Justice Dept. files motion for water at Yucca

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002 | 11:17 a.m.

The Yucca Mountain project will run out of potable water as soon as Dec. 19, according to a Justice Department motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the ongoing battle over water rights at Yucca Mountain.

Justice Department lawyers filed the motion for a preliminary injunction against the state of Nevada on behalf of the Energy Department, which manages the controversial nuclear waste dump project.

The motion states that the dump site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas will run out of water if the state does not renew water permits with the DOE.

The state of Nevada first denied the Energy Department water rights for the project in 2000, which led to legal wrangling over both temporary and permanent water rights. The department filed to get a preliminary injunction to get the water turned back on, but U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt denied the request in June.

Hunt said that the government's concern was legitimate but anticipatory, and that enough water had been stored by the government to continue its work.

In his decision Hunt did leave the door open for the renewed motion by the federal government to gain access to Nye County wells.

"If the time comes when the issue becomes urgent and the water level reaches a dangerously low level or becomes contaminated so that the United States cannot continue the required responsibilities authorized for site characterization, then they may renew the motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction," Hunt's decision states.

According to the motion project managers have been relying on dwindling water reserves at the desert site and say that the United States will "suffer irreparable injury unless it can withdraw the water necessary to support ongoing activities at the Yucca Mountain site."

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said he could not comment specifically on how the water shortage would affect project operations this month, and an Energy Department spokesman for the Las Vegas project office was not immediately available today.

Nevada Attorney General's office today is reviewing the latest motion, as well as the validity of the Energy Department claim that it will soon run out of potable water, Senior Nevada Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said today. The state likely will file a response within a few days, she said.

In general, the state has a good case that Nevada -- not the federal government -- has jurisdiction over permanent water rights. The issue of the Energy Department's claims to temporary permits is cloudier, Adams said.

Government scientists have concluded many of their studies of Yucca and the Energy Department are now focused on obtaining a construction license for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But some scientists and contractors are still working at the site.

President Bush and Congress earlier this year approved Yucca as the best site for a permanent repository for the nation's high-level nuclear waste.