LAS VEGAS – The fight for Yucca Mountain is heating up. While Nevada officials gear up for a showdown with the federal government to argue state’s rights, tribal councils from across the nation are trying to figure out ways just to get their voices heard.
To flesh out ideas and draw up a game plan the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe and the Western Shoshone National Council hosted a forum Aug. 26 – 28 to unite southwestern tribes in an attempt to stop the arrival of the nuclear waste repository.
That same week, outside of Washington D.C., Nevada attorneys and anti-Yucca advisors were holed up inside a conference center preparing their case in the state’s numerous lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department.
Yucca Mountain is an issue that has many fired up and ready for a battle.
“We are in trying times in Indian country,” said Tom Goldtooth, speaking for the Indigenous Environmental Network at the forum. “You, here in this room, are the few who must stand up and say we don’t want a nuclear waste dump in our backyard. We must hold the U.S. government accountable to make sure it recognizes and honors its agreements with the tribes. The impact on our people, our health, our eco-system and our sovereignty is in jeopardy.”
That message was echoed by several of the more than one dozen speakers during day two of the information session. The previous afternoon the group, led by engineers from the Department of Energy, toured the Yucca Mountain site which is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Yucca Mountain was approved last year over the objections and veto of Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn when the Bush administration, running out of options, stamped the mountain as the site to bury 77,000 tons of the nation’s highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods and other toxic waste.
“The thing is we don’t have the technology or the answers to deal with waste disposal so you push it to a place like Nevada,” said engineer Dr. Jay Karmarkar, a forum participant, speaking on the government’s rationale for the project.
Now the controversy over nuclear waste disposal is nothing new but the selection of Yucca Mountain and the promise that rail and truck shipments will begin in 2010 has sped up the urgency for groups opposing the project, especially those living on the reservations.
Ian Zabarte, president of the Seventh Generation Fund and forum host, said the issue surfaced nearly two decades ago and from day one tribal officers were lied to and the concerns they’ve raised since have been largely ignored.
Zabarte claims the government began eyeing tribal lands as the perfect nuclear dumping grounds in the early 1980s, first by visiting potential sites under the guise of conducting a “cultural study” of the reservations. But in 1987, he said, their intentions were made clear when Congress officially created the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator to find a home for the toxic waste.
Shortly thereafter letters began arriving at the offices of every recognized tribe in the nation offering large sums of money to host the dump. As that search narrowed, resistance grew and several organizations including the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans and Honor the Earth were able to turn away that initial effort.
“I don’t believe we as a tribe need to save a nation,” said Margene Bullcreek, a Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians elder, fighting a plan to temporary store nuclear waste on her tribe’s reservation southwest of Salt Lake City. “This project has split our tribe and our families. Native Americans need to pull together to fight this invasion. They are making trash out of our reservations.”
So what can tribes do to fight Yucca Mountain?
Experts say the most power the tribes have is on route selection. Depending on what highways are picked for use in transporting the waste officials say as many as 36 tribes could be affected by shipments either crossing over or near their reservations. Resistance from tribes, they say, could re-route shipments.
“The most significant impediment to shipping is tribal authority, not the cities and states,” said Fred Dilger, a transportation advisor on Yucca Mountain for Clark County. “It will become a very serious issue nationwide and the tribes will lead the way.”
And with no existing direct rail access to Yucca Mountain a majority of the waste will be trucked in from nuclear power plants across the United States as part of what the Nuclear Information and Resource Service calls the “Mobile Chernobyl” plan. Over the life of the project it is estimated that nearly 109,000 truck shipments will arrive in Nevada for storage.
The DOE’s transportation plan isn’t expected to be unveiled until 2005 at the earliest.
“They want to hold off until the last possible day because they realize it will be ugly and it should be,” said Irene Navis, planning manager of Clark County’s Comprehensive Planning Department, Nuclear Waste Division.
Navis said concerns have also been raised about the safety of those shipments. The threat of terrorism and accidents is a real possibility that states, federal agencies and the tribes themselves must prepare for.
By their own conservative estimates, Navis said the DOE admits to the likelihood that at least 60 accidents will occur during the course of the transportation program. And a severe spill or accident could cost millions to clean up and cause serious health problems down the road.
Just to prepare for the shipments, Clark County officials say they’ll have to spend approximately $274 million to purchase specialized equipment and train emergency respondents in how to handle a nuclear incident.
“What happens if there are multiple accidents in a year? Who foots the bill? That will likely fall on the local taxpayers,” Navis said.
Yet the question remains. Is the country’s energy policy flawed and is there still a need for nuclear power when other alternatives exist?
Honor the Earth spokeswoman Winona LaDuke believes it is. She called the U.S. a “junkie for fossil fuels” saying the administration will violate human rights to push through their agenda. LaDuke said the country, especially the southwest, should become more dependent on solar and wind for its energy needs.
“The reservations have borne the brunt of bad energy policy,” said LaDuke, a member of the Objibwe Tribe in Minnesota. “The market for alternative energy is immense. Nuclear power is a heck of a way to boil water, like cutting butter with a chainsaw.”
As the battle moves into the court room, forum organizers urged tribal leaders to band together and get involved saying a united front will go a long way in stopping plans to build the dump on land some contend is still owned by the Western Shoshone under the Treaty of Ruby Valley.
“If we continue to fight on a daily basis we will win. I believe there will never be nuclear waste stored in Yucca Mountain,” U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. told forum participants in a spirited speech. But she is the first to admit it won’t be easy. “It’s 49 states against Nevada.”