Babbitt OKs Deal on Nuclear Dump : Ward Valley: But terms of the land transfer agreement fail to satisfy Gov. Wilson--who pushed the move--or environmentalists who opposed it.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced Wednesday that he has agreed to a long-delayed transfer of federal land in the eastern Mojave Desert for California’s first nuclear waste dump, but Gov. Pete Wilson said he was “confused and disappointed” by the terms of the deal.

The transfer into state hands of 1,000 acres in Ward Valley near Needles is the last major political obstacle to building the low-level nuclear waste repository, which has been the subject of intense debate for a decade. The transfer is necessary before the dump can be built.

The Clinton Administration had delayed the transfer to allow courts and scientific experts to consider safety issues at the site near the Colorado River.

Wilson said last week in a letter to Babbitt that the safety questions were largely resolved and he threatened to ask Congress to intercede unless the transfer was promptly approved. Instead of clearing up the controversy, Babbitt’s vaguely worded announcement Wednesday has satisfied neither Wilson nor critics of the project.

The heart of the Ward Valley debate has been the question of whether radioactive waste particles could migrate from the dump to ground water 650 feet below the surface and to the Colorado River, which is 20 miles away and a source of drinking water for millions of people.

As part of the transfer announcement, Babbitt said he wants additional precautions taken to ensure the safety of drinking water supplies. One high-ranking spokesman for the Interior Department who asked not to be identified estimated that even with Babbitt’s conditions, the transfer of the site could be completed by the end of summer.

The Wilson Administration, however, characterized Babbitt’s offer of the land as a paper transfer that allows the federal government to retain control over its use. “We don’t accept long-term oversight, and that’s what they seem to be calling for--a continuing role for the federal government,” said Elisabeth Brandt, chief counsel for the state’s Department of Health Services.

Wilson, in a statement critical of Babbitt, said “the Department of the Interior apparently believes that, although it has no expertise, experience or legal role in radiation safety, it should second-guess the responsible state agencies in this area.”

Environmental groups opposed to the Ward Valley dump accused Babbitt of reneging on a pledge to hold a hearing into safety and environmental issues before transferring the land.

“This premature land transfer subordinates the public interest to political pressures from the nuclear industry. We are very disappointed,” said Joel Reynolds, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of half a dozen environmental groups denouncing the transfer.

According to sources close to Babbitt, the terms of the transfer were intended to expedite the project while making sure that concerns about the site raised by a recent National Academy of Sciences report are addressed.

After a nine-month study commissioned by Babbitt, an academy panel concluded last month that the site was safe but should be subjected to further testing before any radioactive waste is deposited there.

In his letter to Babbitt last week, Wilson committed to act on some but not all of the panel’s recommendations. In his announcement, Babbitt called the letter “a welcome step forward, but [one that] leaves some issues unaddressed.”

A crucial question raised by Babbitt and not addressed in Wilson’s letter is how much plutonium-239--a highly toxic, long-lived radionuclide--can be safely deposited in the dump during its 30-year projected life span.

Babbitt called for a limit on the amount of plutonium-239 waste, which is generated by nuclear power plants, but did not specify a specific limit. An aide said he would defer to the judgment of the academy panel.

The panel said the Colorado River would be safe from contamination assuming that only 10 curies of plutonium-239 are put in the dump. (A curie is the amount of radioactivity given off by 1 gram of radium.)

The academy assumed 10 curies because state officials have recently insisted that the amount of plutonium-239 would range from 1 to 20 curies. Over the years, however, getting a fix on the precise quantity destined for Ward Valley has not been easy. One document, the environmental impact report done by the state, said that the total amount would be 0.45 curies. But earlier, the state’s licensing application indicated that close to 3,500 curies might wind up in the dump.

Brandt said Wednesday that the state would balk at setting a limit of 10 to 20 curies. “That would represent a political demand without a health and safety basis,” she said.

Complicating the issue is a statement by the academy panel’s chairman, geophysicist George Thompson, that even if 1,000 curies of plutonium leaked into the river, it would not pose a health hazard.

Brandt suggested that the door was still open to negotiations with Babbitt.

“We never reject the idea we should still talk,” Brandt said. “I’m just very pessimistic at this point about where it will get us.”

Babbitt said the proposed transfer would be subject to an assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the impact of traffic and higher levels of radioactivity on the desert tortoise, which inhabits the site and is on the endangered species list.

But a source close to Babbitt said he doubted that tortoise habitat considerations would bar use of the site for the dump.

“I’m not denying this might be a primo spot for the tortoise,” the source said, “but there are 8 million acres of critical tortoise habitat, and it boggles the mind to think that you couldn’t put a single facility out there and not have plenty of habitat left.”

Environmental activists, who have sued the federal government to protect the tortoise habitat in the Mojave, said Wednesday that any project that interferes with the recovery of a listed species is in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“Babbitt’s willingness to allow this facility in the middle of critical habitat is a betrayal of his commitment to the Endangered Species Act,” said Philip Klasky, co-director of the Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition, a group opposed to the Ward Valley dump.