Tribe Applies for Nuclear Waste Dump : Environment: Mesa Grande band of Mission Indians seeks $100,000 federal grant to study offer from U.S. government.

A North County Indian band has applied to the federal government to store nuclear waste, saying it has plenty of land and needs the money.

The tribal council for the Mesa Grande band of Mission Indians, whose reservation is situated just west of Santa Ysabel at the junction of California 78 and 79, has not yet run the idea past its 350 members, tribal chairman Carlos Guassac said Friday.

But if his band is awarded a $100,000 federal grant to finance further feasibility studies, Guassac said, he will be more than eager to pursue the notion of storing spent, but still radioactive, nuclear rods that once fueled commercial nuclear reactors.

“If we get it, we might change our names to Rods R Us,” he said, chuckling.

His is the first agency in California--public or Indian--to show an interest in storing nuclear waste, federal officials said.

Guassac became smitten with the idea while attending a conference for Native Americans in San Francisco in December, during which a federal bureaucrat addressed the audience.

The speaker invited Indians to voluntarily open up their reservation lands as nuclear waste dumps.

The proposal came from the U.S. Nuclear Waste Negotiator, an agency established by Congress to solicit interest by states and Indian reservations to open their doors to nuclear waste because of the growing U.S. dilemma over what to do with expended fuel rods.

In conjunction with that effort, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing $100,000 grants to interested Indian tribes and states to give the idea of storing nuclear waste more study.

Guassac said he was more than happy to apply for a piece of the pie.

“We’re not using 800 acres for anything, we’re surrounded by granite hills and we don’t have any other economic enterprises to make any money,” he said.

“Last year we only had $5,000 in our tribal budget, just barely enough to keep our trailer open. And we’ve got people living on the reservation with no electricity, no water, no plumbing,” Guassac said.

Having viewed videotapes on the benefits that can accrue for Indian reservations and states that want to store nuclear waste, Guassac is already a booster.

“Nuclear waste has all these bad connotations, but we’ve seen a film by the Department of Energy on a plant in North Carolina that temporarily stores nuclear waste,” he said. “They do it in mobile vats that are sealed and cushioned, and all that, for maximum protection.

“Realistically, it’s a good way for us to make money,” he said. “And it’s a viable service to the country.”

Is dumping nuclear waste on an Indian reservation just one more injustice to them? “Well, it’s voluntary, and at least in this case, we would be paid to be (dumped) upon,” he said.

Vern Nelson, spokesman for the Office of Nuclear Waste Negotiator in Boise, Ida., said seven jurisdictions have applied for the initial $100,000 feasibility grants.

Of those, the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribe in New Mexico, the Yakima Nation in Washington state, and the county governments of Grant, N.D., and Fremont, Wyo., have been awarded grants.

If the Mesa Grande application is approved, it will be up to the Indians to decide how to spend the money to further study the idea, Nelson said.

If the Indians choose to pursue the nuclear waste dump proposal, they would then compete with other candidates for a second round of funding for further studies, including consideration of the proposed site’s geology and other environmental questions.

“If we find out that we’re on an earthquake fault, then of course we would drop the idea,” Guassac said.

Both he and Nelson said substantial benefits could accrue for any Indian band that plays host to nuclear waste--including direct funding for public improvements on the reservation, schools, medical facilities and cold cash.

“A lot of tribes don’t want to get into this,” Guassac said. “But they’re already better off economically than we are. They’ve got enterprises we don’t have.”

The site being considered by the Mesa Grande Indians is near the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation, and Guassac said the cooperation of that band is needed to get access to the 800 acres that would be the dump site.

He said his tribal council, if it decides to pursue the idea, would also have to win over 10 or so neighbors in the rural area of rolling hills.

But one group that Guassac said he won’t negotiate with is the public agency governing the development of the San Dieguito River Valley Open Space Park, which, on paper, runs right across the Mesa Grande reservation.

“I know they hope we don’t do this, but they don’t have any influence over us whatsoever,” Guassac said. “If we want to do something on our land, we will. That’s our position, our sovereign right, and we’ll explore what’s in our best interest.

“When you don’t have anything, and you have an opportunity to go after something, you look at it seriously,” Guassac said. “You never say never.”