- LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada
made good Wednesday on a promise to shut off water to the site of the proposed
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, but the federal project won't run dry.
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- The Energy Department is using a newly built 1 million-gallon
tank and one small well for the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
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- Department officials said the stored water, plus 400,000
gallons stored in other tanks at the Nevada Test Site, should last several
months while scientists continue experiments and design work at the site.
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- "We have a small window until this water issue begins
to impede our ongoing scientific work," said Joe Davis, spokesman
for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in Washington.
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- Stopping the water was Nevada's latest tactic in its
efforts to prevent the federal government from storing nuclear waste at
the site. The state has filed three lawsuits to block the storage.
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- Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci banned the Energy Department
from drawing water from all but one well after a temporary permit expired
at midnight Tuesday.
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- The state had also shut off water to the arid desert
site in February 2000, but the federal government sued and the water kept
flowing. Yucca Mountain averages less than 7 inches of precipitation a
year.
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- The case is pending before U.S. District Judge Roger
Hunt in Las Vegas. He heard last month from a Justice Department lawyer
who said the Yucca Mountain project would be in "dire need of water"
if Ricci denied the permits.
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- Ricci said the federal government was allowed water from
one well because documents filed Monday asserted the water was being put
to "beneficial use." The well provides up to 750,000 gallons
a year.
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- That amount is less than 1 percent of the 140 million
gallons a year the Energy Department has requested, Ricci noted.
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- Also Wednesday, state lawmakers approved using up to
$3 million in emergency funds to lobby against the waste dump. The funds
must be matched by public or private sources before they can be used.
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- In pressing for the fund, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Nevadans
are "in a fight for our lives." He said the nuclear power industry
has more than $100 million to lobby in support of the waste site.
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- Copyright (c) 2002, The Associated Press
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- http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-yucca-mountain0411apr10.sto
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