Ward Valley Waste Dump Firm Sues State

U.S. Ecology, the firm that hoped to operate the Ward Valley nuclear waste dump, is seeking $162 million in damages in a lawsuit stemming from the Davis administration’s abandonment of the project.

The suit, filed Wednesday in San Diego Superior Court, would also require the governor to resume efforts to acquire the site of the proposed dump near Needles in the eastern Mojave Desert.

Championed by former Gov. Pete Wilson, the Ward Valley dump site was challenged by environmental groups and Native Americans who said that long-lived radioactive waste could leak into local water sources, including the Colorado River.

Citing unresolved safety issues, the federal government, which owns the Ward Valley site, balked at transferring the land to the state. Last year, a federal district judge ruled that the Clinton administration did not have to transfer the land.

Gov. Gray Davis, who had been a critic of the project before he was elected governor, declared Ward Valley “a dead issue” earlier this year. He formed an advisory panel to develop new plans for disposing of radioactive waste generated by power plants, hospitals, laboratories and biotech companies. Currently, that waste is either shipped to disposal facilities in other states or stored on site.

Stephen Romano, a U.S. Ecology vice president, said the governor’s advisory panel, which has not yet recommended an alternative to Ward Valley, is “a pretext for doing nothing.” Romano added: “We allege the panel has been ordered not to consider any specific sites.”

Romano said the state could reopen negotiations for the transfer of the Ward Valley property. He said that although federal officials had expressed concerns about the site, they had not closed the door on the project.

Romano said the $162 million sought by U.S. Ecology represents money invested in the project during 15 years of planning, plus interest, as well as future lost profits.

Based in Boise, Idaho, U.S. Ecology operates waste facilities in the states of Washington, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.