Senate Report Urges Hearing on Nuclear Waste Dump in Desert
Despite several years of review, serious safety and liability issues regarding the proposed Ward Valley low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert have not been resolved, according to a Senate report released Friday.
The report calls for a hearing to address such issues as ground-water contamination, the possibility of large amounts of waste from nuclear power plants going to the dump, the liability for potential mishaps and the track record of U.S. Ecology, the proposed operator of the dump.
A judge is deciding whether such a hearing--which has been called for by the State Lands Commission and environmental groups--is required by law.
“Licensing the Ward Valley facility before these issues are fully resolved could prove to be very costly to the state, both economically and environmentally,” the report said.
However, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said he was told during a meeting Friday with Health and Welfare Secretary Russell Gould that the Wilson Administration intends to hold a hearing on safety and environmental concerns.
He said Gould indicated “there will be a hearing” unless the court ruled otherwise. A hearing would give opponents of the Ward Valley site an on-the-record forum to present their concerns.
In a related action Friday, a federal district judge in San Francisco ruled that U.S. Ecology, the state Department of Health Services and a group of radioactive-waste producers cannot intervene against a court action designed to halt the transfer of the dump site from the federal government to the state. The transfer would make licensing the dump site easier.
La Ganga reported from Los Angeles and Ingram from Sacramento.
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