Spaceport plan worries Nye County residents

Wednesday, May 3, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

Nye County residents worry that a proposed commercial spaceport at the Nevada Test Site could bring rocket fuel through their towns, generate sonic booms and kick up tons of dust.

But mostly they wonder if the enterprise will bring jobs to replace those lost when the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, stopped testing nuclear weapons in 1992.

The concerns came up during a hearing Tuesday night at the Department of Energy's office in North Las Vegas to discuss the environmental impacts of the project.

Kistler Aerospace Corp. of Kirkland, Wash., wants an area in the Test Site to be designated as launch sites for its K-1 reusable orbit vehicle. An estimated 52 launches a year are proposed in areas 18, 19 and 20 on the northwestern side of the Test Site beginning about 2002, officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has found no significant environmental problems from the project. Public comment on the environmental report is open until May 22.

Residents of Nye County, where the area is located, are worried about the safety of transporting rocket propellant through small towns such as Pahrump and Beatty, said Les Bradshaw, the county's director of the Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities.

With 60,000 Pahrump residents and up to 15,000 in Amargosa Valley expected by 2010, transportation accidents are a major concern, he said.

Nye County also is home of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the only site being studied for a proposed national high-level nuclear waste repository.

"No matter which way you approach it, you will have to go through a couple of Nye County towns," Bradshaw said. "While we welcome you with open arms, we have to measure the cumulative impacts."

A total of 671 acres of Test Site land claimed by the Western Shoshone tribe would be used for the spaceport project.

Although five nuclear weapons tests -- four in mid-1962 and one underground in 1964 -- were conducted within the area, radioactive contamination poses no threat to the site, the FAA assessment said.

Las Vegas resident Susie Snyder asked how much ground water had been granted to the project by State Engineer Michael Turnipseed. According to the draft assessment, 5.5 acre feet of water is expected to be used each year. The permit was granted March 20, 1998.

When Snyder asked who would study safety issues, officials said those concerns are under a separate review.

Noise like a severe thunderstorm or loud fireworks could accompany liftoff as launches produce sonic booms, the environmental report says. "I've been in the desert when there is a sonic boom, and you can feel it in your gut," Snyder said.

Other environmental effects include 600 tons a year of dust during the construction and 2,200 tons when the spacecraft are cleaned. That is 3 percent of the total 177,760 tons of dust produced each year in the area.

But the major concern of those attending the hearing was whether there would be jobs for local residents -- especially Test Site workers who have been idled since 1992 after a nuclear weapons experiment ban went into effect. An estimated 85 full-time workers are expected to be needed for the spaceport, the report says.

Glen Woodworth of Teamsters Local 431 said that communities around the Test Site such as Pahrump and Beatty had suffered economically with the end of nuclear testing.