Heads-Up: Radioactive Waste Decision Tomorrow
May 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Tomorrow, the three Gov. Perry-appointed commissioners will decide whether to approve Waste Control Specialists‘ license for a massive radioactive waste dump in West Texas, 30 miles west of Andrews. (Actually, this is the first of two Waste Control licenses that would authorize disposal of radioactive waste in two adjacent landfills.) The Sierra Club and residents of Eunice, New Mexico - the town closest to the proposed landfill - are calling on the commission to either reject the license or send the dispute to a contested case hearing for a decision by an administrative law judge.
As detailed in the Observer, TCEQ’s own experts have decided that the dump will in all likelihood leak into the groundwater. On a conference call this afternoon, former TCEQ employee Glenn Lewis reiterated the staff’s key finding that the radioactive waste will come within 14 feet of the landfill. “We are talking about contaminating the largest aquifer in the United States,” Lewis said, referring to the Ogallala Aquifer. Lewis added that the staff is uncertain of the exact location of the Ogallala but said a contested case hearing should settle the question. Waste Control maintains that the site is virtually dry and that whatever water is present isn’t connected to the two water tables in the area.
In Andrews, Waste Control has benefited from near-unanimous support for the project in the community. The Sierra Club failed to find a single resident to file for a contested case hearing. But Eunice resident Rose Gardner said today that her town should be taken into consideration by the TCEQ commissioners. “I want to bring awareness to the country,” Gardner said. “We have a nuclear waste issue that needs to be addressed but the solution is not at the site that Waste Control Specialists has chosen. It’s not my problem that they chose the wrong site; it is my problem that I have to fight this.”
In recent decisions on controversial environmental matters, the commissioners have either been unanimous or split 2-1 in favor of industry. (See Asarco smelter and coal plants.)
The commission meets tomorrow at 9:30am in Austin.
