HAHN OPPOSES PROPOSED WARD VALLEY NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP NEAR COLORADO RIVER

Declaring that "we may not need any more nuclear waste dumps at all, much less one that is a potential threat to our drinking water." Los Angeles City Attorney Jim Hahn filed an amicus brief today to oppose the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste facility next to the Colorado River -- source of 15 to 20 percent of Los Angeles' water supply -- without first making sure there is no chance of radioactive waste leaking into the river.

The amicus brief was filed today in federal district court in Washington, D.C. in support of the U.S. Department of the Interior and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who are being sued by the California Department of Health Services and U.S. Ecology Inc. -- the company which would operate the low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave desert near Needles under contract with the state department.

Hahn made his announcement at a news conference at city Department of Water and Power headquarters in the Los Angeles Civic Center. Joining Hahn at the news conference were City Councilmembers Ruth Galanter and Jackie Goldberg, who are opponents of the Ward Valley dump, and officials of various groups also opposing the facility, including Derek Chernow, Michael Dieden, Laura Lake and Leslie Neal, of Americans for a Safe Future; Dr. Joe Lyou, of Committee to Bridge the Gap; Dr. Richard Saxon, of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Dr. Sheldon Plotkin, of Southern California Federation of Scientists; Randy Ertel and Fran Diamond, of California League of Conservation Voters; Lucia Bava, of Women For; and Joel Reynolds, of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The state and US Ecology are suing Babbitt and the Department of the Interior in an attempt to force them to turn over to the California Department of Health Services a parcel of federal land in Ward Valley which would be used as the site of the proposed nuclear waste dump.

The Department of the Interior had begun the process of transferring the land during the Bush Administration until leaks were found during testing in 1994 of a nuclear waste dump in Beatty, Nevada, which has geological characteristics similar to Ward Valley and also is operated by US Ecology, Inc. That discovery prompted the Department of the Interior to delay the transfer pending the completion of a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to determine if there could be a threat of radioactive waste leaking into the Colorado River. That federal delay triggered the lawsuit by the state Department of Health Services and US Ecology which wants the transfer to take place immediately and without a supplemental EIS.

Referring to a 1997 University of Nebraska study which found that there currently is no need for any new low-level nuclear waste dumps in the United States due to the ability of existing facilities in South Carolina, Utah and Washington to handle what has become a decline in the volume of such waste, Hahn pointed out that there has been a 75 percent decline in radioactive waste shipped out of California over the past 16 years.

"It is ridiculous and shortsighted for the state to want to rush this project through and risk contaminating the drinking water of millions of Southern Californians when there are serious questions about whether we currently need another low-level nuclear waste dump at all," Hahn said. "I cannot comprehend how the Pete Wilson Administration could want to proceed with this project and possibly poison the water for millions of Californians without being certain that we would not have leaks into the Colorado River."

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From: swv1@ctaz.com (Save Ward Valley)

March 30, 1998


BAY AREA NUCLEAR (BAN) WASTE COALITION
2760 Golden Gate
San Francisco, California 94118
(415) 752-8678 / (415) 868-2146
http://banwaste.envirolink.org

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Oppose Proposed Ward Valley Nuclear Waste Dump

On March 10, the City and County of San Francisco Environmental Commission unanimously passed a strong resolution opposing the proposed Ward Valley Nuclear Dump. Over 40 environmental and social justice organizations signed onto a letter in support of the resolution. The Environmental Commission sent the resolution over to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for their passage.

On March 30, the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the same resolution. The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Gavin Newsom.

Call Supervisor Newsom (415) 554-5942 and Environmental Commission President Francesca Vietor (415) 474-0411 and thank them for their support.

Call Senator Dianne Feinstein (415) 536-6868 and ask her to support the resolution. Ask the candidates in California governors race their position on the proposed dump project.

San Francisco now joins hundreds of cities and dozens of counties across the state of California, and hundreds of environmental and social justice organizations across the country in opposing the proposed dump site.

City and County of San Francisco
Board of Supervisors

Supervisors: Barbara Kaufman, Chairwoman, Tom Ammiano, Sue Berman, Amos Brown, Leslie R. Katz, Jose Medina, Gavin Newsom, Mabel Teng, Michael Yaki, Leland Y. Yee

File No. 98-0464
March 30, 1998

RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE PROPOSED BUILDING OF A NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITY IN WARD VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

    WHEREAS, Ward Valley is located 22 miles west of Needles, California, in the Eastern Mojave Desert region; and,

    WHEREAS, This site has been selected by the State of California to receive low-level radioactive waste from commercial nuclear power plants, hospitals, industry and research from throughout the State, including San Francisco County; and

    WHEREAS, Ward Valley would most likely become a national nuclear dump site with eighteen states having already expressed interest in dumping at Ward Valley, including states which have recently decided to cancel or delay plans for facilities in their own regions; and,

    WHEREAS, The federally mandated 1980 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act does not mandate any particular technology; and,

    WHEREAS, All six of the nation's active and inactive low-level radioactive waste facilities are leaking, and nuclear waste dumps in Sheffield, Illinois; Maxey Flats, Kentucky; West Valley, New York; Barnwell, South Carolina; Richland, Washington; and Beatty, Nevada, have released radioactive materials into the surrounding ecosystem; and,

    WHEREAS, All of these facilities use shallow, unlined trenches as their method of disposal; and,

    WHEREAS, US Ecology, the contractor selected to construct the Ward Valley facility, has built and operated four of the currently leaking nuclear dumps; and,

    WHEREAS, Ward Valley radioactive waste facility is proposing shallow land burial in unlined trenches as a method of disposal; and,

    WHEREAS, Scientists with the United States Geological Survey have warned that radioactive wastes buried there could eventually contaminate the Colorado River through five subsurface pathways; and,

    WHEREAS, A report by the California State Controller found that clean-up costs from leakage at the Ward Valley facility could be as much as $500 million, with the majority of these costs being assumed by California taxpayers; and,

    WHEREAS, The dump is proposed for an area that is directly above a major aquifer, 18 miles from the Colorado River, in the midst of critical habitat for the federally-listed threatened desert tortoise and on land considered sacred territory by five Native American tribes; and,

    WHEREAS, In May, 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee expressed its concerns about the violation of environmental justice mandates posed by the Ward Valley proposal; and,

    WHEREAS, A December, 1997 report by economics Professor Gregory Hayden, of the University of Nebraska concludes that a 89 percent decline in the volume of low-level radioactive waste has occurred in the last sixteen years and that due to excess capacity at existing dumps the Ward Valley facility is neither necessary nor would it be economically viable; and,

    WHEREAS, According to a July, 1997 United States Congressional Research Service Report, as much as 90 percent of the radioactivity proposed for burial at Ward Valley would come from nuclear power plants, including cesium, strontium, plutonium and other long lasting radionuclides; now, therefore, be it

    RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco opposes the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump; and be it

    FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, San Francisco County's Congressional Delegation and California Governor Pete Wilson stating the opposition of the City and County of San Francisco tot he proposed Ward Valley radioactive waste repository.