Re: NM State lawsuit over WIPP?

[Ruth Weiner <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

     We have been keeping tabs on these lawsuits, so here are some pointes:
     
     1.  The NM Attorney General has said publicly, and often, that he 
     intends to get an injuction to keep the WIPP from beginning to accept 
     TRU waste.  We fully expect that he will.
     
     2.  In 1992, the NMAG filed suit charging that (a) FLPMA did not give 
     the BLM authority to transfer the land the WIPP sits on and in to DOE, 
     and (b) WIPP was in violation of RCRA Hazardous and Solid Waste 
     Amendments.  (a) became moot when the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act of 1992 
     was passed by Congress, tranferring the land (although there is a 
     faction here that claims this particular injuction is still in 
     effect).  The court of appeals (First Circuit) upheld DOE on (b), 
     ruling that the WIPP was "grandfathered."  The WIPP Land Withdrawal 
     Act Amendments of 1995 withdrew WIPP from the requirement for a RCRA 
     No-Migration Variance Petition (with EPA's blessing, by the way).
     
     3.  The State of NM still regulates the use of RCRA controlled 
     materials at the WIPP in daily operations, and has not yet issued a 
     RCRA Part B permit, but they are issuing a draft.  In the meantime, 
     WIPP can accept waste that has no chemically hazardous constituents.  
     The NMAG may well sue on this too, we don't know.
     
     Clearly only my own opinion
     Ruth Weiner
     rfweine@sandia.gov
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: NM State lawsuit over WIPP?
Author:  sandyfl@earthlink.net at hubsmtp
Date:    5/18/98 2:28 PM


I heard the NM Attorney General state the other day that they would file a suit 
to keep the WIPP facility from accepting any waste shipments, and to keep
this permanent.  Has anyone head of such a filing at this time?
     
------------------
Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
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sandyfl@earthlink.net
sperle@icnpharm.com
     
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