Nuclear Waste Initiative Targeted

Nuclear Waste Initiative Targeted; Challenge Contends Federal Laws Prevail Over State Rules

Dec 08 - Spokesman Review

The Bush administration is challenging Initiative 297, a ban on additional nuclear waste imports to Hanford that was approved by 69 percent of Washington state voters on Nov. 2.

"We are challenging the entire initiative as unconstitutional," said Blain K. Rethmeier, Department of Justice spokesman in Washington, D.C. In a brief filed Wednesday, the Justice Department says federal law governing nuclear waste shipments should prevail over state law and asserts "sovereign immunity" over the waste generated by weapons production.

"If it is not invalidated, I-297 will have profound long-term effects" on the U.S. Department of Energy's national nuclear waste cleanup program and on Hanford's $2 billion annual cleanup budget, the brief asserts.

Washington state will oppose the Justice Department's request for a temporary restraining order against the initiative today in U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald's Yakima courtroom, said David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for the Washington Department of Ecology.

Initiative I-297 bars the Energy Department from bringing more radioactive waste to Hanford until the government cleans up the massive contamination that's already there - a legacy of decades of plutonium production.

On Tuesday, as I-297 was officially certified by Secretary of State Sam Reed and signed into law by Gov. Gary Locke, the environmental groups that sponsored it learned that the federal government was moving to block the measure. Under state law, initiatives take effect 30 days after a general election - in this case, today.

The Bush administration is trying to thwart the will of Washington voters, said one of I-297's sponsors.

"This is a brazen attempt by the federal government to stop the state of Washington from doing what Washington voters want - to protect our health and the Columbia River," said Gerald Pollet of Heart of America Northwest, a Seattle group that helped write the initiative.

A total of 1,812,581 people voted for I-297 - more "yes" votes than any other initiative in state history.

In a recent environmental impact statement, the Energy Department signaled that it intends to ship significant quantities of radioactive waste from other nuclear weapons sites to Hanford for burial in a huge new trench. Hanford officials have said that the most dangerous wastes will eventually be shipped out of state to a national nuclear waste repository.

In May 2003, lawyers for Washington state obtained a preliminary injunction from Judge McDonald stopping the Energy Department from shipping more plutonium-contaminated wastes to Hanford. The state has since amended its complaint to challenge the government's decision to import additional low-level and mixed wastes. The Energy Department has agreed not to ship any new waste to Hanford until McDonald's ruling, expected in February.

All the Hanford waste importation issues should be consolidated in McDonald's court, the Justice Department argues in the new motion filed Wednesday.

"We are confident the initiative will withstand any legal challenges," said Tom Carpenter, attorney for the Government Accountability Project, another group that helped draft I-297.

Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at 459-5462 or by e-mail at karend@spokesman.com

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