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July 25, 1997 SENATE ENERGY HEARING
ON WARD VALLEY ARGUES STATE/FEDERAL AUTHORITY Under relentless grilling from Senate Energy committee members, Department of Interior Deputy John Garamendi tried to defend his refusal to transfer federal land in Ward Valley, Ca. to the state for a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility. Interior's handling of the land transfer and insistence on participating in further testing with the state was criticized by a GAO Report last week as groundless, and stopped short of calling it politically motivated. The GAO Report found that additional delays are not needed and in any case, Interior does not have the authority or technical expertise to perform the tests. Garamendi retorted that DOI relied on discretionary clauses in their charter. Sen Larry Craig (R-ID) drummed away at Garamendi about Interior's awarding a sole source contract for the tritium testing to two scientists with self proclaimed biases against Ward Valley. One scientist was one of only two dissenter of the NAS Report and the other, according to Craig, approved the science in the report but stated his opposition to the facility. Craig further called for an investigation of possible administration impropriety and bias. "Let's get away from the rhetoric of today and see if the administration acted inappropriately and investigate," said Craig. Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) thanked Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for an 11th hour CRS Study. Boxer claimed that the new numbers show that 60 to 90 percent of the waste would come from utilities, contrary to the state's original report of only 10 percent. Those numbers were wrestled from highly unlikely scenarios and include waste that is prohibited by law from going to a low-level facility. Also in the report, but somewhat buried was a finding that tritium to be sent to the facility was down to almost nothing. "In 22 years of siting, I have never found a safer site with more politics," said Bilbray, who thanked Boxer for requesting the report. The National Academy of Science found it "extremely unlikely" that tritium would migrate down to the water table, and the USGS said you "can't draw conclusions on Ward Valley based on Beatty," because Beatty had accepted liquid waste. Ward Valley will receive no liquid waste. Murkowski cited that the NAS, CRS, USGS and GAO Reports all concurred that Ward Valley is safe, and asked Garamendi why he is ignoring his own "best resource." Garamendi responded, "That's your interpretation." Based on meetings and memos, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) also inquired whether Interior discouraged the Department of Energy (DOE) from assisting the State. Federal law requires the DOE to provide technical expertise to the states on low-level waste disposal. But DOE has told the state that any dealings with them would have to be done through Interior. Garamendi admitted that this was the administration's policy, the results of a meeting with officials from the Interior and Energy departments. But he could not remember if the new policy had been his personal recommendation. Kyl, previously hesitant to speak out because of his large native American constituency, said, "I have a hard time convincing my constituent neighborhoods of the science reports and safety" because of Interior's foot dragging on the land transfer. He quoted President Bill Clinton that "the Enemy of our time is indeed inaction." Using the opponents' argument of environmental justice for an additional environmental impact statement, Bilbray asked, "How can this (not moving forward on Ward Valley) be justified in the face of the hundreds of temporary storage sites scattered throughout not only my district, but in neighborhoods all over California?" He concluded it cannot. Protecting the most people possible from potential exposure to radioactive material warrants the Ward Valley facility. In a final attempt to arbitrate cooperation between the state and Interior, Murkowski asked whether Mike Kahoe, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for California, and Garamendi couldn't meet after the hearing to iron out their differences on who has the authority to do the tritium testing. Kahoe said he would accept the land transfer subject to further testing under their current permit, but that DOI is requiring a new permit (Bureau of Land Management permits refuse access to the site) and cites an obscure clause that prohibits the state from further "land disturbance." The three year old clause had never before been seen by the California Department of Health Services, U.S. Ecology, or the Sacramento Office of the Federal Bureau of Land Management. In fact, the Sacramento Office of BLM said they had no transmittal record and termed the incident, "an unfortunate mixup." In an attempt to overreach their authority, Garamendi said that because the state refuses joint testing with Interior, DOE and DOI will do their own tritium testing. Kahoe reported little progress in those post-Hearing talks. ©1997 Calrad Forum |