Dear Vice-President Gore,

This is a formal request to the government of the United States to respect the rights of Native Americans and the millions in Southern California who will be affected by the Ward Valley dump. We stand in solidarity with the opposing this dump.

Ward Valley and the Colorado River are considered sacred and central to the religious beliefs of the Colorado River Tribes. To take their land and turn it into an unsafe, unneeded nuclear dump site against their will, is a blatant violation of their civil and religious rights, an insult to their basic human dignity, as well as a desecration of what they hold to be sacred.

The American Indians have been exploited by the nuclear industry for years from nuclear test sites to uranium mining. The further exploitation and extermination of their culture is deplorable. We are sending a delegation of Bishops and Religious leaders to meet with them at Ward Valley.

These people cannot just pick and move. This has been their home for hundreds of years. To force their evacuation would be morally wrong and would create sociological problems from forced displacement of an entire culture. To stay in an area contaminated with nuclear waste would be to sentence them to death.

The Ward Valley dump would expose millions in Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico to lethal radioactive waste going to their water supply. How far this contamination might spread, no one could possibly estimate.

The evidence is clear as to what can happen. The Beatty, Nevada dump is leaking. Those trying to force this dump on Southern California testified in legal documents that the Beatty Site was an analogous model for the Ward Valley Dump...and so it is!...It has been found to be leaking almost to the ground water below and migrating in unpredictable patterns. The secrecy and cover up of this further testifies to the unhealthy motives and lack of true concern to the safety of millions by those few who would profit from opening this dump.

The Hayden Report has shown there is absolutely no need for another dump because adequate storage already exists at two other sites and it would be a huge economic loss for California Taxpayers. We know that billions of dollars are being spent annually trying unsuccessfully to clear up other nuclear site that are leaking.

The Interior Department's choice of contractor for the SEIS, a company already declaring themselves pro Ward Valley, clearly show their lack of credibility in respecting the public's health, along with Wilson's administration, which has been denounced by the Scientific Community for refusal to reveal test protocol.

We request you to reject the Ward Valley Project for all these reasons and to use all authority you have to put an end to this dangerous proposed dump site.

Surely we do not want to be so inhumane as to poison our own children and charge them for it as well.

Respectfully Yours in Christ,
Roy I. Sano, Resident Bishop