The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 04, 1997, Page 3, Image 3

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    Economist jcontests
nuclear waste site
Volume of waste declining, he says
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A
planned nuclear dump in the
California desert and others proposed
around the nation would be costly,
unnecessary and could sink the indus
try, an economist said Wednesday.
The nation’s three current dumps
for low-level radioactive waste have
excess capacity well into the next
century because the volume of waste
is sharply down due to recycling and
new compaction technologies, said F.
Gregory Hayden, a University of
Nebraska professor.
A new dump such as Ward Valley
project in southeastern California
would be the final straw for strug
gling disposal sites, Hayden said.
“If it’s opened, it will break the
system that the rest of the nation
depends on,” Hayden said. “They’re
already in trouble because of the
trickle of waste.”
Opponents in the 17-year-old bat
tle over a California dump brought
Hayden to City Hall for a news confer
ence. Hayden has opposed a Nebraska
site in his role as state representative
on one of the interstate compacts
established to build new dumps.
Up to now, environmentalists,
politicians and Indian tribe members
who live close to the proposed 1,000
acre Ward Valley site near Needles
have based their opposition on fears
that the plan to bury radioactive
waste in trenches at the dump would
poison the water table, imperil
wildlife and possibly pollute the
nearby Colorado River.
But the capacity argument is con
clusive, argued Daniel Hirsch, presi
dent of the Committee to Bridge the
Gap, an environmental group that has
fought the dump.
“The very reason for this whole
fight has disappeared,” Hirsch said.
“I feel that... the war is over.”
However, Gov. Pete Wilson
intends to continue pressing for the
federal government to cede land for
die dump site, a spokeswoman said.
“This study changes nothing,”
Lisa Kalustian said. “The other sites
that are named are unreliable, we
don’t have guaranteed access to them.
The low-level radioactive waste is
still being produced. ... We have a
need to dispose of it responsibly in a
safe, reliable, secure location, and
that site is Ward Valley.”
Wilson and U.S. Senate
Republicans, with financial backing
from the nuclear power industry, are
fighting in federal court and in
Congress to get the Ward Valley
dump up and running.
Early next year, the Clinton
administration plans to conduct safe
ty tests to determine whether the
Ward Valley site is leakproof - tests
Wilson contends are not needed.
Low-level wastes, which
California currently ships out of
state, include contaminated clothing
from power plants and needles,
gloves and similar items from hospi
tals, industry and research facilities.
They are considered less hazardous
than high-level wastes like spent
nuclear fuel rods or military bomb
making equipment.
A 1980 federal act required states
to be responsible for handling the
waste they generate and encouraged
multistate compacts to build new
dumps. At the time, political opposi
tion by some states to handling out
side wastes prompted threats to close
the current dumps, leaving nowhere
to put rising levels of waste.
But as debate over new dumps
raged, “market forces have solved
this problem,” Hayden said.
His report, presented last month at
the National Conference of State
Legislatures in Washington, D.C.,
found that the annual volume of low
level waste shipped to disposal sites
dropped between 1980 and 1996 to
422.000 cubic feet from 3.8 million
cubic feet.
In California, the volume of
waste dropped 94 percent to about
12.000 cubic feet, Hayden said.
The downward trend prompted
officials to withdraw or reassess sup
port for new dumps in Nebraska,
North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, all
scheduled to be built after Ward Valley.
The decline means that the three
current dump sites in Richland,
Wash. Barnwell, S.C., and Clive,
Utah, have anywhere from 29 to 260
years of capacity at current disposal
rates,' Which probably win drop even
further, Hayden said.
American Ecology Corp., a
Boise, Idaho, company that holds the
state license to operate Ward Valley,
agreed there is overcapacity, but said
the real issue is the 1980 act.
“It’s not shortage of capacity that
is prompting the efforts, it’s an exist
ing federal law... the debate is acade
mic,” said Joe Nagel, chief operating
officer. “Unless and until the Clinton
administration decides to repeal the
existing law, this is much ado about
nothing.”
Nagel said American Ecology has
invested $50 million in the past 12
years on the project and “we’ll con
tinue to pursue the site.”
Hayden said Ward Valley, which
would serve California, Arizona and
North and South Dakota, is economi
cally unsound because of the declin
ing volume of waste.
Hayden estimated Ward Valley
would need to charge $2,500 per
cubic foot to make money. Nagel said
the Richland site charges $62 per
cubic foot.
Geese seem puzzled
Warmer weather sends them north
NUKIH PLATTE (AP) — The
sight of geese flying south during
the fall is one of nature’s sure signs
that winter is drawing near.
But what does it mean when
those same migrating birds are
heading north during the fall?
That’s the case with some
Canada geese in the state who are
confused by the recent fair weather
in the Dakotas and Canada. The
warm spell has enabled the geese to
stay up north or actually linger over
parts of Nebraska, returning north
as they please.
The geese normally migrate
from northern climates to southern
areas in the winter months.
Rocky Hoffman, public infor
mation officer for the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission, said
most of the geese are holding on
Oahe Reservoir near Pierre, S.D. He
said the birds will stay there as long
as the food stays uncovered in the
fields and until the reservoir
freezes.
The unusual warmth up north
has greatly affected the number of
geese arriving in Nebraska. Last
year’s migration - which hit record
numbers - was 250 percent higher
than the previous year.
“We just don’t have the numbers
we had last year,” Hoffman said.
There are still some birds that
come south, regardless of the weath
er, Hoffman said. Goose hunters
have had some success, although a
little less than typical, he said.
Omaha may appeal shooting case
■ A Judge’s order says
victim’s family can obtain
any evidence of their son’s
death from the investigation.
OMAHA (AP) — The city was
expected to file two appeals in an
effort to fight a judge’s order to hand
over reports about the shooting of an
Omaha man by a police officer.
“I believe this means that it stays
the enforcement of the order until
the appeal is determined,” said
Thomas Mumgaard, assistant city
attorney. “That’s at least what we’re
asking for.”
Mumgaard said the appeals
would be filed Wednesday after
noon in Douglas County District
Court and the Nebraska Court of
Appeals.
Douglas County Judge Edna
Atkins ruled last week that Marvin
Ammons’ family was entitled to
police reports, crime scene .pho
tographs and other evidence gath
ered in an investigation into her
son’s death.
Ammons, 33, was shot to death
on Oct. 26 by officer-in-training
Todd Sears. Police said Ammons
approached police with a gun and
refused to stop or drop his weapon.
Critics have accused police of with
holding information.
The jud&e ruled that Ammons’
family has a legal right to the
records.
Mumgaard has argued that turn
ing the police records over to the
family could violate a grand jury
investigation of the shooting.
A Douglas County grand jury
will meet in private at the end of
December to review the shooting
and determine whether Sears and
his partner, Officer Troy Kister,
acted properly or should be prose
cuted.
Both the FBI and the U.S.
Attorney’s office also are investigat
ing the shooting.
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