Roadblock Emerges to Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump

In a move that could signal more delays for a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert, two ranking state officials threatened Friday to block the project unless California is allowed to turn away radioactive waste from all but three states.

The two officials sit on the three-member State Lands Commission, which has the power to prevent the state Department of Health Services from taking title to the land--a move essential if the dump is to be built.

In a letter to the state Health and Welfare Agency, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, a lands commission member, said Congress must grant California “the unequivocal right” to ban radioactive waste from any state except California’s partners in the project--Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota.

He was supported by state Controller Gray Davis, another commission member.

“The two of us make a majority and if we both vote no, that’s it,” Davis said Friday.

The third member is Gov. Pete Wilson’s finance director, Thomas W. Hayes, who has made no formal statement on the issue.

McCarthy also said his support for the project would hinge on meeting three other conditions, including a requirement that the operator of the proposed dump, U.S. Ecology Inc., or those who dispose of radioactive waste there, are held liable “in perpetuity” for future damages and cleanup costs.

At the same time, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-San Francisco) on Friday called for a congressional investigation of the proposal, including the potential risks faced by taxpayers for cleanup costs.

The demands come a week before licensing hearings set for July 22 by the state Health Services Department. If approved, the $40-million, 70-acre facility would become the first low-level nuclear waste dump to open in the United States in a generation. It would be located 24 miles west of Needles, in Ward Valley.

Under federal law, only states that are members of a low-level nuclear waste compact can dispose of waste in the compact’s host state. But California officials fear a loophole in the law will allow the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to force California to accept waste from non-compact states by declaring an emergency.

Davis said Friday that at least 18 states have made inquiries about using the Mojave site.

Low-level nuclear waste includes radioactive material used in medical practice, scientific research and industrial processes, as well as certain radioactive material from nuclear power plants, such as tools and reactor hardware. It does not include highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods used to power the reactors. Those will continue to be stored at the power plants until a high-level waste site is found.

The proposed dump site is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which plans to transfer it to the State Lands Commission at no cost as part of a long-standing land swap with the state.

The lands commission would then have to transfer the property to the Health Services Department before the dump could be built.

The commission could indefinitely prevent health services from taking title, unless the Legislature overrode the commission, according to Robert C. Hight, chief counsel to the commission.