Sale of Site for Nuclear Dump Cleared : Environment: Interior Secretary Lujan says he is proceeding at the request of Gov. Wilson. Outraged conservationists try to block the last-minute transfer by the Bush Administration.

A controversial low-level nuclear waste dump in the Southern California desert cleared a major hurdle Thursday night when Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced he will proceed with the sale of 1,000 acres of federal land to the state of California before the White House changes hands.

Lujan said in a written statement that he is proceeding with a sale of the Ward Valley site at the request of Gov. Pete Wilson. He added, however, that the Department of the Interior “takes no position on the merit” of the proposed 70-acre dump for waste from nuclear power stations, hospitals, universities, biotechnology companies and other industries.

The last-minute action generated immediate outrage from Ward Valley environmentalists and from the State Lands Commission. They have tried to slow or stop the land transfer process that could transform the wild terrain near the Colorado River.

“It’s one of the most dastardly actions by any lame-duck administration,” said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, an environmental organization opposed to the dump.

“I believe the action is so grossly illegal that it will be easily overturned. But it is an extraordinary last-gasp effort by the governor to force that nuclear dump down the public’s throat without resolution of the outstanding environmental issues.”

The lands commission already has written to former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who is the incoming secretary of the interior, asking him to intercede on behalf of the commission and stop the sale.

State Controller Gray Davis, chairman of the commission, called Lujan’s action “incomprehensible” and said Thursday that agency lawyers are exploring the possibility of a temporary restraining order to block the sale.

“The site poses danger to the Colorado River and poses considerable liabilities to California taxpayers,” Davis said. “Our lawyers concluded that we could well be liable for any accidents on site and en route to the site from other states as well as from within California.”

But U.S. Ecology, the company that would manage the proposed dump, called Lujan’s action a major move forward. Steve A. Romano, the company’s vice president and manager of California operations, said the decision has been unduly delayed by the lands commission.

Although he noted that “this land transfer in no way presupposes a license approval” for the dump site, he expects the state Department of Health Services to grant a license soon. Although there are many levels of legal wrangling ahead, the company expects to break ground in a year to 18 months.

In 1980, the federal government mandated that by 1993 all states--grouped in clusters--would be required to dispose of their own radioactive waste, with each area responsible for opening a nuclear dump site by Jan. 1. No dumps have been opened, however, and only a handful of sites have been identified nationwide. Ward Valley was the choice of the cluster of states that includes California.

However, everyone from environmentalists to American Indians and the lands commission opposed the site. Among other things, they argued that it is home to the threatened California desert tortoise, it is too close to an important urban water source in the Colorado River and that it is sacred Indian land.

But now, with the land sale, a major step has been taken toward freeing the site for licensing as a radioactive waste dump. For the past two years, the land transfer was held up by legal appeals and actions by the lands commission. If the site is not transferred from the federal government to the state, it cannot be licensed by the state Department of Health Services.

“The Department of Health Services requested that this land be sold to the state last summer for the dump site,” U.S. Ecology’s Romano said. “We expect that it would have been done were it not for actions by the State Lands Commission to subvert the process.”

Environmentalist Hirsch contends that Lujan yanked a required environmental impact statement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “hours before it went to the printer” to speed up the land transfer. The statement is supposed to be filed with the EPA, which then publishes it in the federal register, he said. A 30-day comment period follows, “which would have left (the decision) in the hands of the Clinton Administration.”

“We believe Lujan violated the law,” Hirsch said. “What he has done is waved a magic wand over the environmental impact statement and called it instead an environmental assessment, which he says doesn’t require that review.”

Hirsch said the licensing of the dump appears to be a “done deal” because Wilson has “reneged” on his promise to hold a hearing on safety issues. He said Wilson made an agreement with the state Senate to conduct the hearing but later went to court and asked to be relieved of his promise. The court still has not ruled.

Hirsch said he has no hope that the Federal Land Appeals Board, which is considering appeals on the Ward Valley site, will stand in Lujan’s way. “They work for Lujan,” he said.

Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for Lujan, called the board “independent,” but conceded that it is “likely” that the board will not undercut the secretary’s action.