- Peter Klebnikov, Mother Jones Magazine, July/August 2001 Issue
- "The federal government is facing a glut of radioactive waste and a contract to
bury some of it could be worth millions to one of George W. Bush's top fundraisers. "
- About WIPP waste coming through Texas;
Texarkana to Dallas-Fort Worth to Midland to Andrews to WIPP.
WIPP is owned by Westinghouse and is 32 miles west of WCS in New Mexico
Majority stockholder Harold Simmons replaces Ken Bigham with Eric Peus as
CEO and moves WCS's offices to Andrews Tx. "The Pasadena office had 15 employees,
but none of them will be transferred to Andrews." "Peus also said that WCS plans
to go back to the next Legislature, which will
convene in January of 2001, to seek legislation that will allow private companies to
dispose of radioactive waste. 'That's where we will need help... lobbying these people.
We'd like to see the Andrews County people involved earlier in the Legislative session
this next time,' he said."
- July 1999 - from the National Conference of State
Legislatures (http://www.ncsl.org/)
"During the closing hours of the 1999 legislative session, Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown was successful in abolishing the Texas Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Authority, effective Sept. 1, 1999. When Representative Warren Chisum stopped further action on the low-level waste bill,
Brown introduced an amendment in conference committee that abolished the authority. The amended legislation affected several state agencies."
- "Texas Rep. Gary Walker,
R-Plains, plans to submit a bill allowing the state to consider a dump in
Andrews.
"Opponents contend that hospital waste would account for only 35 percent of the
material dumped. The overwhelming majority of
low-level radioactive waste generated in the United States comes from
decommissioned nuclear power plants and other industrial
usage, they say."
"Walker complains that the dump opponents don't even live in Andrews.
"You won't find any serious local opposition," Walker said. "People here know
that it can be safe and it's good business."
Local opposition is pitted against local businesses... as one resident said
in another article,
"many local residents oppose taking the waste but are afraid they will lose their
jobs if they speak out.
If your bosses are for it, you don't dare speak against it in Andrews County"
- UT study discloses presence of Ogallala aquifer in proposed nuclear waste site.
- March 17, 1999, Odessa American, by Greg Harman
- "A study released by the University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology shows the
geology of western Andrews County may be unsuitable for radioactive waste disposal.
The report, released late last month and made public Tuesday, said the Ogallala aquifer is located
beneath land owned by Envirocare of Texas and may also lie beneath Waste Control Specialists'
hazardous and low-level radioactive storage facility.
Concerned mainly with the possible location of underground water beneath the two sites, the report
prepared by the bureau's research scientist, Alan Dutton, questions the methodology behind a recent
report by Texas Tech University scientists, paid for by Pasadena-based Waste Control Specialists.
"He states that Ogallala is absent at the WCS site," Dutton's report said.
"No scientific description or documentation were included with the text ... to substantiate these
interpretations."
The report also states that "the description of core materials" at the WCS site
resemble those found at Envirocare's 888 acres, located eight miles southeast of
Envirocare's unimproved lands. Wet core samples taken from the Envirocare of
Texas site reflect the presence of groundwater, the report said. Core samples
taken from the WCS site for the company's 1993 application for radioactive waste
disposal also were wet.
"The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Disposal Authority, the state agency charged with siting and
operating a low-level radioactive waste dump in Texas for wastes
from Maine and Vermont, requested the report from the Bureau of Economic Geology in
January.
- "Under a law passed last year, the federal government is holding about $373
million for the factories. It is asking private companies for their proposals to
use the money to build them.
"The money was paid over the last few years by customers of plants that were then
owned by the government and that process uranium for use in nuclear reactors,
sorting out the type that splits easily, uranium 235. In addition, after the
government sold those plants in a public stock offering last year, the new
private entity that manages them, the United States Enrichment Corp., paid
another $66 million to the government to handle the waste produced after
privatization."
- Dallas businessman Simmons' team includes array of ex-state
officials
- February 7, 1999 - The Dallas Morning News
"The group representing Waste Control Specialists, based in Pasadena, Texas, includes former top aides to
Gov. George W. Bush and a bevy of influential one-time state senators and representatives." ...
"Waste Control wants to bury the material at its 1,338-acre hazardous and toxic waste dump in Andrews
County on the New Mexico border." "Some legislative
veterans say Waste Control is spending an unusually large amount of money."
Rival company Envirocare, which also owns land in Andrews county,
also has former House and Senate members on it's payroll.
- "Our opponents are not asked to prove their statements,"
said Lloyd Eisenrich, director of the Andrews
Industrial Foundation. "They rely upon emotion rather than facts to make a point."
The Andrews Industrial Foundation is made up of the more affluent sector of Andrews Co.,
including local county officials and representatives. In a lobbying effort, they even
bought full page ads in all major Texas newspapers and The New York Times which took the entire
back page of the business section with thier signatures, a 'petition' for the WCS dump being active.
Ward County citizens urge commissioners to turn away radioactive disposal company
- The rush for another site? Envirocare reveals future dump site targets to compete
over with other companies
- September 28, 1999 - Odessa American (Odessa, Texas)
Envirocare selects Ward County for an above ground long-term radioactive storage facility,
over 350 petition signatures given against it obtained in less than 20 hours. Although,
"Envirocare plans to announce whether it will site its
facility in Ward, Loving or Borden County on Friday."
Thus, Loving and Borden Counties are potential future targets.
- "Reeves County Commissioners may take their opposition to a proposed radioactive
waste site into court. Commissioners Tuesday night allocated $20,000 of county money "for legal research and
expenditures" to seek legal counsel and help develop a strategy to fight the construction of a
low-level radioactive waste storage facility that may locate to neighboring Ward County.
"The waste facility proposed by Envirocare of Texas, sister company to Envirocare of Utah, would
house civilian-generated low-level radioactive waste from Texas, Maine and Vermont in
aboveground, concrete bunkers for an undetermined period of time - most likely in Ward County.
Most of the waste, in bulk and in radioactivity, would come from decommissionered nuclear power
plants."
"You know, years ago when I would go up to Santa Fe, everybody had anti-WIPP
signs in their window. And the last time I was in Santa Fe, I couldn't find one,"
former Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest said recently." ... "I don't know how many
hearings we geared up for and made hundreds of phone calls for," recalled Dan
Gibson, who played a leading role in opposing WIPP during the height of
opposition to the project. "What happened is that people poured their heart and
soul into (fighting WIPP) and
eventually got burned out." Gibson questions whether the younger generation is interested.
Others believe the people simply lost faith."
- WIPP critics unswayed months after
disposal begins in New Mexico
- July 06, 1999, Odessa American, by Greg Harman
- "A second shipment from Rocky Flats arrived at WIPP Friday morning, days after a lawsuit
spearheaded by former New Mexico Attorney General Tom Udall and several environmental
groups was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals." Prior to that shipment, the facility had
received 12 shipments from Los Alamos, one
from Idaho and one from Rocky Flats. About 138,000 cubic meters of trans-uranic waste -
stored in 65 standard waste
barrels and 70 55-gallon drums - have accumulated in the far room of panel one. Trans-uranic wastes are produced from plutonium in the creation of nuclear weapons and
are heavier than uranium. The trans-uranics include americium, neptunium and californium.
- The Navy's primary contractor for napalm disposal will review a proposal from
Waste Control Specialists to build a napalm-burning incinerator on lands recently donated by WCS
to the Lea County Solid Waste Authority outside Eunice. Battelle is the Navy's contractor for the
disposal of 3.3 million gallons of napalm stored at
Fallbrook Naval Weapons Support Facility.
- Do states have regulatory authority over federal nuclear waste facilities within their borders?
This also contains a timeline of WCS activity from September 1996 to May 1998.
"This question is the crux of an ongoing court battle between Waste Control Specialists, LLC of Texas (WCS) and the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE). In a preliminary injunction order that could have far-reaching effects on state regulatory authority, a federal district court judge
found that state and/or Nuclear Regulatory Commission permits are not necessary for DOE radioactive waste disposal at privately-owned sites
under contract with DOE. The preliminary injunction is currently on appeal.
Many states are understandably concerned about this possible erosion of state regulatory authority.
In February 1998, sixteen states filed an amici curiae"
