Envirocare - latest information

[Steven.Rima@DOEGJPO.COM (Steven Rima)]

     Here is the latest information coming out about the Envirocare 
     "scandal."
     
     Steven D. Rima, CHP
     steven.rima@doegjpo.com
     
     
     ______________________________________________________________________
     
     Thursday, January 9, 1997 
     
     
                 ENVIROCARE GOT BREAKS AND STATE KNEW IT
     
                                       '90 Probe Sheds Light On Waste 
     Scandal
     
          BY JIM WOOLF
          Copyright 1997, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
     
             New concerns about the relationship between former state 
     radiation-control director Larry F. Anderson and
          Envirocare of Utah owner Khosrow Semnani are revealed in a 1990 
     internal state memorandum obtained this
          week by The Salt Lake Tribune.
     
             ``Our conclusion is that Mr. Anderson has not retained 
     objectivity concerning Envirocare,'' said the memo
          prepared for the then-Utah Division of Environmental Health. 
     ``Our investigation has not revealed the cause of this
          lack of objectivity.''
     
             The cause now is clear: Anderson was receiving secret payments 
     from Semnani. The businessman said he paid
          Anderson $600,000 in cash, gold and real estate over eight years 
     to keep the state regulator from causing
          problems for his Tooele County disposal site for low-level 
     radioactive waste. Anderson contends he had a valid
          consulting contract with Semnani and recently sued for more than 
     $5 million in unpaid compensation.
     
             Issues raised in the 1990 investigation include:
     
             -- Anderson's efforts in 1987 to ensure that Semnani was able 
     to purchase 543 acres of state-owned land for
          the disposal facility. Anderson told investigators that he and 
     other state regulators were ``advocates for
          Envirocare because of the nation's need for a place to dispose of 
     low-level radioactive waste.''
     
             -- Anderson's assistance to Semnani in purchasing a 
     state-owned railroad-car-unloading device. A 1992
          legislative audit said this purchase appeared to bypass normal 
     state surplus-property regulations, but the 1990
          investigation provides more details. For example, Anderson 
     apparently hand-carried Semnani's purchase forms to
          the state surplus-property office.
     
             -- When another Tooele County disposal company -- USPCI Inc. 
     -- complained about not being given a
          chance to bid on the railroad-car-unloading device, Semnani paid 
     that company $100,000 to avoid legal action,
          said the memo.
     
             Semnani said Wednesday that the $100,000 payment was to settle 
     ``a number of outstanding issues'' between
          Envirocare and USPCI. The railroad-car dumper was just one of 
     them.
     
             -- Anderson's lax enforcement of state rules affecting 
     Envirocare. ``If there is a choice between treating
          Envirocare strictly or leniently, he will treat the organization 
     leniently,'' said the memo.
     
             -- Semnani's special treatment of radiation-control staff. 
     ``On one occasion, Mr. Semnani bought pizza for the
          entire Bureau of Radiation Control. On another occasion, he took 
     the bureau to lunch at Cafe Pierpont [in
          downtown Salt Lake City]. He buys Christmas presents for members 
     of the bureau. Last year [1989], it was ties
          for the men, perfume for the women,'' said the memo.
     
             -- Anderson's efforts to block disposal projects in Utah and 
     Colorado that could have competed with
          Envirocare. For example, he objected to Nuclear Fuel Service's 
     (NFS) plans to move material similar to
          uranium-mill tailings to a closed-down uranium mill at Ticaboo in 
     Garfield County because it was ``difficult to find
          a corporate structure'' for NFS and the company appeared to be 
     ``based out of the Cayman Islands or
          somewhere.''
     
             ``He's lying through his teeth,'' Paul Schutt, chief executive 
     officer for NFS, said Wednesday. ``For 30 years
          we've been providing nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy. If we were 
     based in the Cayman Islands, the Navy would put
          me in jail.'' The company is based in Delaware.
     
             Anderson's attorney, James C. Haskins, declined Wednesday to 
     discuss these issues. Anderson declined to be
          interviewed by a Tribune reporter who visited his home in 
     Mesquite, Nev.
     
             Despite the long list of concerns turned up by the 
     investigators in 1990, they could find no concrete evidence
          of wrongdoing by Anderson. Rather than launch further 
     investigations that might have uncovered the secret
          arrangement between Anderson and Semnani, the issue was dropped.
     
             ``In hindsight, I wish we would have continued to 
     investigate,'' said Ken Alkema, who then was director of the
          Division of Environmental Health. ``But it [the investigation] 
     didn't give us the basis for pursuing it any farther.''
     
             Alkema, who now is director of governmental relations for 
     Envirocare, said immediately after the investigation
          ended, he ordered all copies of the report destroyed to protect 
     the anonymity of the staff members raising
          concerns about Anderson. As a result, criminal investigators who 
     have spent the past couple of months looking
          into ties between Anderson and Semnani believed the document was 
     gone.
     
             However, at least one copy survived and was provided to The 
     Tribune. It is a draft of the memo that has
          editing marks correcting spelling and other errors.