Texas Could Foot Bill for Radioactive Waste Dump

[douglas9]

Sweetheart deal allows Harold Simmons to reap profits while putting state at risk

It didn't take long – 11 days to be exact – after Gov. Rick Perry was safely re-elected for the Texas Compact Commission to pass rules potentially opening up Texas to radioactive waste from across the nation.

The 5-2 decision moves Waste Control Specialists and its owner, major Republican donor and swift boater Harold Simmons, one step closer to turning its Andrews County site into a national dump for radioactive waste.

Waste Control has made no secret of its plans. For years, the company has said it wants to be the "national solution" to radioactive waste disposal. And they seem to believe the compact commissioners – six of whom are Perry appointees – are on the same page. "I think the Texas Compact is in favor of a national solution,” Baltzer told an industry summit in September, according to the trade publication RadWaste Monitor.

Currently, 36 states lack a disposal site to send their low-level radioactive waste, primarily nuclear reactor waste. Only Texas and Vermont are authorized to bury waste at Waste Control's Andrews County site. But, in a peculiar legal loophole, the Compact Commission can allow, by a majority vote, the importation of waste from outside the Texas-Vermont Compact. With no other radioactive waste dumps on the horizon, all eyes are on Andrews County.

http://www.texasobserver.org/forrestforthetrees/texas-could-foot-bill-for-radioactive-waste-dump

[sonias]

1. Perry selling out Texas to Simmons for cheap

And none of the republicans care. They are perfectly fine with Texas being a toxic dump for the US!

:mad:

[onestepforward]

2. This is just lovely...

-snip-

In other words, if the dump leaks (and TCEQ geologists and engineers have said it probably will) the taxpayers of Texas will foot the bill. "If something happens 50 years later the state of Texas is on the hook," said commissioner Wilson. Or 50,000 years from now since many of these radionuclides have half-lives measured in the tens of thousands of years.

Meanwhile, Waste Control can walk away with their profits intact. It's a jaw-dropping arrangement that demands an explanation for how it came to pass.

-snip-

Here's a short snip from what the TCEQ report said:
http://www.savetheogallalaaquifer.com/in-the-news/ogallala-news/196-the-memo-wcs-does-not-want-you-to-see

Intrusion of groundwater into the proposed, disposal units will increase the mobility of radionuclides and the likelihood of public exposure to radioactivity during the period of analysis. The likelihood of such an event causes technical staff to conclude that issuance of a license for the proposed facility cannot be recommended.

The Ogallala Aquifer covers 7 states and it is only one of two water tables that are in the immediate vicinity. A leak from the site would be devastating well beyond the boundary of Texas.

[sonias]

3. Hearing Next Week On Proposal To Allow Nuclear Waste From 36 States To Be Dumped In Andrews County

Capitol Annex 12/1/10
Hearing Next Week On Proposal To Allow Nuclear Waste From 36 States To Be Dumped In Andrews County


After giving nearly $2 million to candidates and PACs up and down the ballot in Texas during the 2010 election cycle, it looks like Waste Control Specialists’ Harold Simmons is looking to get his own payday.

Hearings before The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission will get underway next Thursday on proposed rules that would allow the low-level radioactive waste dump in Andrews County owned by Simmons’ Waste Control Specialists to take waste from 36 more states.

(snip)
It’s doubtful that Waste Control will be denied a permit. The Commission’s members from Texas were appointed by Governor Perry. The remaining members are from Vermont.

Waste Control Specialists and Harold Simmons have famously greased the wheels of the Texas Legislature in order to get exactly what they want.

Vince has a link to a quick list of some of the legislators Harold Simmons bought. Not surprisingly Texans for Rick Perry $750,000, Texans for Lawsuit Reform $700,000, Greg Abbott $50,000. You know how it works. :mad:

[mbperrin]

4. When this thing leaks, and it will, we'll have to give up five generations

of work here and go somewhere else. We're about 30 miles from the dump. It's a hole in the ground with a black plastic liner. The rest of the facility is a steel building with pallets and drums.

Yes, it's going to leak and ruin our water. Andrews sold out for forklift jobs.

[sonias]

5. Texas Proposal Spurs Race to Dispose of Nuclear Waste

New York Times 12/2/10
Texas Proposal Spurs Race to Dispose of Nuclear Waste

WASHINGTON — Aged nuclear plants in Vermont and Illinois may be playing the equivalent of musical chairs in a graveyard, vying for space at a dump in Texas whose owner hopes to accept radioactive waste from many other states.

Under an alliance struck 16 years ago between Vermont and Texas, tiny Vermont can fill up to 20 percent of the space at any low-level nuclear waste dump built in Texas’ wide-open spaces. Texas got the right to exclude other states’ waste. But as a company prepares to begin construction this month on the state’s first one, the arrangement may be jeopardized by swiftly changing circumstances.

A private company that won a contract to operate the plant, at a site in Andrews on the New Mexico border, wants to accept waste from the 36 states that do not have access to a dump for some of their waste now. And a commission made up of representatives from the two states that controls the planned dump has proposed a rule for accomplishing that.

:puke:

[sonias]

6. Comments can be made until Dec 26th

http://nukefreetexas.org/2010/12/texans-say-no-to-importing-radioactive-waste-from-around-the-country-comments-accepted-until-dec-26th/">Nuke Free Texas
Texans Say No to Importing Radioactive Waste From Around the Country; Comments Accepted Until Dec.
December 10, 2010

Media Release – For Immediate Release



Contacts: Karen Hadden, Executive Director, SEED Coalition, 512-797-8481
Tom "Smitty" Smith, , Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, 512-637-9455

Austin, TX The only hearing on a proposed radioactive waste rule that would open Texas up to becoming the nation’s radioactive waste dumping ground was held yesterday in Austin. The rule would let waste from around the country go to Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews County site in West Texas instead of limiting waste to the Compact states of Texas and Vermont.

The Import Rule 30-day public comment period ends Dec. 26th so comments can still be sent to [e-mail].

A videotape of the Dec. 9th hearing will be online at http://www.texasadmin.com/tceqs.shtml and more information is available at www.NukeFreeTexas.org.

Speakers requested:

> a comment period extension

> that the vote be postponed until the legislature can examine Texas’ financial risks and ability to respond to accidents or contamination.

> that hearings be held in all major Texas cities since radioactive waste could travel down highways throughout the state and

> that Compact Commissioners to vote no to bringing in more radioactive waste.

"Many people are concerned that more radioactive waste means increased financial, health, environmental and security risks," said SEED Coalition Director Karen Hadden "They spoke of broken promises, environmental justice, protecting the land they love and preventing radioactive contamination of water. Some questioned whether anything prevents contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer that lies beneath eight states in the breadbasket region of the nation."

Speakers included Craig Adair from Rep. Lon Burnam’s office, who brought a letter signed by fifteen House members. Farmers, ranchers, academics, scientists, artists, environmentalists and health advocates participated, coming from as far away as Dallas and Houston. One woman spoke on behalf of farming families in West Texas. Participants represented the League of Women Voters of Texas, NAACP, Texans for Public Justice, Environment Texas, Austin Center for Peace and Justice, SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, Lone Star Sierra Club, and Save Our Springs.

Nuclear reactor vessels, "poison curtains" that absorb reactor core radioactivity, and radioactive sludges and resins could all be sent to the West Texas site. No radionuclide would be excluded. Exposure to radioactive materials can cause cancer, birth defects, reduced immunity and even death, depending on the type of radioactive material and the level of exposure.

###

Get those comments in Texans! No nuke dump expansion in Texas. We will not be the country's radioactive toilet! :mad:

[sonias]

7. Foes of plan to bring nuclear waste to West Texas argue case at public hearing

Lubbock Online 12/10/10
Foes of plan to bring nuclear waste to West Texas argue case at public hearing

Opponents of a plan to allow nuclear waste from 36 other states to be buried near the Texas-New Mexico border in Andrews County raised their concerns Thursday at a public hearing, complaining that the rules are being rushed through the approval process.

Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice was among the 25 people who argued against the proposal during the meeting of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission in Austin. He called it a “rush to radiation,” suggesting the 30-day comment period that ends Dec. 26 doesn’t allow nearly enough time to weigh the issues, particularly because it comes during the holiday season.

“In the development of the timeline for this rule the commercial interests have been placed well ahead of the public interest,” he said. “Public safety and fiscal responsibility demand a much more thorough examination of the consequences of the adoption of this rule.”.

"Rush to Radiation" - good sound bite, Craig McDonald! :applause:

This is like looking at BP before they killed the Gulf of Mexico, and knowing what you know about them - you know it's not going to end well. Stop them before they take a nuclear crap on Texas!

:kick:

[sonias]

8. Last day to send in public comments is this Sunday the 26th

Nuke Free Texas
Prevent Importation of Radioactive Waste From Around the Country! Comment by Dec. 26th

A proposed Compact Commission rule would let waste from around the country go to Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews County site in West Texas instead of limiting waste to the Compact states of Texas and Vermont. Radioactive waste means increased financial, health, environmental and security risks. The vote could come soon.

Please send comments to [e-mail] by Dec. 26th.

We’re requesting

* a comment period extension – A 30 day extension would be reasonable considering the holiday season.

* that the vote be postponed until the legislature can examine Texas’ financial risks and ability to respond to accidents or contamination.

* that hearings be held in all major Texas cities since radioactive waste could travel down highways throughout the state and

* that Compact Commissioners to vote no to bringing in more radioactive waste

:kick:

[Beststash]

9. And why is this a good

idea? Of all the cockamamie ideas on the planet, why would anyone what to take toxic waste from everyone and bring to this state? Do we worship money and free enterprise that much? I simply cannot understand the Republician mind in any way. I cannot even imagine discussing this issue much less defending such a decision.

We have got to have the worst state government in the U.S.

Peace

[sonias]

10. It's not a good idea

But Perry and his repuke cronies in political office have already taken the money - so they are staying "bought". If this thing passes and Texas becomes radioactive - the rich bastards will flee Texas.

:kick:

[onestepforward]

11. UPDATE: Judge orders halt to radioactive waste dump

http://www.oaoa.com/news/orders-57876-radioactive-waste.html

ODESSA AMERICAN

AUSTIN A Texas judge has ordered a temporary halt to plans that could allow three dozen states to dump radioactive waste in far West Texas.

Judge Jon Wisser, siding with environmentalists, signed a temporary restraining order Thursday against the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission. The commission was scheduled to vote Jan. 4 on rules that could expand how much waste could be processed at a dump in remote Andrews County.

The ruling preventing a vote came as environmentalists and critics on the commission accused regulators and a politically connected company of rushing the proposal past Texans who are too focused on the holidays to notice.

Excellent!

:bounce: