Copyright 1999 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
FEBRUARY 10, 1999, WEDNESDAY
SECTION: IN THE NEWS
LENGTH:
1579 words
HEADLINE: PREPARED TESTIMONY OF
KEVIN
PHILLIPS
BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY
AND POWER
BODY:
Mr. Chairman, my name is Kevin
Phillips. I am mayor of the City of Caliente, Nevada. Thank you for inviting me
to share a Nevada local government perspective on the Yucca
Mountain project and key aspects of HR 45. The positions, which have
been adopted by Lincoln County and the City of Caliente, have not always
appeared politically correct, especially in my home State of Nevada. My fellow
local elected officials and I have for some time been convinced that despite the
best efforts of the State of Nevada, Yucca Mountain would
succumb to the will of the Nation and become the final resting-place for spent
nuclear and high-level radioactive waste. Given this likelihood, the leadership
of Lincoln County and the City of Caliente has sought for the past several years
to understand and minimize waste management system risks and to understand and
maximize potential waste management economic benefits. Lincoln County voters
have, on two occasions now, confirmed to my fellow local elected officials and
me that we are approaching the nuclear waste issues in a prudent and responsible
manner.
Lincoln County is one of ten units of local government which have
been designated by the Secretary of Energy as "affected" pursuant to the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act, as amended.
What was identified in the 1986 Yucca
Mountain environmental assessment remains true today: Lincoln County
and the City of Caliente are likely to serve as the gateway for most shipments
of high-level radioactive waste entering Nevada which are destined for storage
and disposal at the Nevada Test Site. More recently, it has become evident that
mutual interests of the State of Nevada and DOE to minimize risks to a majority
of Nevada's residents and the economy of southern Nevada will likely shift said
risks to residents and businesses of Lincoln and other rural counties. These
risk minimization objectives have been translated into proposed federal
legislation now pending before Congress. HR 45 would result in construction and
operation of a rail to truck intermodal transfer facility within the City of
Caliente. The bill would also result in heavy-haul transport through the County
until such time as a rail line across Lincoln County were constructed to provide
direct rail access to the Yucca Mountain site.
For the past
twelve years, Lincoln County and the City of Caliente have conducted a joint
repository oversight and impact alleviation- planning program. During this
period, the eight-member Joint City/County Impact Alleviation Committee has
diligently sought to provide guidance to local repository programs. The
Committee, representing both geographic and disciplinary diversity, has met no
less than 70 times and has invested over 1,200 hours of largely volunteer labor
to understand the implications of the Nation's nuclear waste management program
to the County and City. Utilizing funding provided by DOE, the Committee has
overseen the preparation of over 50 reports documenting repository system
outcomes for Lincoln County and the City of Caliente. Topics addressed within
these studies include emergency response, ethnography, transportation routing,
economic/demographic impact assessment, media amplification of risks, community
development, transportation risk assessment, risk communication, tourism impact
assessment, fiscal impact assessment, and risk perception, among others. The
numerous research activities sponsored by the County and City of Caliente have
utilized teams of highly trained and competent researchers representing both
academic and private entities. The results of these studies have been widely
communicated to residents throughout Lincoln County and in other areas of
Nevada. Lincoln County and the City of Caliente have utilized this extensive
information base in formulating and defending positions taken with regard to the
Yucca Mountain repository program to date.
With this
thorough understanding of the Yucca Mountain project as
background, Lincoln County and the City of Caliente have initiated a review of
the Viability Assessment. In my opinion, the Assessment appears to assert the
likely suitability of Yucca Mountain as a licensable repository
site. The Viability Assessment confirms the County and City contention of the
likelihood that Yucca Mountain will be developed and operated
as a repository for nuclear waste. Our cursory review of the VA has reaffirmed
the wisdom of the County and City focus upon risk minimization and benefit
maximization activities. With regard to nuclear waste legislation pending before
this Committee, HR45 will require that the City of Caliente serve as host to
intermodal transfer and other spent nuclear fuel transport operations. The City
has responded to requests by this Committee to ensure that HR 45 related risks
are minimized and benefits maximized. Inclusion by this Committee of City
suggested provisions would result in a radioactive waste management system which
is sensitive to local issues. I regret however, that a comprehensive benefits
package for the State of Nevada remains a missing element to the bill. When
developed and fully operational, the Yucca Mountain project
will afford this Nation with nearly immeasurable benefits. In my opinion, Nevada
should be afforded a benefits package of extraordinary scale. Rather than being
made to feel as though they have been "screwed", Nevada residents should be
granted every sense that the Nation places great value on the service that the
State and its populous will render in solving the pressing nuclear waste
management issue. In addition to important and appropriate benefits included for
certain local governments, HR 45 should be amended to include a bold program of
benefits for the State of Nevada, perhaps focused at development of science and
technology related industry on and around the Nevada Test Site.
I would
encourage the Committee to add the following additional finding to Section 3 of
the bill: the State of Nevada, Lincoln County, the City of Caliente, and Nye
County are each performing a significant service to the United States in
resolving a critical national environmental problem for which the Nation is
indebted and for which equitable and just compensation for said service is fully
warranted;.
A new sub-section should be added to HR 45, Title I, Section 101
as follows:
OBLIGATIONS OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.
(a) The Secretary
of Defense shall provide a safe secure corridor across the Nellis Range from
Lincoln County through Gate 700 onto the Nevada Test Site, for the
transportation by rail or truck of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level
radioactive waste.
Section 201 of the bill should be amended to remove the
requirement that the Secretary of Energy utilize only heavy-haul transportation.
Such a requirement may pose unnecessary congestion and vehicular conflicts upon
Nevada's highways. Because the State of Nevada might be compelled to permit each
and every heavy-haul shipment, use of such vehicles might pose an unnecessary
burden upon the State. Further, emphasis upon heavy-haul fails to recognize that
innumerable shipments of spent nuclear fuel have been successfully completed
using existing legal weight cask technology.
Section 201 (h) of the bill
should be revised to include training and equipping of local emergency first
responders and hospital staff in the City of Caliente. Section 203 of the bill
should be amended to include a requirement that the Secretary of Energy use
results of the DOE's Motor Carrier Evaluation Program as one factor in selecting
transporters of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste.
Lincoln County and the City of Caliente believe that effective risk minimization
is only possible when DOE utilizes the best of the best motor carriers. In
addition, the Secretary should be required to ensure that selected motor
carriers have in place effective driver and operations team training and quality
assurance programs.
HR 45 should include an amendment to Section 114 of the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which would require inclusion of the comments of
affected units of local government, in any site recommendation report submitted
by the Secretary to the President.
Let me close by encouraging the Committee
to recall what I and my fellow local elected officials have been through these
past few years. As a result of our belief that the Nation was committed to
disposal of spent nuclear in Nevada we adopted Joint Resolution 2-95 which
provided specific recommendations to the Secretary of Energy. In response to our
passage of the resolution, the Nevada Attorney General filed a lawsuit to remove
the entire Caliente City Council and two Lincoln County Commissioners from
office. After being censored by the Nevada Legislature and facing a stiff legal
defense by the County and City, the Attorney General dropped her lawsuits. One
of the Commissioners whom the Attorney General sought to remove from office
subsequently survived a recall vote by an overwhelming margin.
My fellow
local elected representatives and I have paid a heavy financial and emotional
price to defend our fiduciary responsibility and right to work with the
Secretary of Energy and the Congress to ensure that as legislation such as HR 45
is considered, the public health, safety, and welfare of our residents is
protected and enhanced. I trust you will take seriously our recommendations for
further amendment of HR 45.
END
LOAD-DATE:
February 11, 1999 
