Feds respond to request for water rights at nuke dump

Brendan Riley

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1999 | 10:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Backers of a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain said Monday that groundwater can be pumped for the project without harming neighbors' water supplies.

State officials had no counterargument.

Scientists hired by the federal Energy Department went over geologic features of the area, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to show that water is available and pumping wouldn't hurt nearby water-users.

The dump requested 430 acre-feet of Amargosa Valley groundwater per year, an amount "well within what's available," DOE lawyer Brent Kolvet said during a break in a hearing before state Engineer Mike Turnipseed.

"It's not going to impact anybody else," Kolvet added, echoing the DOE's main arguments to Turnipseed. He did not make a decision Monday.

Nevada state officials who oppose the dump did not cross-examine the scientists or attempt to weaken the DOE's arguments.

"We just don't have evidence to refute that," Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said. "So our focus is really on the public interest ... (The dump is) detrimental to the public interest of the state of Nevada."

In opposing the water-pumping request at the hearing's start last week, Nevada officials said the high-level nuclear trash dump could cost the Las Vegas economy millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

Opponents also raised the specter of nuclear waste spilling while being transported to Yucca Mountain.

Yucca Mountain is the only site the DOE is studying for storage of the nation's high-level nuclear waste. Its efforts have been heavily backed by the nuclear energy industry.

The DOE is using ground water under a temporary permit that expires in 2002. The agency says that if Turnipseed denies the application, work will be harder but will continue at the isolated desert location.

Nevada, backed by various environmental groups, has been battling the DOE since a long-term storage facility was proposed for southern Nevada more than a decade ago.

As the debate continues, lethal commercial waste continues to stack up at nuclear plants around the nation. More than 42,000 tons has accumulated, mostly in cooling pools not designed for permanent safekeeping.

Critics argue it makes more sense to improve storage of most high-level waste where it is currently located than to build the site at Yucca Mountain.