Hearings open on nuke waste water

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state attorney general's office said today allowing underground water to be used in the development and operation of a high-level nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain will "drastically undermine future beneficial uses of water" in Nevada.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams told state Engineer Huge Ricci this morning, as hearings on permanent water rights for the project began, that he should consider evidence that wastewater from Yucca would contaminate the underground supply in the Amargosa Valley. That is detrimental to the public interest, he said.

But Brent Kolvet, a lawyer for the U.S. Energy Department, said the issue is limited to whether there is enough water available for Yucca Mountain and if the pumping of that water will affect other water users.

Kolvet said the state has already conceded there is enough water for the project. He said other evidence of possible contamination should not be considered by Ricci. That is the jurisdiction of other agencies, he said.

The hearing started with Adams presenting her case, asking Ricci to reject the application for 430 acre feet of water a year sought by the Energy Department.

Hearing officer Susan Joseph Taylor, who is conducting the proceeding, criticized both sides for their pre-hearing briefs. She said they both failed to address the question of what's in the public interest.

She called the arguments "shallow" and said the briefs failed to say whether the state engineer must "consider everything under the planet" when ruling on an application.

She asked, "Is the state engineer supposed to be an expert on all things?"

The hearing is expected to last two days and a decision probably won't be made for several months.

The state Engineer's Office already denied the application once. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision.