Ward Valley: Sacred Homeland, Critical Habitat for a Threatened Species or Nuclear Waste Dump?

In the Mojave Desert periodic windstorms scour the landscape and polish the stars in the night sky. Outside the Avi Hotel and Casino on the banks of the Colorado River the wind is blowing with ferocity. Huge flags of the United States of America, the State of California and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe strain at their tether. Long ropes whip their poles in a furious cadence. Tumble weeds dance helplessly across the sand, and a raven, buffeted by gusts takes refuge in a thicket of mesquite trees.

Inside the hotel a meeting between representatives of the lower Colorado River Indian Tribes and the federal government is coming to a close. Tribal leaders take turns expressing their adamant opposition to the proposal for a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley in an area next to their reservations and on land considered sacred aboriginal territory. The Tribal leaders speak with a dignified and urgent eloquence and explain that they will not and cannot move from a place they have inhabited "since time immemorial."

They speak of their profound and solemn relationship with the natural landscape, the plants, animals, and water. They explain that the dump would threaten the desert tortoise and the Colorado River and endanger their health and economic nature. They describe how the dump proposal would violate their sovereignty and environmental justice mandates. They demand that the government stop the ill conceived dump project.

A Mojave elder rises to speak. As she sings a traditional song describing her people's tie to the land, even the most disaffected bureaucrats take notice and listen. But do they hear? I look around the room, across a great cultural chasm and wonder how these government representatives, influenced by political pressure and cultural bias, will he able to understand the elder's vital relationship with the land and the depth of commitment and resistant by those who oppose the dump.

Ward Valley is a wide tilting valley in the southeast corner of California's east Mojave Desert. The proposed dump site is surrounded by eight wilderness areas and in the midst of critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise (Gupherus agassizii). Nearby are the pristine golden canyons and cave paintings of the Old Woman Mountains. To the east, the foothills of the Stepladder Mountains are covered in a forest of cholla cactus. Ward Valley is home to golden eagles and red-tailed hawks, sidewinders and tortoises, song birds and coyotes, jack rabbits and kit fox. In the Spring and Fall, wildflowers carpet the ground with chicory, sunflower and dandelions. Smoke tree and screwbean mesquite line the washes and during monsoon showers, a wall of water six feet high can speed down the water courses.

America's nuclear power industry, anxious to rid itself of the long-lived and highly dangerous radioactive wastes at their power plant sites, has launched a political campaign to open a national dump site at Ward Valley. The industry has directed Governor Pete Wilson to pursue plans to bury radioactive wastes in shallow, unlined trenches above an aquifer, 18 miles from the Colorado River and in an area considered sacred to the five lower Colorado River Indian tribes.

The industry has been engaged in a well-financed public relations campaign to present the dump as a safe and remote repository for short-lived medical wastes. However, according to Department of Energy statistics, 85 percent of the waste slated for Ward Valley would come from nuclear reactors. A very small portion of the waste, less than 15 percent by volume and less than 1 percent by radioactivity, would come from medical sources. Most if this kind of waste is short-lived and can be safely and economically stored where it is generated.

Scientists with the United States Gerilogical Survey have identified five subsurface pathways by which nuclear wastes leaking from the Ward Valley site would reach the Colorado River - source of water for 22 million people in the Southwest and Mexico.

For the last ten years, a diverse coalition of environmental and social justice organizations, Native American tribes and indigenous environmenial networks, city and county governments and citizen's groups have been battling the dump in the courts, in the media and on the ground. Environmental groups aud Indian Tribes have notified the federal government that any attempt at a land transfer would trigger a lawsuit asserting the protections of the Endangered Species Act. Similar litigation in 1993 stopped a federal land transfer and led to the designation of 6.4 million acres of critical habitat for the desert tortoise.

The greatest threat to Ward Valley comes from Congress. Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Representative Don Young (R-AK) have introduced legislation which would force a federal land transfer at Ward Valley and exempt the dump from all existing environmental regulations. The maneuver would preclude the public's right to challenge the dump in the courts.

The legislation would circumvent Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, a potent part of the law which defines the protections afforded critical habitat, paving the way for a dump in a healthy ecosystem considered essential for the recovery and conservation of an endangered species. Other laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act would be cast aside for political expediency. Attempts to place a Ward Valley rider onto the Budget Bill failed last year as activists launched a national outreach campaign that sent tens of thousands of letters and telephone calls to the White House. President Clinton vetoed the Budget Bill and cited the Ward Valley rider as one of his reasons. Murkowski and his allies in Congress have pledged to try to transfer the land again this session and the Clinton administration has yet to take a decisive stand on the issue.

For ten years, the State of California, working closely with the nuclear power industry, has been attempting to build a nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley. Ward Valley is on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The 1980 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act directs the states to take responsibility for the waste generated within their borders by forming regional compacts. California is in the Southwestern Compact with Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota. However, the law does not specify the method of waste containment and many states have outlawed shallow land burial.

The land at Ward Valley must be transferred to the State of California before the dump can be built since the State is the licensing agent. The land transfer would encompass 1,000 acres, ample room for a national dump site. Dump opponents believe that plans are to turn Ward Valley into a national repository for the nuclear waste from America's aging reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has unilateral emergency access powers to direct waste to any open dump and the Southwestern Compact Commission, administered by gubernatorial appointees from the compact states, has already voted to accept out-of-compact waste.

Governor Wilson has selected a notorious waste management firm as the dump contractor. US Ecology, formerly Nuclear Engineering Corporation, has left a trail of leaking dumps and litigation across the country. Their nuclear dumps at Sheffield, Illinois; Maxey Flats, Kentucky; Richland, Washington and Beatty, Nevada are leaking dangerous radioactive materials into the surrounding ecosystem. Two of their toxic waste dumps are Superfund sites.

US Ecology has insisted that they have learned their lesson from their leaking waste dumps in the eastern (wetter) part of the country and has asserted that a desert dump would never leak. They offered as an example their Beatty, Nevada, nuclear landfill with the same design as the Ward Valley proposal.

Last year, it was disclosed that a scientist on contract with US Ecology failed to disclose data which revealed that radioactive materials had migrated 360 feet below the Beatty site and was marching inexorably toward ground water ten feet away. This revelation caused Deputy Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi to call for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to explore new information which has surfaced since the original Environmental Impact Statement in 1991. Dump opponents fear that the SEIS will only serve to delay a decision on the dump project. There is already ample evidence to conclude that the proposal at Ward Valley would contaminate the ecosystem.

Dump opponents have recommended that the SEIS explore alternatives to shallow land burial; analyze the waste stream slated for Ward Valley; honor Native American land, water, cultural, religious and sovereignty rights; recognize that the dump violates environmental justice mandates; and acknowledge the adverse impacts of the proposed project on the threatened desert tortoise. Other issues include the danger from the transport of nuclear wastes; financial liability for waste containment; the health effects of radiation exposure; and emergency preparedness. But, environmental impact statements are designed to mitigate projects, not stop them.

Shallow land burial of radioactive wastes results in contamination of the soil, air and water. All six of America's commercial nuclear landfills are leaking. There are environmentally and economically sustainable alternatives to shallow land burial of nuclear wastes. In fact, with on-site storage capacity to store most medical, research and biotech radioactive wastes until they decay, a nuclear dump is not needed. Most medical radionuclides are short-lived and decay in weeks, months or years. A small percentage of the waste generated by medical research and biotech companies is long-lived and should be stored in more permanent facilities such as decommissioned nuclear power plants.

Currently, both long-lived waste from nuclear power reactors and short-lived waste from medical research and biotech industries are put in the same "low-level" waste category. In other countries, what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines as "low-level" is categorized as "intermediate" or "high-level" depending on toxicity and longevity. This manipulation of language creates misconceptions of the dangers of so-called "low-level" wastes. Cesium and strontium, which remain deadly for up to 300 years, and plutonium, which remains toxic for 250,000 years are called "high-level" waste when they are in the reactor core. Once sifted out into filter resins they are re-classified as "low-level." According to the operating license, the proposed dump could receive 120 pounds of plutonium and tons of contaminated reactor parts from the Diablo Canyon, San Onofre, Humboldt Bay, Rancho Seco and the Palo Verde nuclear power plants.

Instead of creating a mixed brew of wastes from reactors and medical research facilities, radioactive waste should be segregated by longevity and treated accordingly. Reactor waste should be kept in long-term monitored, retrievable storage (MRS) facilities on-site wherever safe. A redundant monitoring system would detect leakages before they migrate into the surrounding area and retrievable storage mechanisms would remove leaking waste containers to repair or replace them. Leachate collection systems would collect leaking waste before they migrate off-site.

The initial costs of a MRS facility may be higher than a shallow grave in the desert, but the ultimate costs of contamination of the environment and public exposure to cancer-causing agents is difficult to calculate or quantify. US Ecology, financially troubled and beleaguered by lawsuits, is finding out that irresponsible waste containment technologies are more costly when public opposition becomes a significant factor. The use of public lands for a nuclear waste dump represents a government subsidy of the nuclear power industry by externalizing the costs associated with nuclear power generation.

So far, the government has attempted to limit public opinion and finesse scientific review. At the initial SEIS scoping workshops in Sacramento the Bureau of Land Management prohibited oral testimony. This stand led to a confrontation with activists who took over the meeting and conducted a public hearing placing oral testimony into the administrative record. Testimony by dump opponents during hearings by the National Academy of Sciences was strictly limited in favor of presentations by dump proponents. The process to date has not instilled much confidence that the SEIS will be an objective study.

The Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Quechan and Colorado River Indian Tribes, unified as the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance, have requested status as a "cooperating agency" in the SEIS process. This designation would give the tribes an opportunity to be directly involved in the drafting, scope and analysis of the final SEIS document In this way, the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance could more directly assert the importance of Ward Valley and the desert tortoise to indigenous culture, religious and economic interests.

Bureau of land Management State Director Ed Hastey rejected their request. In doing so, Hastey has violated environmental justice mandates which invite Indian tribes to obtain this special status so that they may fully participate in land-use planning processes and protect their interests. The bitter history of the government's exploitation of Indian lands continues with the dump proposal.

Responding to the decision to deny them access to the SEIS process, Fort Mojave tribal leader Steve Lopez remarked, "First they force us off our traditional lands and put us on reservations, then they accuse us of living off the government. We want to be self-sufficient, we want to be able to farm our lands and now, after threatening to poison our land and our water, they refuse to recognize our rights."

In 1994, President Clinton signed the Executive Order on Environmental Justice recognizing that low-income and communities of color suffer disproportionately from environmental hazards. The Order designated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the lead federal agency for implementation of guidelines to achieve environmental justice in all federal actions. Other agencies, such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service are required to consider their actions in relation to environmental justice concerns. Last year, at the urging of the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance (Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Quechan and Colorado River Indian Tribes), a subcommittee of the EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) designated the dump proposal as an environmental justice issue and called for an environmental justice impact analysis. The Tribes have asserted repeatedly that the dump project would violate their human rights and have called upon the EPA to halt the project.

The Pipa Aha Macav, People Along the River (Mojave/Mohave) and the Nuwuvi, The People (Chemehuevi) peoples, whose traditional territory surround and include Ward Valley, have a profound and solemn relationship with the land and the natural landscape. Their Birds Songs are oral maps used to describe the location of resources in relation to seasons and landmarks in aboriginal times when successful travel was dependent upon the availability of food and water. Migratory birds described in the songs in association with a particular place indicated the best season in which to travel there. The songs tell creation stories, recount historic travels, traditional lore and cultural lessons. The Bird Songs are also used in ceremonies and special events.

The geographic narratives of the Mohave and Chemehuevi people follow traditional travel routes throughout the Mojave and Sonoran Desert Regions, the Colorado Plateau and extend as far as the Pacific Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The desert tortoise is an ancient species remaining relatively unchanged for the last 65 million years. It can live as long as a century and can spend 90 percent of its life in its burrow. When the winter cold or blistering summer heat visits the desert, the tortoise hibernates in a burrow 30 feet down into the ground. The tortoise can slow down its metabolism as it waits for the spring and fall burst of annual plants. This magnificent survivor is seriously at risk of extinction. In the last seven years, tortoise populations have been cut in half due to habitat destruction and the introduction of the fatal upper respiratory tract disease (URTD) into wild populations. The government has presented two faces as regards the protection of desert tortoise habitat. On one hand, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has designated Ward Valley as the best of the best desert tortoise critical habitat. On the other hand, political pressure has led the Service to issue a "no jeopardy" decision, claiming that the dump project would not harm the tortoise even though critical habitat would be destroyed.

US Ecology has proposed a mitigation plan whereby tortoises found in the way of bulldozers would be simply killed or relocated to another area north of the site. They argue that the project would actually help the tortoise by reclaiming habitat previously uninhabited. Translocation of wild tortoises has been shown to result in disorientation and death. Tortoises at Ward Valley are free from URTD and represent one of the last healthy wild populations. The mitigation plan would move the tortoises closer to an infected population. It is hard to imagine how US Fish and Wildlife Service staff could approve a project that would destroy critical habitat, wrench tortoises from their burrows, invite nuclear waste to an area near the Colorado River and move healthy tortoises into a diseased population.

The desert tortoise possesses special significance for the Mohave and Chemehuevi people who consider the creature a sacred teacher and essential part of their culture and landscape.

Opposition to the dump is strong and growing. Public opinion polls conducted by independent researchers found that 70 percent of Californians oppose the dump, 80 percent oppose shallow land burial of radioactive wastes, but unfortunately only 30 percent know about the issue. A diverse coalition of nuclear scientists, medical professionals, economists, community activists, city and county governments, environmental, social justice, wilderness protection, indigenous rights and endangered species organizations and Native American leaders have been working to protect Ward Valley. Their efforts are more than a political campaign. The struggle to protect Ward Valley has accumulated to become a movement linking environmental and social justice issues.

Spring and fall gatherings at Ward Valley have attracted hundreds of people. These special events include strategy sessions, informational workshops and the sharing of culture. Sunrise ceremonies by a Shoshone Indian leader, Quechan Indian storytelling, prayer rituals by Indian elders, traditional Mojave gourd songs and bird dances, Aztec dancers from Mexico, and Spirit Runs (traditional relay runs across the desert) accompany workshops on radioactive waste, desert ecology, community organizing, non-violence and political strategy. In the fall of 1995, a group of activists began a permanent occupation of the site which continues to this day.

The on-going occupation of the proposed dump site has attracted national media and has inspired many to come to visit this remote corner of the Mojave desert. The tents, banners and portable toilets have become potent symbols of the resistance. Hundreds have pledged to come at a moment's notice (contacted through an emergency response network) to defend the land. Indian elders have vowed to confront the bulldozers if necessary. The campaign to save Ward Valley will come to head in the next few months. Murkowski will introduce stealth legislation in the coming Congressional session and the draft SEIS will be out later this year. The time is now to send an uncompromising message to the White House that the proposal for a nuclear dump in the California desert must be rejected once and for all. California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Vice-President Al Gore have refused to take a stand on the issue. Senator Barbara Boxer has shown great courage fighting the project in Congress.

The latest development involves the proposal for testing at the site to determine if buried radioactive wastes would reach the ground water and the Colorado River. Previous tests conducted by US Ecology discovered the presence of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) 100 feet below the surface. The source of the tritium was the above ground nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site. The discovery cast doubt on US Ecology's assertion that buried wastes would take thousands of years to reach area aquifers. Testing involves highly sensitive instruments searching for minute traces of tritium particles in the desert soil. Widely different test results can be found depending on the method of drilling, sample collection, the particular areas selected for drilling, calibration of the instruments, and the techniques used in analysis of the results. In other words, the whole process is extremely vulnerable to manipulation.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi has proposed conducting tests for the presence of tritium at Ward Valley as part of an on-going environmental impact analysis. Garamendi has been working with California Governor Pete Wilson, an aggressive dump advocate, to conduct joint state and federal testing. Wilson has demanded that he can choose by whom and how the tests will be conducted and interpreted. Testing protocols would be exempt from public scrutiny thereby prohibiting independent scientific review. Garamendi has indicated that he is willing to go along with Wilson's demands - a decision that directly violates Garamendi's promises to environmental groups for fair and impartial testing. The pressure on Garamendi to cooperate with Wilson seems to be coming from Senator Dianne Feinstein. The situation changes from day to day as political expediency takes the reins in the vacuum of leadership.

Instead of gambling with present and future generations with corruptible tests, the Clinton Administration should show leadership and cancel the ill-conceived project on its face. Costly lessons have shown that shallow land burial of nuclear wastes results in contamination of the environment. Critical habitat for the desert tortoise must be protected if we can expect the ancient species to recover from years of abuse and the federal government has a trust responsibility to protect the resources of Native American tribes.

Our challenges will be to defeat Congressional attempts to transfer the land, assert environmental justice in the courts, protect critical habitat and wilderness, demand accountability from our elected officials and continue to educate and involve the public. We must plan for non-violent direct action should Congress and the Administration bow to the influence of the nuclear power industry. We will need to expand our broad coalition of groups to include more mainstream environmental organizations and local residents, and build more cross-cultural alliances. In the midst of all the assaults on nature, we can be sustained by a common vision of a healthy environment, protected wilderness and respect for traditional cultures.