Re: WIPP shipment through Albq. NM

[RuthWeiner@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/13/2004 8:51:59 AM Eastern Standard Time, William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM> writes:



>BTW, if I'm missing something, here, please let me know, but I do not see

>how the Albq. hearing will accomplish much more than allowing the public to

>let off steam.  DOT preemption powers are well-established.  An  "I know

>better than  you." presentation will accompish nothing more than reinforcing

>public concerns.



Well, they certainly "let off steam" in the form of an endlessly repeated series of fabrications and distortions, interspersed with throwaway sarcasm and insults directed at DOE, Sandia, Los Alamos, Fernald (Fernald??), the Nevada Test Site, Yucca Mountain, etc.  Nothing pleasant or remotely courteous or truthful about these folks.    Moreover, the City Council clerk skipped over my name (I was the only speaker against the memorial) and announced the public hearing at an end without recognizing me, though I had signed up in plenty of time and was not the last speaker on the list.  I believe it was deliberate.  Yes, I have written to the City Council about this.  I also wrote a long letter about TRU waste transportation, which I will post if there is an interest.



I am only writing this because I believe that the public policy problem is far more serious even than I thought.  I tried to tell Councilman Gomez (author of the anti TRU transportation memorial) that his memorial was based on erroneous information (exactly the words I used)and he responded "that's a matter of opinion."  Well, science is not a matter of opinion.  For example, the facts that the TRUPACT-II meets the standards of 10 CFR Part 71 Subpart E, and that contact handled TRU waste is not very radioactive (because the half-lives involved are pretty long), and that stable hydrogen is not radioactive at all are not "matters of opinion."  



Folks, we have got to meet the lies head-on and expose them for what they are.  All DOE has bought itself by pandering is more trouble.  It gives credibility to the lies.  What I went through last night was absolutely not fun (and unlike the professional anti-nukes there, I don't get paid to go to hearings!) Had I not been alone in my opposition, the clerk might not have skipped over me (yes, I was asked, when I signed up to speak, was I for or agaisnt).  Please, please, go to these hearings and meetings, speak up, write to your elected representatives.  Yes it is time consuming.  No it is not fun.  I don't do it because I enjoy it -- I too have better things to do with my time -- but because I feel a responsibility.



Suppose the clerk had skipped over an anti-nuke without allowing him or her to speak?  Do you suppose that person would have politely passed a note to his or her council representative and then gone home and written a polite letter, without any sarcasm or insults, to the City Council, as I did?



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Ruth F. Weiner

ruthweiner@aol.com

505-856-5011

(o)505-284-8406