Wilson Presses U.S. to Transfer Dump Site : Environment: Governor says he will ask Congress to act if Interior Department does not give Ward Valley land to state for low-level nuclear waste disposal. Action had been delayed pending safety review.

Two weeks after a prominent scientific panel gave a qualified endorsement to the proposed Ward Valley low-level nuclear waste dump, Gov. Pete Wilson has told the Clinton Administration that if it does not transfer the land for the dump, he will ask Congress to intervene.

The land near Needles in the eastern Mojave Desert must be transferred into state hands by the Interior Department before the dump plans receive final approval. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had held up transfer of the site pending a review of safety questions.

Congress has the authority to approve transfer of the land if Babbitt delays action. As a Republican, Wilson would be seeking a political advantage by taking his case to a Republican-dominated Congress which is in the process of proposing legislation to transfer millions of acres of federal land to the states.

In a letter addressed Friday to Babbitt, Wilson urged the secretary to sign the transfer and make a commitment “to implement the substantive recommendations” of the National Academy of Sciences panel, which conducted a nine-month study of safety issues at the Ward Valley site.

Babbitt’s office had indicated Thursday that he would be making an announcement about the transfer Friday. Sources close to the secretary anticipated that he would approve the transfer of the federally owned site.

Shortly after the announcement was postponed, Wilson aides released the governor’s letter.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), who represents the Ward Valley region and wants the dump built, blamed Babbitt’s delay on intervention by California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, a longtime opponent of Ward Valley.

“It would appear that she was in the midst of pressuring the Administration to make delays.” Lewis said. But Lewis went on to say that he now expects Babbitt to announce the transfer of the land early next week.

Neither Babbitt nor Boxer could be reached for comment Friday.

The national academy panel concluded that burying radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, hospitals and various industries in the sand at Ward Valley would not pose a risk to human health by contaminating the Colorado River, which is 20 miles away and a source of drinking water for millions of people.

However, there was some disagreement among the panelists as to whether small amounts of the waste could seep into the water table directly below the dump.

Two panel members said that more tests should be done on the desert soil before the dump is built. But a majority of the scientists said that while more tests were advisable, they need not hold up the construction of the facility.

Opponents of the dump had appealed to Babbitt to hold up transfer of the dump site until the recommended testing is done.

Opponents also want Babbitt to place a limit on the amount of power plant waste, specifically highly toxic and long-lived plutonium-239, that could be buried at the dump.