Public Hearing Transcripts from Santa Fe, NM (January 9, 1998) (PDF)
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1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 PUBLIC COMMENTS REGARDING EPA'S PROPOSED RULE ON 11 WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PROJECT 12 13 14 JANUARY 9, 1998 15 SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 EPA PANEL: RICHARD D. WILSON LARRY WEINSTOCK 24 FRANK MARCINOWSKI MARY KRUGER 25 KEITH MATTHEWS SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 2 1 LIST OF TESTIFIERS 2 1. George Dials 8 3 2. Leif Eriksson 15 4 3. Jim Channell 20 5 4. Dr. Erica Elliot 26 6 5. Mel Marietta 29 7 6. Myla Reson 33 8 7. Arthur Fields 39 9 8. Margret Carde 42 10 9. Kevin Donovan 49 11 10. Bonney Wittington 55 12 11. Robin James 58 13 12. Rhonda McNeil 62 14 13. Lucienda Lynch 63 15 14. Lovato Anhara 67 16 15. Charles Fairhurst 74 17 16. Dr. Sanford Clarke 77 18 17. Jean Altshuler 79 19 18. Shannyn Sollitt 83 20 19. L. Silva 88 21 20. Virginia Miller 94 22 21. Lety Seibel 96 23 22. Tom Seibel 101 24 23. Edgar Stein 103 25 24. Norbert Rempe 106 SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 3 1 25. Joe Archer 111 2 26. Eduardo Zaragoza 114 3 27. Lilly Zaragoza 117 4 28. Nova Priest 118 5 29. Margaret Ann Hesch 119 6 30. Rick Lass 123 7 31. Peggy Prince 126 8 32. Barbara Stevens 129 9 33. Nancy Park 133 10 34. Howard Vasquez 136 11 35. Dave Bachon 139 12 36. Al Elder 142 13 37. Louise Balm 143 14 38. Peggy Coyne 145 15 39. Linda Pedro 148 16 40. Kirk Larson 150 17 41. Ray Stevens 154 18 42. Robert S. Light 156 19 43. Ann Dasburg 163 20 44. Ike DeVargas 164 21 45. Lucy Cutter 165 22 46. Judy Goldberg 167 23 47. Corrine Sanchez 169 24 48. John Watters 178 25 49. John Beasley 180 SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 4 1 50. Ernie Carlson 183 2 51. Bob Murray 185 3 52. Marian Naranjo 187 4 53. Mark Lee 191 5 54. Karrey Prince 195 6 55. Bill Whiting 196 7 56. Bob Yearout 200 8 57. Lauren McClenegan 206 9 58. Mary Lou Cook 211 10 59. Richard Fabrick 213 11 60. Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips 218 12 61. Bill St. John 225 13 62. Bob Forrest 226 14 63. Richard Doss 230 15 64. Jack White 231 16 65. Terry Marshall 233 17 66. Michael Boniuto 236 18 67. Beverly Garcia 239 19 68. Harriet Elkington 242 20 69. Gilbert Sanchez 244 21 70. Daniel Shrep 254 22 71. Bryan Howard 259 23 72. Amy McKay 262 24 73. Billie Jenkins 263 25 74. Henry Castaneda 265 SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 5 1 75. Greg Brown 267 2 76. Rachel Darnell 268 3 77. Joan Hargrave 269 4 78. Lewis Hargrave 271 5 79. Christi Bouseau 271 6 80. Ruth Stogstad 273 7 81. Harrison Minor 274 8 82. Debbie Benjamin 277 9 83. Bernice Boyd 279 10 84. Richard Balicci 282 11 85. John Hoag 284 12 86. James Hotch 286 13 87. Joe Sharpe 288 14 88. Jonathan Sharpe 290 15 89. Elliott Skinner 292 16 90. WIPPy the Clown 299 17 91. Lyndia Rollins 301 18 92. Gloria Barnes 304 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 6 1 MORNING SESSION 2 SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 3 PRESIDING OFFICER: Good morning. My name is Dick 4 Wilson from the Environmental Protection Agency. Welcome to 5 the final day of DOE's application to operate the WIPP site 6 near Carlsbad. 7 For those of you who weren't here yesterday or at 8 one of our other hearings, I'll just spend a second on how 9 we're working the hearings. They are informal hearings so 10 people aren't sworn in or cross-examined or anything like 11 that. 12 We're just here to hear your views, so people can 13 come up to the microphone when you're called and individuals 14 have five minutes and if you're representing a group you have 15 ten minutes to present your views. 16 I would ask that you hold your statement to that 17 amount of time so that we can hear everybody who wants to 18 come in and make a statement to us. 19 We do have a little timer that will help you know 20 where you're at in your time. It starts green, and when you 21 have two or three minutes left it will turn yellow, and when 22 your time is up it will turn red. And if it gets too much 23 longer after it turns red, I'll ask you to wrap up your 24 statement. 25 Speaking at the hearing is only one way for people SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 7 1 to give us their comments. We have a formal hearing record. 2 Obviously all the comments made here at the hearing will be 3 part of that record. We're making a transcript of the 4 hearing, and the transcript will be available in two or three 5 weeks, and locations where it will be available I think are 6 on information brochures outside at the table. 7 If anybody is here and wants to testify and hasn't 8 let us know. If you'd check in outside the room at the 9 table, we'll add you to the list. 10 The hearing record is open until the 27th of 11 February, so if anybody has additional materials, if you have 12 them today, we'll make them part of the record. If you want 13 to submit them later, we'll make them part of the record. 14 If you have comments on what you've heard at the 15 hearing, what other people have said, we'd welcome those too. 16 So there's lots of ways for you to get your views to us. 17 We'll read every one of the comments we get and consider them 18 before we make a final decision on this issue. 19 I forgot to introduce everybody on the panel. To 20 my left is Larry Weinstock and Frank Marcinowski. To my left 21 is Mary Kruger and Keith Matthews. We're all with the 22 Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C., and we 23 appreciate the opportunity to spend the week here and get 24 your views on this issue. 25 With that I'll start the first witness this SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 8 1 morning. We have a schedule running through about a little 2 before 6:00. We already have a waiting list it looks like 15 3 people that we'll do after we get to the end of the people 4 who were scheduled. 5 We'll probably -- we're scheduled for a two-hour 6 lunch break today. I think we'll probably turn that into 7 about an hour lunch break today and try and get some of the 8 other people in. 9 So we'll do everything we can to get everybody in 10 who is here and would like to make a statement. 11 The first witness this morning is George Dials. 12 GEORGE DIALS: Good morning. It's a pleasure to be 13 here to present testimony before the Environmental Protection 14 Agency on the proposed certification of Waste Isolation Pilot 15 Plant. 16 I'm George Dials and I'm the manager of the 17 Carlsbad Area Office which was created in December 1993, for 18 the express purpose of establishing an accelerated 19 compliance program for rebaselining the science program and 20 opening and operating the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for the 21 permanent disposal of transuranic waste. 22 I state that because I come with a bias, an honest 23 bias resulting from more than 25 years of work on the nuclear 24 waste issue. My thesis at MIT was on nuclear waste disposal. 25 As a research associate as Los Alamos Laboratory in the early SANTA FE DEPOSITION SERVICE - (505) 983-4643 JANUARY 9, 1998 - SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 9 1 70's, I was pleased to be selected to be on a Governor's Task 2 Force that helped define the nuclear policy and nuclear waste 3 policy for the state of New Mexico. 4 It resulted in, among other things, in the 5 establishment of the Environmental Evaluation Group. So I've 6 been looking at this issue for a very long time. 7 The problem is quite simple actually in its 8 context. Through the cold war, after World War II, we 9 continued our weapons development programs at the nuclear 10 weapons manufacturing facilities that encompass much of the 11 United States actually. We had facilities in more than half 12 of the states. 13 Many of those facilities still exist. In our 14 efforts we created lots of waste materials. Much of it is 15 contaminated with radioactive materials.