Message to Babbitt From the Mojave : Secretary should require nuclear-dump hearings

In April, 1992, the California Senate was poised to reject Russell Gould, Gov. Pete Wilson’s nominee for secretary of health and welfare. At issue was Gould’s supervision, during the year he was acting secretary, of the licensing of a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert. Responsibility for the licensing rests with the Department of Health Services, whose chief, Molly Coye, reports to Gould; and though he and she were prepared to license the dump, serious questions remained. It was particularly troubling that the technical information Gould and Coye were relying on had come, at key points, from U.S. Ecology, the private firm that was to operate the dump.

Among the Senate’s concerns were the potential for radioactive contamination of ground water and of the 20-miles-distant Colorado River, the extremely poor track record of USE as an operator of waste facilities, the neglect of recycling alternatives, and the inadequacy of the liability protection provided for California taxpayers.

STATE ISSUES: These were grave concerns. However, the Senate agreed to confirm Gould when he agreed, with Wilson’s backing, to hold an adjudicatory hearing--that is, an evidentiary hearing before an administrative law judge--on the unresolved issues. Though Wilson resented having to make a political deal to win confirmation for his nominee, he also said at the time that he thought the hearing justified in view of the controversy.

Later, however, USE sued in the state Court of Appeals in Sacramento, asking that the DHS be compelled to do what it still wanted to do; that is, license the dump without a further hearing. On May 7, the court ruled that, legally, it was up to the governor to hold the hearing or not as he saw fit. Both the suit and ruling were odd because plaintiff and defendant began in agreement and because no one on the Senate side had ever contended that if the governor broke his word he would also be breaking the law. That aside, it now appears that the governor will indeed break his word and that, within the month, the DHS will license USE to operate the Ward Valley dump without the promised hearings.

FEDERAL ISSUES: As it happens, more is required for the opening of the dump than a license from the DHS. There is also the minor matter of the site itself, which belongs to the federal government. The U.S. Department of the Interior must transfer the 1,000-acre site to the State of California before work can begin.

As condition for the transfer, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, who has already stepped in once to void a hasty transfer of the land made by then-Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., has the right to require an environmental review.

If he chooses not to hold Wilson to his word, Babbitt certainly should require the equivalent of an adjudicatory hearing; for, at the end of the day, the questions remain. A solution to the nuclear waste problem must be found, but a solution that imperils a key source of water in a state as water-poor as California is no solution at all.