Southwestern Compact Prepares for Funding Cuts

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Tuesday July 6, 3:20 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

Southwestern Compact Prepares for Funding Cuts

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--In an unusual 
meeting conducted by teleconference on June 29, the Southwestern Low-
Level Radioactive Waste Commission took stop-gap action to allow low-
level radioactive waste to continue to be shipped out of California, 
Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota for safe disposal in other 
states through the end of year.  

Activities of the Commission, the governing body of the Southwestern 
Compact, had been funded by California's low-level waste program. 
Although the Commissioners receive no income for serving, they are 
supported by a small staff which processes requests to export waste 
from the region. The Commission lost its funding when California 
Governor Gray Davis signed a budget which provides no funds for 
California to meet its obligations under law by providing for 
disposal of low-level radioactive waste produced by biotech firms, 
pharmaceutical and medical institutions, nuclear utilities and other 
industries in the four Compact member states.  

The Commission authorized use of most of its minuscule cash reserves 
to allow exportation to continue through the end of the
calendar year. 

At its meeting, the Commission warned that there is no assurance that 
exportation can be allowed after Dec. 31 unless funding can be found 
to continue its operations. Without the ability to export, low-level 
radioactive waste will accumulate at the hundreds of sites where it 
is generated since there will be no legal way to dispose of it.  

As host state for the Southwestern Compact, California is required to 
provide a regional disposal site. A license to build and operate a 
facility was issued in 1993, but its construction has been held up by 
failure of California and the federal government to resolve issues 
relating to title to the desert property upon which the facility is 
to be built. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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