In Defiance of U.S., State Plans Tests at Dump Site

In the turf war over the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump, the Wilson administration now says it plans to enter the federally owned land to do critical safety testing, just as the Clinton administration has cleared the way for its scientific experts to do the same tests.

“We’re just about ready to go,” said Elisabeth Brandt, the Department of Health Services lawyer who has led the state’s efforts to build California’s first low-level nuclear waste repository.

Deputy Cabinet Secretary Michael Kahoe said Thursday that the governor’s next step would be to ask the U.S. Department of Interior to secure the site.

“We are asking them to clear the site of a protesters’ encampment,” Kahoe said. “This is very sensitive testing and not something to be done while you are being harassed.”

The tests, recommended by a National Academy of Sciences panel, are to determine whether radioactive waste could leak from the dump, in the eastern Mojave Desert near Needles.

The tests have been on hold since last fall, when the firm hired by the state to operate the dump threatened to sue two scientists who had been asked by the Department of Interior to oversee the testing.

Setting the stage for a confrontation at the remote site, the Department of Health Services indicated in a letter Wednesday to federal officials that it plans to conduct its own tests under a 1994 land use permit. The department rejected an earlier assertion by the federal government that the state has no right to conduct the tests under the permit, which was granted to allow earlier analyses of the site.

“We said they needed a new permit, and they basically disagreed with us,” said Jack Mills, an environmental specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Sacramento.

Late Thursday, Mills said the Bureau of Land Management reiterated its position, continuing to hold that construction of eight drill sites, proposed by the state, is prohibited.

In Washington, a Department of Interior spokesman said the Clinton administration would seek an injunction, if necessary, to stop California officials from doing “prohibited” work on the site.

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Meanwhile, Interior officials began gearing up to do their own tests after appearing to surmount a major legal obstacle. The two scientists, Martin Mifflin and Scott Tyler, had been threatened with legal action if they assisted in the federal effort, but they said Thursday that they had found a way to insure themselves against liability and were going ahead with the task of designing the federal tests.

“I think it is resolved for Dr. Tyler and myself,” Mifflin said. “I can’t say the contracts [with the Department of Interior] have been signed. But it looks like the work is going forward.”

Mifflin is a hydrologist who works as a private consultant. Tyler is a hydrologist on the faculty at the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada at Reno.

Both Mifflin and Tyler were members of the National Academy of Sciences panel that assessed the Ward Valley site two years ago. The panel reported that it probably was safe but recommended the additional tests to determine if radioactive waste could leak from the dump’s unlined trenches into the water table and ultimately to the Colorado River, about 20 miles away.

Although a majority of panel members--including Tyler but not Mifflin--said that the tests could be conducted while the dump was under construction, the Clinton administration decided to test first and sought assistance from the two panel members.

The Department of Interior has refused to transfer the land to the state until the tests are complete.

Experts on both sides of the debate believe it will be extremely difficult to proceed with the project if the testing finds that radioactive material has penetrated deep in the desert sands. The testing will focus on small amount of tritium, the fallout from atmospheric testing, that is present in the desert. Tritium is neither as toxic nor as long-lived as some waste slated for the dump. But it behaves the same way in the presence of moisture.

The big question is whether desert rainfall evaporates before it can transport foreign material, such as radioactive waste, from the dump deep into the ground.

Neither side in the controversy has faith in the objectivity of the others’ experts to answer that and other questions that will determine the fate of the project.

The Wilson administration has sponsored legislation in Congress to force the transfer of the site and sued in federal court seeking the same result.

Last fall, U.S. Ecology, the private firm hired by the state to operate the dump, warned Mifflin and Tyler that the firm intended to seek compensation from anyone “whose conduct wrongfully injures its interests.”

The scientists refused to proceed unless the federal government could indemnify them against lawsuits; the Department of Interior said it could not.

In March, the Wilson administration rejected an offer by the Department of Interior to conduct joint testing. Brandt said Thursday that the offer remained “a no-go.” She said the process Interior has in mind would lead to years of delay. And, she said, the state would not participate in testing that included Mifflin.

“Given our experience with Mifflin, we do not feel he is neutral,” Brandt said.

In Sacramento on Thursday, a group of Greenpeace protesters descended on the state Capitol to protest the dump and criticize Gov. Pete Wilson for his aggressive pursuit of the project.

Two protesters were briefly detained after they marched into Wilson’s office at noon and attempted a sit-in. A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said Nancy Johnson and Brian McCarthy, both of San Francisco, were released after a routine warrant check.

Bradley Angel, Southwest toxic campaign coordinator for Greenpeace, said the action was designed to “let the governor know we will not sit by while he tries to ram this dump down the throats of Californians.”

Clifford reported from Los Angeles and Warren from Sacramento.