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Attorneys seek to keep lawsuit in LV

A lawsuit by former workers at the Groom Lake air base in Lincoln County should not be switched back to the federal court in the District of Columbia because a companion case is under review in Las Vegas, government attorneys said Thursday.

New statements by Justice Department trial attorney Richard Sarver in papers filed with the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas say the lawsuit against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner should not be tried "nearly a continent apart" from a related case.

The workers' attorney, Jonathan Turley, director of the Environmental Crimes Project at George Washington University, had asked the court to change the location of the EPA case back to the District of Columbia, where he filed it Aug. 2because witnesses he intends to call reside in the Washington, D.C., area.

But Sarver, in his response filed in Las Vegas an hour before an extended deadline expired Wednesday, said, "It would not be practical or efficient to try two related cases in districts nearly a continent apart."

"Most of the witnesses with information possibly relevant to this case (the EPA case) reside in Nevada, not Washington, D.C.," Sarver said, referring to state Environmental Protection Division officials who are "familiar with environmental issues at the Nellis Range Complex."

Turley, on behalf of six former workers who the court has allowed to use fictitious names sued Browner, claiming her agency failed to inspect the Groom Lake air base, 35 miles west of Alamo, for compliance with federal environmental laws.

Then, on Aug. 15 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Turley, representing six former workers and Helen Frost -- the widow of a former base worker -- sued Defense Secretary William Perry, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall. That case claims these agency heads used secrecy to hide hazardous waste violations that injured the workers.

Turley claims hazardous chemicals were routinely burned in open pits at the base during development of the Stealth F-117A fighter and other aircraft in defiance of environmental laws at the time. Workers on hangars and in areas downwind of the burn pits have since developed illnesses that they believe are linked to inhaling toxic fumes and smoke from the pits, he claims.

The 13-page response by Sarver says Turley's change of venue motion should be denied because "common sense dictates that two district courts should not simultaneously preside over a dispute involving exactly the same issues and parties.

"Although it is true that many of the federal officials named as potential witnesses in the plaintiffs' motion reside in the District of Columbia, it is highly unlikely that they will actually be required to testify at trial," Sarver said.