State lauds court win on Yucca water rights

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

State officials and Nevada's congressional delegation cheered getting the home court advantage in a fight to keep a nuclear waste repository out of Yucca Mountain.

The state posted its first court win last week in its war with the federal government to stop the Department of Energy from building a nuclear dump in Nevada when a federal judge sent a dispute over ground water rights to a state court.

"We now have a clear road to the Nevada Supreme Court, which will give that court the opportunity to weigh in on the question of whether the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada is against our public interest," Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Monday.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied for a repository to store 77,000 tons of high-level waste from commercial nuclear reactors and defense weapons activities. If it passes scientific muster, Congress and legal challenges, it could open by 2010.

Many observers believe the decision will be made in court, not by Congress.

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt on Thursday refused to hear the Department of Energy's challenge of the state's denial of permanent water rights for the project. The DOE is charged with managing the nuclear waste and already has temporary water rights through March 2002 to study Yucca Mountain's suitability to become a repository.

"This is a significant victory for the citizens of Nevada," Del Papa said.

Former State Engineer Michael Turnipseed on Feb. 2 denied the DOE's request for permanent rights to 430 acre feet of ground water a year, noting that storage of nuclear waste was not in the state's public interest, one of the criteria used for granting rights.

The DOE had sought to shift its challenge of that decision from the state court to the federal courts. Hunt's ruling moved the fight squarely into the state courts, Del Papa said, though she expects the DOE to appeal.

DOE attorney Steve Bartell said a decision on whether to appeal had not been made as of today. "I can't discuss that at this time," he said.

The DOE said at the time of Turnipseed's decision that it would consider trucking water into the site if the state denied access to ground water.

While that may be feasible for constructing a repository roughly 1,000 feet deep inside Yucca Mountain, hauling water for operating the site over 30 years is another question, Nevada Agency for Nuclear projects Director Bob Loux said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she would begin investigating environmental impacts from trucking in "hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the Yucca Mountain area to continue this project." The environmental impacts alone may be enough to stop a repository, she said.

"This certainly opens another very strong avenue to help the state of Nevada in its fight to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada," Berkley said. "The Department of Energy still doesn't get it. We don't want it, and we are united in our fight to keep it out of our state to protect our families' health, the environment and the health of our economy."

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who had urged Turnipseed to deny the DOE's request, said Hunt's decision validates the state's position.

"Clearly, this is a major victory for the state of Nevada in our fight on nuclear waste," Bryan said.

"Judge Hunt said what we have been saying all along, that is the decision to grant permanent water rights for Yucca Mountain is a decision, which should be made by the state of Nevada and not the federal government," Bryan said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., commended Hunt for recognizing the state's jurisdiction over its water rights.

"This is a tremendous win for the state," Gibbons said, adding he believed that with Gov. Kenny Guinn's continued defense of the state's water rights, "we will prove that Yucca Mountain is a scientific failure."

Gibbons also said he would share the judge's decision with GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush.

"Not one drop of Nevada water should be used to develop the greatest environmental threat to our state," he said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who nominated Hunt for the federal appointment, could not be reached for comment.