Property values at risk if nuke dump approved

Wednesday, April 4, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Trucking nuclear waste through Las Vegas would lower nearby property values anywhere from 3.2 percent to more than 33 percent, a city official said Tuesday.

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic told the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects that preliminary results of a study show the economic effect of a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain would be felt statewide.

The mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being considered to store 77,000 tons of commercial and nuclear waste. Las Vegas could be a major transportation route for waste en route to a repository if it is approved.

Jerbic said preliminary findings by Urban Environmental Research of Arizona, an independent environmental research firm, show that the nuclear-laden trucks, just rolling through Las Vegas without any accidents, would lead to a decrease in residential property values by 3.5 percent within a one-mile radius of the route. Commercial business values would decline 3.2 percent, according to the study.

An accident in which a canister carrying nuclear waste rolls off a truck but doesn't release any radiation could cause a decrease of 7.9 percent to residential values and 7.4 percent to commercial values within a one-mile radius.

An accident in which the cask is split and the radiation seeps into the atmosphere would result in the immediate deaths of an estimated five people, latent cancer in 5,200 persons and $1 billion in cleanup costs. It would lower values by 33.8 percent in residences and 31.9 percent in commercial business, it found.

The study won't be considered in a final decision on whether Yucca Mountain becomes a nuclear waste repository, because the National Environmental Policy Act requires the Energy Department, which would build the repository, to consider only environmental impacts.

But the social and economic information collected on the latest population figures will help the state and local governments in future lawsuits, said Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency on Nuclear Projects.

"It's more ammunition for the future," Loux said.

That seems to be a fight that is sure to come.

The state has already hired Tony Rossman, a San Francisco environmental lawyer, to help in the legal fight. Loux said his agency will start searching later this summer for attorneys in New York or Washington who are experts in handling matters before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"We have to fight the battle from within or they will come and destroy us," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said.

Goodman said a lawsuit, if filed properly, would have a chance to succeed. If the suit could withstand an early motion to dismiss it, Goodman said, attorneys could then get into discovery and show this is a "political issue" and that "we were lied to."

In fact, damages for the loss of property value due to nuclear waste transportation have been upheld in state courts.

In a lawsuit brought by a New Mexico couple against the DOE for taking a corner of their property as a route for nuclear waste, the state Supreme Court granted $337,000 in damages because of the federal government's proposal to ship plutonium-laced waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project near Carlsbad.

But first, speakers seemed determine to fight the repository in the court of public opinion. Many praised Gov. Kenny Guinn for putting aside $5 million to launch a public education program in other states to inform people regarding the dangers of transporting the radioactive materials through urban areas, and to pay for a legal defense.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams said the nuclear waste would go through 43 major cities, as well as over Hoover Dam, and would threaten major water supplies. Williams, a member of the nuclear commission, endorsed the effort.

Stephen Cloobeck, who is spearheading a grass-roots effort to unify opposition to Yucca Mountain, said a serious accident would actually mean a decrease in property values. For instance, he said no one would want to buy a Strip hotel if there was an accident of a large magnitude.

Cloobeck envisions raising $10 million to $12 million in the battle to head off Yucca Mountain. He said $5 million would come from Guinn's proposal; $1 million from Clark County; more than $1 million from Utah and $5 million from private donations, mostly from properties along the Strip.

He also suggested that when out-of-state politicians come to Las Vegas seeking donations that they be encouraged to commit to voting against the nuclear waste project. He hopes to have 400,000 to 500,000 people sign a petition, which he would place on the desks of every member of Congress.

They may have more time for the information campaign. Loux told the commission that the schedule of the Department of Energy for recommending Yucca Mountain has "slipped." He said it was originally set for this summer but was delayed until late this year or early 2002. "I believe it will slip even further as we go down the road."

Though much of the discussion centered on the dangers as they relate to residents of Clark County, Abby Johnson, the adviser to Eureka County on the issue, said the state needs to make sure routes for shipping the waste are not diverted through rural Nevada. "If it's not safe, it's not safe," she said.

Sun reporter Mary Manning

contributed to this report.