Court battle looms on Yucca water shutdown

Monday, Feb. 11, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State Engineer Hugh Ricci says he will probably have to go to court to shut down the wells being used by the federal government at the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.

If the U.S. Department of Energy continues to pump water after April 9, he said, he will issue a cease and desist order. And if that doesn't work, he will apply to the court for a restraining order.

But state workers won't be dispatched to cap the wells, he said.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis did not return repeated calls for comment on the order Ricci issued Feb. 7 that refuses to extend for another year the temporary state permit to use 438 acre feet a year at Yucca Mountain.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is expected to recommend Yucca Mountain be used to store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste as early as today.

The state has been pulling out all stops in an effort to derail Yucca Mountain. It has at least two lawsuits pending and more are promised, by Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Ricci, asked if he was pressured by Guinn to deny the extension of the temporary permit, said, "This was my decision." He said he's waiting to see what the federal government will do next.

The Energy Department and the state are already in a court battle over a permanent right to water for Yucca. The state in February 2000 refused to issue a permanent permit for the water to be used during construction and use of the repository.

The Energy Department sued, challenging the order. U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas ruled in favor of the state but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Hunt for further hearings.

The state engineer's office first issued a temporary water permit to study at Yucca Mountain in 1992. And it has renewed the water rights periodically to permit the studies on the suitability of the site to go forward.

But Ricci said the studies have apparently been finished and there is no need for further water authorized by the temporary permits. He quoted the Jan. 10 letter from Abraham to Guinn in which the energy secretary said the site characterization or studies have been completed.

"Thus, it is clear from DOE's own document that site characterization ends upon the secretary's decision to recommend the site," said Ricci in his letter to Scott Wade, team leader of the environment, safety and health office of project execution of the Energy Department in North Las Vegas.

Ricci said there "no longer exists a need for these permits beyond the expiration date of April 9, 2002."

A spokeswoman for Wade said all comments had to come from Davis in Washington D.C.