Judge Halts Sale of Nuclear Dump Site

A federal district judge issued a temporary order Friday to prevent the Bush Administration from selling federal land to California for a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump.

Federal District Court Judge Marilyn Patel, ruling in San Francisco, scheduled a hearing for Jan. 19--the day before President Bush leaves office--to determine whether a preliminary injunction should be issued.

Environmental groups sought the order after Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. announced Thursday that he would sell the land to California before leaving office. Gov. Pete Wilson had appealed to Lujan to transfer the land where the dump would be built.

But opponents of the dump contended in court Friday that the sale would violate the U.S. Endangered Species Act because the site is habitat for the threatened desert tortoise.

The opponents are hoping to delay the land transfer until Interior Secretary-designate Bruce Babbitt, a former Arizona governor and president of the League of Conservation Voters, takes over Lujan’s post on Jan. 20.

“This creates a whole new ballgame,” said Controller Gray Davis, a critic of the proposal. “ . . . It’s quite possible there will be no final resolution of the transfer by the time Babbitt takes office.”

Davis said Patel asked to have the hearing on a preliminary injunction postponed for a week after Jan. 19 because she may be on vacation that day, but the Interior Department’s attorneys have not yet agreed to a delay.

“Given Secretary-designate Bruce Babbitt’s long history of support for the environment, I am confident those of us opposed to the transfer will get a better shake,” Davis said.

Babbitt, reached in Washington before the court order was issued, said he would not try to stop Lujan from proceeding and knew too little about the issue to comment.

Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for Lujan, said the court order appeared “premature” because Lujan has not yet sold the land. Before he can proceed, an Interior appeals board must resolve challenges to the dump site in what is expected to be routine action.