Panel eyes funds for Yucca study

Stephen Curran

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

A panel formed as a liaison among three rural Nevada counties and the Energy Department is seeking $330,000 to conduct further studies of a proposed rail line from Caliente to a planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

The Central Nevada Community Protection Working Group, a panel that includes members of the Caliente City Council and Nye, Esmeralda and Lincoln county commissions, would also use the cash to survey folks who live near the proposed rail line as well as to gauge the route's economic development prospects.

The proposal had its first public hearing Thursday before the Nye County Commission, which opted to postpone a vote until it could ask a lawyer whether the money could go directly to the group or should be funneled through the various commissions.

The group was formed in January, after the Energy Department designated a preferred rail line through the affected counties, make recommendations "on policy, impact mitigation and infrastructure." The governments represented in the group have talked about negotiating with the DOE to receive benefits from the proposed Yucca Mountain project.

The three-county working group is the subject of state Attorney General inquiry after a complaint was filed Wednesday by the Nevada Press Association alleging the group illegally barred members of the public and the local press.

The path to the proposed nuclear dump site has become a wedge issue for many in the rural counties.

Some see the rail corridor as inevitable and back the project.

Others, including several ranchers, virulently oppose the stretch of railroad planned to carry 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.

"There are more who don't want it but they've resigned themselves to, 'It's going to happen so let's get something from it,"' said Lincoln County Commissioner Tommy Rowe, a member of the working group, who likened the proposed rail corridor to the Alaska Oil Pipeline.

At this point Rowe believes more residents are looking for benefits from the railroad corridor, although a vocal contingent of "radicals" are trying to stop the project. However, as with the oil pipeline, residents in Rowe's district have raised concerns about adequate grazing land for cattle, he said.

The group's federal funding, if approved, would provide the working group $150,000 to hire consultants to survey landowners and users near the proposed corridor; $80,000 to collect data on economic development opportunities along the rail line; and $100,000 to coordinate tasks and to provide a "vision" report, according to the Nye County Commission's agenda.

"We're trying to get feedback based on concern from our constituent groups," Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell said of the plan to poll rural residents. "We are working with (the Department of Energy) to make it as mutually beneficial as possible."

The vote is scheduled for May 4 at the next Nye County Commission meeting in Tonopah, Trummell said.

The surveys would help working group members create a plan to address concerns of ranchers and those living along the proposed 318-mile route as well as serve as a litmus test of public opinion, Trummell said.

"There will be an opportunity to tweak the corridor," Trummell said of possible changes to the railroad's proposed path.

The decision to reschedule the vote was made during a 20-minute teleconference between commissioners in Pahrump and those meeting in Tonopah. Henry Neth, chairman of the Nye County Commission, participated in the meeting from Denver.

Rowe still holds mixed feelings about the project, he said.

"I'm against (the Yucca Mountain project) but I feel it's inevitable and I've got to look out for the residents of Lincoln County to get whatever we can," Rowe said.

The proposed studies are part of a long-standing "prescribed program" by the DOE to drum up support for the proposed rail corridor, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Office of Nuclear Projects, an arm of the governor's office formed to oppose the project.

"It's part of an agenda to make everyone feel like the project is inevitable," Loux said. "Once (the DOE does) that they know we can't stop the project."

In addition, several consultants contracted to work with the counties have received money from the Nuclear Energy Institute, a lobbying arm of the nuclear power industry. Robison-Seidler, a firm hired by Lincoln County, has received $250,000 from the institute, he said.

"Some of the (working group members) don't have the long history of looking and understanding how DOE does business" that the state does, Loux said. "But if you accept inevitability, you're not in a position to oppose DOE. There's no way you can be an independent evaluator if you're there sucking at the trough."

Consultant Ace Robison, a partner in Robison-Seidler, acknowledged that his firm advises the NEI on "issues relating to Nevada and Nevada issues relating to Yucca Mountain."

He disputed Loux's claims that representing the agency presented a conflict of interest, but did say his clients see the project as inevitable.

"Lincoln County has considered it, as has Esmeralda County and others that we advise, and have concluded there is not a conflict," Robison said. "The fact is that the presumption on the part of our clients is that Yucca Mountain is likely to happen, that it's inevitable."

Rowe said he knew of the NEI but was unsure of its purpose.

As a fourth-generation Nevadan, Robison said he represents his home state's best interests first.

"The Civil War was fought over a hundred years ago for states' rights and the courts haven't come down for states' rights since," he said. "So as a Nevadan, I look at this and say, 'What's in the best interest of our community?' Not because they like what the federal government is doing to them but the fact of the matter remains that they have a responsibility now to do what they perceive as (being in the) best interest of their communities."