October 1, 1999 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S11793 officials writing these letters will at visioned under the Low-Level Radio- again be without access to disposal ca- least have a chance to better under- active Waste Policy Act, signed by pacity for much of their low-level ra- stand the environment in which we President Jimmy Carter in 1980. That dioactive wastes.’’ Barnwell could de- live. They would live in our neighbor- legislation resulted from states lob- cide to close or curtail access as early hoods, and send their kids to school bying through the National Governors’ as 2000, and, at best, will only be open with ours. If you’re going to get fined, Association (NGA) to control and regu- until 2010. The Utah facility disposes of they’ll have to look us in the eye. late LLRW disposal. An NGA task wastes that are only slightly contami- There would be no more scary certified force, that included Governor Bill Clin- nated with radioactivity and thus is letters from distant bureaucrats in Se- ton of Arkansas and was chaired by not available for all storage. attle. Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona, In ten years states will be searching In the meantime, I’m inviting the recommended the states form special for storage as well as disposal. That Regional Administrator of the EPA to compacts to develop shared disposal fa- storage will be near every university, come and stand with me on Gravina Is- cilities. pharmaceutical company, hospital, re- land, across from Ketchikan, where 13 The GAO study, which I requested, search facility or nuclear power plant. feet of rain falls each year. As the rain states, ‘‘By the end of 1998, states, act- It may be down the street from you or from a driving rainstorm fills his wing- ing alone or in compacts, had collec- within your city limits. And we have tips and rivulets of water cascade down tively spent almost $600 million at- the Clinton administration to thank the hill into the Tongass Narrows, I’ll tempting to develop new disposal fa- for bringing the materials into our ask him to point out where the wet- cilities. However, none of these efforts communities like a quiet Trojan horse lands end and the uplands begin. I’ll have been successful. Only California instead of working with states to es- also ask him to describe the irreplace- successfully licensed a facility, but the tablish a secure waste facility. Let’s able environmental value of the federal government did not transfer to hope nothing ever opens the belly of muskeg that the EPA wants us to keep the state federal land on which the pro- the beast accidentally. undisturbed. If I’m not satisfied with posed site is located.’’ f his answers I’ll advise him to start Secretary of the Interior Bruce Bab- TAKEOVER OF THE FISHERIES IN looking at real estate in Alaska, and bitt stopped the California facility at ALASKA suggest he hold a garage sale in prepa- Ward Valley from ever becoming re- Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the ration for a move out of Seattle. Mean- ality. National environmental groups Secretary of the Interior today, under while, be afraid. Be very afraid. and Hollywood activists made Ward the authority of current law, has taken f Valley a rallying cry, claiming waste would seep through the desert to the over the management of fisheries in NUCLEAR TROJAN HORSE water table and into the Colorado my State of Alaska. Our State legisla- Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, River. They claimed to believe this de- ture has been trying to resolve this physicians use a specially engineered spite two complete environmental im- problem, along with the Governor and our delegation, for some time. Unfortu- radioactive molecule as sort of a nu- pact statements that found no signifi- nately, we were unable to resolve it clear Trojan horse in the battle against cant environmental impacts associated within the timeframe, so the Feds have pancreatic cancer. The molecule is ab- with a disposal facility at Ward Valley sorbed by the cancer cells and only by officially taken over beginning today. in the Mojave Desert. Secretary Bab- I have directed a letter to the Sec- the cancer cells. Once inside, the radi- bitt asked the National Academy of retary of Interior putting him on no- ation breaks up the DNA and kills the Science to convene an expert panel to tice that, as chairman of the com- tumor cell—another amazing tool in determine whether the Colorado River mittee of oversight, chairman of the the war on cancer. was threatened, and said he would Energy Committee, I will be con- The physicians, technicians and even abide by their conclusions. In May 1995, ducting a series of oversight hearings clean-up crews must carefully dispose the Academy scientists concluded that on the implementation of his regula- of the medium that stored the radio- the Colorado River was not at risk. tions to ensure there is a cooperative active molecule and other items that Yet, the property was never trans- effort and involvement of a public may have come in contact with the ra- ferred. process with the State of Alaska, De- dioactive materials. There are strict But the importance of this issue ex- partment of Fish and Game, and the procedures for disposing of such wastes tends well beyond the borders of the people of Alaska, as he promulgates his by hospitals, universities, power plants State of California or the borders of its regulations, to ensure we are not taken and research facilities. fellow compact members, Arizona, and advantage of by an overzealous effort But, in a way, that waste itself is a North and South Dakota, which by the Department of Interior to man- Trojan horse, sitting innocently in ga- thought they had a deal with the fed- date procedures only in the State of rages or closets in sites all over the eral government. The losers are all Alaska. country, waiting to be opened up and Americans who believe the President We are the only State in the Union released on the public by an act of ter- and the executive branch should uphold where the Federal Government has rorism or of nature like the recent federal law, not ignore it and obstruct taken over the management of fish and floods the East sustained, or the earth- it for the sake of campaign contribu- game. Many Alaskans are wondering quakes and wildfires more common to tions. just what statehood is all about if, in- the West coast. Most dangerous would The GAO states that several reasons deed, we are not given the authority to be fire which would put the radioactive are behind the rest of the states giving manage our fish and game. materials into smoke that could be up on siting new waste disposal facili- I will save that for another day. I breathed by anyone near the fire. ties. Public and political opposition is yield the floor. Why is this a problem? Because there cited as the strongest prohibiting fac- f are only three facilities in the entire tor. Another reason is that, for the country that safely can accept such time being, states have access to a dis- JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS low-level radioactive waste, LLRW: posal facility at Barnwell in South Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I said that is material contaminated as a re- Carolina, Richland in Washington Tuesday of last week that the series of sult of medical and scientific research, State and Envirocare in Utah. A very votes the Senate took that day, in nuclear power production, bio- positive reason cited is the reduction which we were unable to consider and technology and other industrial proc- in the volume of low-level waste that is vote on the nominations of Judge Rich- esses. In 1996, about 7,000 cubic meters being generated, with waste manage- ard Paez and Marsha Berzon, was un- of LLRW was produced in the nation. ment and treatment practices includ- precedented. I expressed my concern A study released by the General Ac- ing compaction and incineration. that the Senate not go so far off the counting Office at the end of Sep- However, the report cautions, ‘‘With- tracks of our precedents that we end up tember 1999, holds out little hope for in 10 years, waste generators in the 41 creating a problem, not just for this the construction of any new low-level states that do not have access to the administration, but for any future ad- radioactive waste disposal sites as en- Richland disposal facility may once ministration. VerDate Mar 15 2010 21:37 Nov 01, 2013 Jkt 081600 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\1999SENATE\S01OC9.REC S01OC9 mmaher on DSKCGSP4G1 with SOCIALSECURITY S11794 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE October 1, 1999 Today, we at least break out of the Judge Richard Paez has an extraor- Berzon, and nobody objects on the impasse of last week, and move forward dinary record. He was praised by Re- Democratic side of the aisle to them toward voting on all the judicial nomi- publicans and Democrats before our coming to a vote. We are prepared to nations before the Senate. Just so we committee. He was nominated January vote at any time, any moment, any understand where we are, I said last 25—not January 25 of this year, 1999; day. There are no holds on this side of week that Democrats were prepared to not January 25 of 1998; not January 25 the aisle. vote on all of the judicial nominations of 1997; but January 25 of 1996.