Ward Valley Update

NEEDLES, CA -- It may be that a 1,000-acre patch of the Mojave Desert in Ward Valley, CA is safe from the ravages of radioactive waste. For 16 years it's been the subject of heated protests and warnings, and recently a long and peaceful encampment. Putting a low-level nuclear waste dump in Ward Valley could harm wildlife and contaminate the Colorado River, water source for over 20 million people.

California had to purchase the land from the Bureau of Land Management before construction could begin, but the federal government denied the sale of the land.

Governor Gray Davis appointed a panel to seek an alternative site, but nuclear waste generators on the board outnumber representatives of environmental and tribal groups by three to one. The Ward Valley Coalition and Colorado River Indian Tribes were out in force Wed. Nov. 17 at UCLA at the first meeting of Gov. Davis' advisory committee on radioactive waste options. Opponents relentlessly attacked the chair of the committee, University of California Pres. Richard Atkinson for his conflict of interest in having received nearly half a million dollars for sitting on the board, until 1998, of San Diego Gas and Electric, one of two owners of San Onofre nuclear power plant.

California formed a compact with Arizona and North and South Dakota, and is now legally bound to take the group's first batch of "low-level" waste. Once a dump opponent, Davis has refused to take a stand on the issue since being elected.

*-- Save Ward Valley, Oct. 28,1999.