Locals rip DOE hearing

Mary Manning and Jace Radke

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:27 a.m.

Saunnie Michael waited patiently. Wednesday ended and today began. She waited some more.

Michael, scheduled as the 69th person to speak during a public hearing to address a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, listened as a Utah man, a university professor, explained his support for the repository.

The public comment of the hearing, held at the Department of Energy's Nevada Operations Office in North Las Vegas, began at 6 p.m. Five hours later just 36 people -- many of whom were elected officials -- had used their allotted five minutes to opine on the controversial project.

Of the first nine residents on DOE's list, six supported the Yucca project. Their testimony continued until 9:30 p.m.

The hearing attracted more than 500 residents, who by 4 p.m. had begun gathering at the DOE facility at 232 Energy Way. By 10 p.m. more than 100 had become impatient and left the meeting.

That was the DOE's plan, said Nuclear Waste Task Force Director Judy Treichel.

"We're not that dumb," she said. "We know these people (proponents of the dump) were brought in. This is insane. This is not the way to conduct a public hearing."

DOE spokesman Allen Benson said 36 individuals or groups had reserved a spot prior to the hearing. "It is on a first-come, first-served basis," he said.

Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, said the DOE apparently "stacked the deck" in favor of Yucca supporters.

"The whole thing was stacked up and down against getting a fair summary of public opinion," Naylor said. "We're going to watch the people who are running these things. This should not happen next time."

Public hearings are also scheduled Sept. 12 in Amargosa Valley and Sept. 13 in Pahrump.

The pace of the meeting, which continued for 8 1/2 hours, was slowed even further as people attending similar hearings being held simultaneously in Carson City, Reno and Elko, were given an opportunity to speak.

Gary Sandquist, the Utah professor and the second speaker of the night, said he had been asked to attend the meeting by the Nuclear Energy Institute, which has hired former Gov. Robert List to represent businesses and labor unions in Nevada on behalf of the nuclear industry.

Michael didn't allow Sandquist to finish, however. The 38-year-old Las Vegas resident and dealer at the Mirage interrupted the speaker several times. She was not alone, as others joined in to chide the professor.

"It just infuriates me that you have all these people here to speak and some guy from Utah goes first," Michael said. "I have to go to work and didn't have time to wait. I'm just so angry, and from now on I'm going to tell people that sit down at my table at work about Yucca Mountain, and the poison that's going to be rolling through their towns."

Michael did get her chance to speak -- at 12:30 a.m.

The suggestion that the DOE is ignoring public safety concerns was a consistent theme Wednesday night and this morning.

"'Sound science' is the Washington political establishment's favorite buzz word," Las Vegas resident Andy Harris said. "It is used for one thing: to screw Nevada."

"You've had 14 years to prepare for these hearings, and this is the best you can do?" Abby Johnson, nuclear waste coordinator for Eureka County in northeastern Nevada, asked.

"You bungled these hearings, and you want us to believe you can handle nuclear waste safely?" Johnson said.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who also spoke Wednesday night, threatened to arrest anyone who attempts to haul nuclear waste through the city of Las Vegas.

"The most dangerous thing you can give to an old criminal defense lawyer is a badge," Goodman said. "Don't dare me because I'll be out there to make the arrest myself, and let's see that truck driver try to get out of jail in my city."

Gov. Kenny Guinn, the first speaker Wednesday, criticized the DOE's premise as it relates to the hearing process. He said the process is unfair because an environmental impact study on the Yucca project has yet to be completed. What's more, he said the timing of 370-page Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation, released Aug. 21, interfered with the public's ability to comment.

Guinn vowed to take the fight to President Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who is expected to decide later this year whether to recommend Yucca Mountain as a repository for 77,000 tons of the nation's waste.

Abraham, citing scheduling conflicts, did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

"Public comment in the absence of this all-important evidence is premature and grossly irresponsible," Guinn said. "We demand fairness, and we demand accountability in this process. We will not sit idly by and let the Department of Energy run roughshod over our citizens with empty promises and bad science."

The DOE did agree to extend the public comment period 15 days to Oct. 5, but Guinn, Reid and Clark County Commission Chair Dario Herrera said they will petition Bush for a 60-day extension.

Wednesday's hearing was originally scheduled at the Suncoast, but hotel officials, citing security concerns, canceled the meeting.

DOE Undersecretary Robert G. Card, the highest ranking federal official to attend Wednesday's meeting, said the DOE site was adequate.

"We would have preferred not to have it here," Card said of the North Las Vegas complex, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. "We've had many interesting difficulties with this meeting. Let's just leave it at that."

The state's elected officials, not to mention its residents, would rather not.

Craig Walton, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas ethics professor, said the meeting was poorly managed. The DOE made it difficult for the public to express its concerns, he said.

"The horrible thing is, it's like going to the sideshow in the circus," he said. "You know you're going to see a lot of creepy things."

Western Shoshone and Paiute tribal leaders, also in attendance, complained that they were not considered as representing sovereign nations.

"Our unfortunate experience as downwind victims informs our policy against the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain no matter how much has been spent," Western Shoshone National Council spokesman John Wells said.

Reid, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., commented from Washington via a video link.

The Nevada delegation expressed their disappointment over Abraham's absence.

"I don't think President Bush knows how the people in Nevada are being treated in this process, but this delegation will be informing him," Reid said.

Reid also criticized the DOE for not publicizing the routes to be taken by trains and trucks transporting the waste. "They won't tell us which railways and highways this poison will be transported on because it will be going by houses and schools. They have to have an environmental impact study for that, and I don't think they can do it."

About 40 people, including Guinn's wife Dema, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and former Sen. Ernie Adler, a Carson City Democrat, attended the meeting in the capital. Only four people registered to speak.

About a dozen people attended the Reno hearing, including Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa. Five people signed up to speak on the Yucca project.

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