agency organization subcommittee.

Porter was not available Tuesday evening. His spokesman T.J. Crawford said Berkley and Gibbons participated fully at an initial Yucca Mountain hearing on April 5, and Porter wanted to focus today's session on his subcommittee's ongoing investigation.

Though he is an opponent of Yucca Mountain like most other Nevada elected leaders, Porter also is taking a longer view of the investigation, which he believes raises questions about Energy Department management and the behavior of federal workers, Crawford said.

"This is not just a Nevada issue for him," Crawford said. "He has two hats to wear as chairman of his subcommittee. His responsibility, his scope, is much, much more broad."

The subcommittee is seeking to uncover details behind a cache of e-mails from 1998 to 2000 in which several scientists assigned to the Yucca project by the U.S. Geological Survey discussed possible falsification of quality assurance records for their research.

Joseph Hevesi, a USGS hydrologist who has been identified as one of the e-mail authors, has been subpoenaed to testify today. Crawford said Hevesi is expected to appear but it was not clear whether he would discuss the e-mails.

The inspectors general at the Energy Department and the Department of Interior also are investigating the e-mails with assistance from the FBI.

John Arthur, deputy director of the Yucca project, also is scheduled to testify. Arthur said earlier this month that an internal DOE probe was concluding that Yucca science was not compromised by allegations raised through the e-mails.

The April 5 hearing, held days after the explosive e-mails were made public, was dominated by Nevadans. Only two or three other subcommittee members appeared for brief periods.

Crawford said subcommittee members are expected to take a more active role today. The panel has 11 members.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Sens. John Ensign and Harry Reid testified on April 5, as did Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, Judy Treichel of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, and Joe Egan, the state's nuclear waste lawyer.

Although not members of the subcommittee, Gibbons and Berkley were invited to sit on the dais with Porter. They questioned witnesses including USGS director Charles Groat and acting Yucca Mountain project director Ted Garrish.

Discussions about the focus of the hearing included leaders of the House Government Reform Committee as well as Porter, Gibbons and Berkley, according to Amy Spanbauer-Maier, Gibbons' chief of staff.

"It was agreed upon by everyone that we wanted to be sure that this did not turn into something that critics could say was just Nevada against Yucca Mountain," Spanbauer-Maier said.

The perception that Nevada lawmakers look only to capitalize on Yucca Mountain flaws "is something that is always out there," she said. "We didn't want to divert any attention from the questions at hand about gross mismanagement and falsification of documents."