WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE DUMP PROPOSAL?
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE DUMP PROPOSAL?
Ward Valley is located 18 miles from the Colorado River west of Needles, CA just off I-40. California Governor Pete Wilson and the nuclear power industry hope to buy long-lived radioactive waste in unlined trenches above an aquifer connected to the River via five potential pathways.
The Colorado River provides drinking water for 22 million people and irrigation for crops shipped worldwide. Surrounded by 8 designated Wilderness areas, Ward Valley is critical habitat for the desert tortoise, a 65-million-year-old species threatened with extinction.
Ward Valley, the river, and the tortoise are all sacred to the area's Native Americans. The Reservations and communities located along the river depend on its water for their very survival.
Shirley Ann Jackson, chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), summed up the issue when she stated that progress on Low Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) dumps "...must continue in order for nuclear power to remain a part of this country's energy mix." In other words, it is the nuclear power industry that needs Ward Valley, not hospitals and research facilities.
Proponents of the dump try to scare the public into thinking that stopping the Ward Valley dump threatens the treatment of cancer and AIDS patients. In truth, over 85% of the radioactivity in the waste slated for Ward Valley would be from nuclear power plants. According to the California Department of Health Services, less than 1% of the radioactivity in the waste that California sent to nuclear dumps from 1990 to 1994 cam from medical and academic sources.
"Low-level" radioactive waste is a misleading term that needs reassessment. In the U.S., the definition includes piping, coolant resins, and filters from the interior of nuclear power plants. Low-level waste also includes thousands of tons of contaminated concrete and steel from the actual structure of decommissioned nuclear power plants. These materials become contaminated with long-lived radioisotopes like strontium-90 - up to 600 years, plutonium-239 - up to 1/2 million years, and nickel-59 - up to 1.5 million years! The NRC puts wastes from nuclear power plants in the same category as the less concentrated and shorter-lived wastes from medical and research facilities.
Most of the waste generated by hospitals and research facilities decays in 3-5 years and can be stored at the site of generation , a less expensive option.
US Ecology, formerly known as Nuclear Engineering Co., is the corporation licensed to build a LLRW dump in Ward Valley. This corporation stands to profit millions from the cheapest most irresponsible method of disposing of radioactive waste.
Due to financial difficulties, US Ecology desperately needs to begin construction of the Ward Valley dump. According to Business Week (June 10, 1996) an independent audit for review of US Ecology's annual report "raises substantial doubt the company's ability to continue as a going concern."
• • Maxey Flats, KY - Closed: declared a US EPA Superfund site - one of the worst environmental disasters in the country.
Cleanup costs estimated between $34 and $100 million.
• • Sheffield, IL - Closed: Illinois sued US Ecology after radioactive waste migrated contaminating a nearby lake.
After 10 yr. of legal wrangling, USE agreed to pay $8 million in cleanup costs and to monitor the dump until 1998.
• • Beatty, NV - Closed: While covering up pertinent information that this 30 yr. old dump has leaked radiation to within 10 feet of the water table, US and CA State officials continued to approve US Ecology's operating license for Ward Valley. US Ecology and scientists promised that the Beatty dump would not leak for thousands of years - just as they promised at Ward Valley where the terrain and climate are similar to Beatty.
Ward Valley is the only habitat where the threatened desert tortoise is increasing in numbers and is recovering from Upper Respiratory Tract Disease.
The danger of transporting radioactive waste across the United States brings the threat of Ward Valley to everyone's backyard. Current plans are to ship radioactive waste from California, Arizona, North and South Dakota, but Ward Valley could easily become a national repository.
The real push behind Ward Valley is to allow industry to transfer liability for the waste while maintaining a high profit margin. It is not for the protection of the health and safety of the public. Consider this: never in the construction and operation of these facilities does industry complain that radioactive material is too dangerous to store and handle. It is only when the material becomes "waste", and no longer profitable, that it becomes something too dangerous or keep around.
The Ward Valley dump becomes the responsibility of the taxpayers of California in just 30 years! Ultimately, the burden for these poisons will fall upon the environment, the people who live nearby, and the California taxpayer.
The Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and the Ward Valley Coalition oppose any kind of nuclear waste facility in Ward Valley; there are alternatives:
FIRST, we must stop producing deadly radioactive waste! Think about it when the bathtub overflows, you turn off the faucet before grabbing a mop. As long as the nuclear industry is allowed to generate radioactive waste, there will be a growing number of deadly dumps across our country.
SECOND, US Ecology's method of disposal - shallow land burial in unlined dirt trenches - must be outlawed as it has been in most developed countries and in most other states in California, not even our household garbage can be legally disposed of in this manner.
The alternative is to store waste at the site of generation (on-site) in above-ground, monitored, retrievable facilities. The wastes can be repackaged when containers leak. This alternative keeps liability with the generators, protects tortoise habitat, promotes waste reduction/elimination, and eliminates the dangers of...
The nuclear industry has been making a last-ditch effort to push the proposed Ward Valley radioactive waste dump through Congress. In 1996 Senator Murkowshi (R-AK) and House Representative Bilbray (R-San Diego) proposed legislation requiring that 1,000 acres of federally owned Ward Valley land be transferred to the State of California for construction of the dump. The bills exempted the dump from all environmental laws and ignored issued of liability and health as well as the cultural, historical and spiritual rights of the five Lower Colorado River Indian Tribes. Similar legislation is expected to be introduced this year.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) is currently preparing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the proposed dump project. The SEIS will not stop the dump. Only public outcry will do that.
In November 1996, US Ecology threatened to sue the scientists who would do tritium testing to see if a dump in Ward Valley would leak like the dump in Beatty is. In January 1997, Gov. Wilson and the California Dept. of Health Services sued DOI to stop the SEIS process and force an immediate land transfer.
The people of the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance - Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes - are literally fighting for their lives and for the lives of generations yet to come. In this desert region, an uncontaminated Colorado River is their only source of livelihood.
Ward Valley is sacred to several of the tribes because of its proximity to Spirit Mountain, the birthplace of their ancestors.
The commitment to Earth and their heritage as caretakers of the river and of the land are uniting these five tribes in a struggle to preserve much of what they hold sacred. They have made it very clear that they will not allow this dump to be built and have called upon President Clinton and the Dept. of Interior to reject a land transfer and call an immediate halt to the project once and for all.
Since 1995, the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe has supported an encampment on the proposed dump site and an outreach office in Needles.
- Call and/or write your Senators, Representatives and President Clinton. Tell them to do everything they can to cancel the dump project immediately.
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PRESIDENT CLINTON
The White House, Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-1111
email: president@whitehouse.gov
CA SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN
US Senate, Washington, DC 20510
222-224-3841
Los Angeles 310-914-7300
email: senator@feinstein.senate.gov
AZ SENATOR JOHN McCAIN
241 Russell Sen. Conf. Bldg., Washington, DC 20510
202-224-2235
Phoenix, 602-952-2410
email: senator_mccain@mccain.senate.gov
- Host a video presentation at your home, school, church, or community group.
- Encourage your church, City Council, Chamber of Commerce or civic group to pass a resolution against the construction of any radioactive facility at Ward Valley.
- Join our Emergency Response Network to respond immediately to a land transfer or introduction of legislation.
- Join the Ward Valley News automated electronic mail service to receive action alerts, legislative updates and information on the proposed dump.
- Volunteer to keep the vigil going in Ward Valley or help staff the office in Needles. Call about our application process.