Ward Valley

["JACK ELLIOTT" <JACK.ELLIOTT@quickmail.llnl.gov>]

The following appeared in the NCCHPS Newsletter and is repeated here at the
suggestion of Al Tschaecke.


     PRESS RELEASE REGARDING WARD VALLEY        forwarded by Joel Cehn
     
     HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 1996--US Ecology Chairman  Jack 
     Lemley today condemned what he called a "transparent political  act by 
     the Clinton Administration to indefinitely delay a federal decision on 
     the Ward Valley low-level radioactive waste disposal  project beyond 
     the November presidential election." Lemley's response follows a Feb. 
     14 Interior Department  announcement that no land transfer decision 
     will occur before the  previously uninvolved Department of Energy 
     undertakes new studies  that will last a year or more, followed by a 
     third round of federal  environmental impact reviews.  The Interior 
     Department announcement follows a recent California  Supreme Court 
     decision upholding a license granted to US Ecology by  the state 
     Department of Health Services in 1993, and a May 1995  National 
     Academy of Sciences (NAS) report that recommended additional study but 
     repudiated claims of project opponents and concluded that  
     construction and operation could proceed.  
     
     "Unless reversed, this misguided federal intrusion will  effectively 
     terminate the Ward Valley project and ultimately unravel  more than 15 
     years of coordinated effort by the states to implement  the federal 
     Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act," Lemley predicted. The Act, 
     passed by Congress in 1980, was based on the recommendations of a 
     National Governor's Association task force, on which  then-Governors 
     Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt served.   Lemley took particular 
     exception to the blatant falsehood, originally put forth in President 
     Clinton's recent veto of the  Balanced Budget Act, that Congress had 
     sought to transfer the Ward  Valley site with no environmental 
     safeguards.  "In fact," Lemley noted, "extensive public health and 
     environmental safeguards are already in place as a result of existing 
     federal and  state regulations, more than 130 detailed state license 
     conditions,  and requirements of the state's Environmental Impact 
     Report, all of  which have been upheld by the courts."   
     
     Congress acted to conclude the land transfer after negotiations  
     between the Interior Department and the State of California broke  
     down concerning Secretary Babbitt's demands that the state grant  
     Interior a future role overseeing how it carried out specific NAS  
     recommendations.  By law, oversight of California's regulatory  
     program is the responsibility of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory  
     Commission.  The Interior Department has no statutory authority, and  
     no expertise in radiation safety matters.   
          
     The Department of Energy's statutory role regarding commercial  
     low-level radioactive waste is to assist the states in the  
     development of sites.   "DOE's interference in the State of 
     California's program is in  direct conflict with their narrowly 
     assigned role under the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act, and we 
     will not assist its misconduct,"  Lemley commented. "The Clinton 
     Administration has placed political expediency above  the law, the 
     public health of Californians and the general welfare of the nation.  
     The future of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy is  now in the 
     hands of Congress," Lemley concluded.   Low-level radioactive wastes 
     are produced by electric utilities,  hospitals, universities, 
     biotechnology companies and other  industries.  More than 2,200 
     entities are licensed to use radioactive materials in California, 
     which has been the largest waste producer  west of the Mississippi 
     River.  Waste is currently accumulating in  hundreds of urban 
     locations pending a solution to the state's  disposal needs.    
     Contact: Hill and Knowlton, Inc., George Paris, 415/781-2430