Survey: 62 percent have unfavorable view of Yucca

Stephen Curran

Thursday, July 28, 2005 | 10:50 a.m.

The proposed high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas could provide some unwanted relief for would-be homeowners stifled by rising housing costs, a Clark County-sponsored survey found.

Worried that the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain would send land and property values in Southern Nevada plummeting, almost half -- 43 percent -- of 600 people surveyed last month said the project would send what had been skyrocketing home prices into a slump.

Irene Navis, planning manager for the county's nuclear waste division, said residents believed that shipping the more than 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste would be akin to building a massive, environmentally hazardous landfill and manufacturing facility near their homes.

In the survey, more than 62 percent of respondents said the proposed nuclear waste dump would have a negative impact on the quality of life in Clark County, according to a summary of the statistics, which are expected to be presented to the County Commission next week.

The answers, she said, indicated that residents did not support negotiating for benefits from the Energy Department, although residents were not directly asked if they supported such a plan.

Leaders in the rural counties where most of the 319-mile rail line would travel have openly negotiated for a financial windfall from the project, saying it could help repair schools and other public facilities in the struggling areas.

"Based on how people answered, negotiating for benefits was not a priority," Navis told the Commission on Nuclear Waste on Monday.

A separate study of fewer than 70 people in rural Nevada is under way to "begin the process of developing and providing a list of impacts and needed mitigation."

Contractors performing the study on behalf of the Central Nevada Community Protection Working Group have said some rural respondents are concerned about losing property that in many cases has been in large families for generations.

The Lincoln and Nye county commissions have also signed formal resolutions supporting the process and launching efforts to negotiate for money they hope will revive those areas' lagging economies.

Hal Bloch, president of the Summerlin North Homeowners Association, the largest such group in the county, said the board rarely addresses matters of a statewide or national significance, instead focusing on the "nuts and bolts" of running the master-planned community.

Bloch said, while the homeowners association has not taken an official stance on the project, it was too early to say whether it would have an adverse effect on property values in the affluent community.

"I'm sure there are people who feel that way, but I wouldn't say it's a groundswell among the homeowners," he said. "I have heard some people who might be more excitable than the average person saying there might be an adverse effect."

In the mid-1990s the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, which represents more than 750 contractors, developers and real estate brokers, approved a resolution against the massive repository, saying it posed a "grave safety concern for the community."

Monica Caruso, a spokeswoman for the group, said property values might not be directly tied to the nuclear waste dump but that speculation among would-be newcomers could cause demand on previously hot properties to drop.

"Will it remain a viable, growing community if we have nuclear garbage stored in our attic?" she said. "... I think it's certainly reasonable to postulate that demand would likely decline among homeowners who would not be interested in living near nuclear waste."

Caruso added that such concerns are mostly "academic" as the safety risks of living so close to nuclear waste outweigh the economic threats.

But while most Las Vegas business and government leaders remain steadfastly opposed to Yucca Mountain, anti-Yucca activism appears to have lost traction among average citizens, Caruso said.

"I don't know if there's the emotion and passion among the average person that you see among the business and civic leaders," she said. "For the average person just living their life, I'm not sure they're that concerned."