Money OK’d for Yucca rail study

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, May 4, 2004 | 10:08 a.m.

The Lincoln County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a plan to disperse $255,000 from the Energy Department for a three-county board to study a proposed rail corridor to Yucca Mountain.

The Central Nevada Community Protection Working Group at its April 21 meeting recommended the funds for Caliente along with the counties of Nye, Lincoln and Esmeralda to gather information about the proposed 318-mile railroad. That meeting, which was closed to the public and the press, is currently the subject of an attorney general's inquiry.

The decision also stipulates that, because all Energy Department funds are funneled through the Nye County Commission, the two counties sign a contract to ensure the money reaches Lincoln County in a timely manner, said Lincoln County Commissioner Tommy Rowe.

The Energy Department already has an agreement with Nye County, in which Yucca Mountain is located, to receive the funds.

"It came about because Nye is the site location," Rowe said. "(The Energy Department) wanted to work with one group, not four (Caliente and the three counties)."

Nye and Esmeralda counties and the town of Caliente have yet to OK the plans of the three-county working group for Energy Department-funded studies of their jurisdictions.

The Lincoln County study is planned to consist of three separate tasks, used to gauge resident opinion about the route, which would snake 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste through large plots of privately and federally owned land. Also planned is a study to examine possible economic development for the route.

Such a contract would help each municipality receive its share of the benefits from the proposed project, said Spencer Hafen, chairman of the Lincoln County Commission.

Rowe said the agreement would be the first of its kind among the counties.

The proposed corridor has angered some ranchers along the route, who see such moves as attempts by the federal government to carve up hundreds of miles of prime grazing land.

Strains on the rural county's infrastructure are among the top concerns for county leaders because workers and their families would move to the area, Hafen said.

"We need to gather as much information as possible so we know the impact, good or bad," he said during the meeting at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Pioche.

The Yucca Mountain project, which could bring a financial windfall for the economically depressed counties, has created a rift between rural Nevada counties and larger, more economically diverse Clark and Washoe counties.

The proposed nuclear waste dump may also be responsible for a rift in the state Republican party.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, Nevada's top Republican office-holder, replied at the convention that he thought it would be a mistake for the state to negotiate for benefits with the federal government.