EPA official launches probe of Yucca radiation standards

Tuesday, June 26, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency's ombudsman opened a preliminary probe Monday into radiation exposure standards for a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain.

Ombudsman Robert Martin said he has requested written comments within 30 days from environmental groups and state and nuclear industry officials on whether he has the authority to formally delve into safety standards at Yucca Mountain.

While in Las Vegas last week, Martin had questioned whether he had the authority to conduct an investigation, but Monday he said he will be able to launch the formal investigation requested by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., by August. Berkley, who accompanied him to Las Vegas, had no comment Monday.

Martin also asked for documents relating to Yucca Mountain as a hazardous waste site from the EPA's Region 9 office in San Francisco and from the state of Nevada. He said he was looking for evidence of previous chemical or metal contamination.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied to hold 77,000 tons of highly radioactive commercial and defense wastes. The EPA recently issued a limit that would restrict the amount of radiation allowed to escape from the proposed repository, if it is built.

The EPA's rule -- 15 millirems per year of exposure to the average person outside the repository boundaries, with 4 millirems of that allowed to come through ground water -- are stricter than those sought by the nuclear industry. A chest X-ray is about 5 millirems.

Martin said the ombudsman's role is to conduct independent investigations and make recommendations in connection with hazardous waste sites falling under the EPA's regulations.

In the course of an independent investigation, the ombudsman conducts public hearings and on-the-record interviews, requests documents and makes non-binding recommendations to the EPA management, Martin said.

The ombudsman's investigation could have been stopped in its tracks before it started. A proposal earlier this year would have allowed the EPA to veto the ombudsman's role in some cases. But EPA Administrator Christie Whitman pledged she would work with Congress to create an independent and accountable ombudsman.

Last week Martin said his office has no power to compel the EPA to accept his findings. Yet in his nine years as ombudsman in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste, the agency has agreed with his recommendations about 80 percent of the time.

An EPA spokesman said the entire process will be "very open" and "cast a wide net" in seeking comments from everyone involved in ongoing studies at Yucca Mountain.