Wednesday, April 22, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- State Engineer Mike Turnipseed has canceled hearings that were scheduled to start next week the Department of Energy's bid to obtain permanent water rights for the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
A pre-hearing conference was scheduled April 29 with the final hearings to begin May 26. But Turnipseed said there are new pending motions that have to be settled before the case goes to hearing.
"Due to these pending matters the state engineer believes it would be prudent to postpone the pre-hearing conference and the administrative hearing," Turnipseed said.
He has set a briefing period to run through May 6 for the state attorney general and the DOE to file their written arguments.
The soonest the hearings will be scheduled is in the summer, Turnipseed said.
Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa filed a motion on April 2 to dismiss the applications of the federal agency, saying they were premature. Del Papa argues the government has not yet settled on a site for a national nuclear repository and permanent water rights should not be awarded.
Del Papa wants Turnipseed to deny the rights before any hearing. In addition, Amargosa Valley Rancher Mike DeLee has filed a lawsuit in Nye County District Court saying there should be a postponement of the case until a federal study on water issues in the area is completed.
The government has acquired temporary rights to about 490 acre feet of water for use during the study of the proposed site. That permit runs through the year 2002. The agency has filed an application to make the rights permanent, even though it has not completed its study and the site has not been formally chosen.
Robert Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects which has been fighting the dump site, said the postponement of the hearing was appropriate.
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