Health Groups Ask for Ruling on Waste Site

Supporters of a proposed low-level radioactive waste burial site in Ward Valley in California’s Mojave Desert on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to force regulators to cancel further hearings on the hotly contested dump site and instead decide whether the dump should be licensed.

The court challenge was initiated by U.S. Ecology, an Agoura Hills company that would operate the planned dump, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine, which represents doctors who use low-level radioactive materials in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Also filing papers in support of Ward Valley were the San Diego Biomedical Industry Council, which represents San Diego County’s 45 largest biotechnology companies, some of which generate radioactive waste, and the San Diego-based National Assn. of Cancer Patients.

Low-level waste is generated by nuclear power plants, hospitals, biotechnology firms and some industrial companies. California and Arizona, which would use the Ward Valley site, generate about 100,000 cubic feet of low-level waste each year, according to Steve Romano, a U.S. Ecology spokesman.

State regulators are struggling to open an approved dump in California by Jan. 1, when federal law mandates that the state have its own depository for waste produced by 2,254 such firms.

Waste generators complain that they are ill-equipped to store the low-level radioactive wastes on their properties, and that--absent an authorized dump--they could be forced to halt research, medical procedures and manufacturing that produce low-level radioactive wastes.

Early this year, the state Department of Health Services completed a lengthy review of the proposed Ward Valley site, which proponents argue is well-suited for disposal of low-level nuclear waste.

But in April, before a final licensing decision could be made, Democrats in Sacramento forced the health agency to reopen hearings on safety issues.

Today, only three dumps--in Nevada, Washington and South Carolina--accept low-level radioactive waste. Officials in Washington, where most of California’s waste is shipped for disposal, intend to prohibit shipments from California after Jan. 1, and the Nevada dump will be closed next year, according to Ward Valley proponents.

South Carolina officials might begin to accept waste from California, but no final decision has been made, according to Ken Widder, chairman of Molecular Biosystems and co-chairman of the San Diego Biomedical Industry Council, a trade group.

Ward Valley proponents on Tuesday described the planned hearings as illegal and unnecessary. They contend that the state health agency’s generally favorable review of Ward Valley be used as the basis for the licensing decision.

But opponents continue to raise safety questions about the proposed site. Some argue that the public would, in essence, be forced to subsidize the burial costs for relatively high-level wastes generated by the nuclear-power industry.

If the court were to grant U.S. Ecology’s request, it would take at least a year--and probably longer--to prepare the site for shipments, Romano said.