Nevada Remains Opposed to Conceding Yucca Water

Aug 27 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

A short-lived discussion between state and federal attorneys over using Nevada's water at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site probably will end today with the parties at loggerheads unless the Department of Energy adheres to the state's ultimatum to stop using its water for bore hole work.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said Thursday that DOE has continued to use Nevada's water to cool and lubricate drill bits for collecting rock core samples since discussions began Tuesday at the urging of U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt.

"It's bad faith on their part, and that's why we do not believe that we will come to any sort of an agreement," Cortez Masto said Thursday. Her comments came after a closed-door, roundtable discussion on Yucca Mountain issues with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and a host of state and local officials and anti-Yucca groups.

Hunt urged the parties to try to work things out while he weighs arguments from last week's hearing on an emergency motion by Department of Justice attorneys representing DOE. The motion seeks to block the state engineer's cease-and-desist order that says Nevada's water is being used for a purpose that's not in the state's interest.

At the court hearing, Hunt suggested that DOE stop the bore hole work while talks were underway but he didn't issue an order to that effect.

Marta Adams, Nevada's senior deputy attorney general, said from Carson City that federal attorneys were supposed to let her know today "whether they're willing to show good faith and stop using the water. We're saying we can't talk unless they stop using the water."

Cortez Masto said she is concerned that if Hunt doesn't make a decision soon and DOE doesn't stop using Nevada's water for collecting geotechnical samples at Yucca Mountain, then DOE might be able to finish gathering the data it needs for a license application. DOE officials have set a June 2008 deadline for applying for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a repository at the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The roundtable discussion at the Clark County Government Center between some of Nevada's leaders and Dorgan was behind closed doors. Reid said he didn't want the state's strategy on Yucca Mountain presented in a public forum because that could put Nevada at a disadvantage in future legal battles and federal actions on the planned nuclear waste site, he said.

Reid noted that the Yucca Mountain funding bill has not been completed but the appropriations subcommittee in June voted for a $50 million cut down to $444.5 million from what the Bush administration had sought for 2008.

"We'll see what happens," Reid said. "I have great confidence in Senator Dorgan, especially after becoming more versed on the subject that he won't be clamoring to give them a lot more money."

Dorgan, who chairs the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which controls the Yucca Mountain purse strings, said he is concerned that a repository won't be safe for human health and the risks posed by terrorists intercepting nuclear waste shipments will be amplified.

Dorgan said he is not a stranger to the Yucca Mountain issue and his votes in the past 10 years on it have sided with Nevada's senators.

"It's because I have expressed over a long period of time some reservations about these issues," he said.

Reid said he wanted Dorgan to know firsthand from concerned Nevadans how unfair the Yucca Mountain process has been during the past two decades.

"The Department of Energy, for lack of a better description, has cheated us for years now. And we want the world to know about this, and the first person we want to know about it is Senator Dorgan," Reid said.

Reid's office last week used similar language when addressing a potential compromise over the water issue. A Reid spokesman said the DOE was "stealing" the state's water and that there was no logic in Nevada wanting to compromise.

Later Thursday, Reid indicated Nevada's strategy for defeating the Yucca Mountain Project will become more clear as President Bush's term expires.

"Quite frankly, we're waiting until Bush is out of office. Once he's gone, we're in really good shape," Reid said.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., had been invited to participate in the closed-door meeting but was unavailable, Reid's spokesman Jon Summers said.

Gov. Jim Gibbons spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin, said to her knowledge the governor wasn't invited although Reid said Gibbons was represented on the panel by Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux and the attorney general.

A statement from Subbotin says Gibbons "commends any and all efforts to stop the Yucca Mountain project." She said the governor, when he was a congressman, and Reid have always agreed to work together "to put a halt to this project."