Lawmaker Wants Voters To Decide N-Waste Issue

A Democratic state senator from Ketchum wants lawmakers to give Idaho voters a chance to affirm or reject Republican Gov. Phil Batt’s nuclear waste agreement with the federal government.

But GOP leaders say they will use their legislative majority to block Sen. Clint Stennett’s proposal.

Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs says the nuclear waste issue is on his taboo list. Like abortion and gay rights, nuclear waste shipments involve federal decisions that state lawmakers cannot control, the Blackfoot Republican said.

Meanwhile, state records show that a Boise law firm will have been paid $194,000 for its work in conjunction with Batt’s 10 months of courthouse wrangling and backroom negotiations that resulted in the Oct. 16 deal that trades resumption of nuclear dumping at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory for promises most radioactive waste will eventually be removed.

The payments to Elam & Burke, marked the first time state officials drew on the $1 million constitutional defense fund established last winter to finance legal confrontations with the federal government.

Elam & Burke billed the state for 1,656 hours at $100 an hour, $26,300 in expenses that included negotiating sessions in Chicago, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., and $7,300 for consultants.

Stennett’s plan could force Republicans to take potentially unpopular votes or embarrass their own governor. Some opinion polls show almost 90 percent of Idaho residents oppose shipping more to Idaho.

“If this bill has substance - other than someone’s perception of political value - I’d take another look at it,” Twiggs said. “But you’ve got to convince me this bill has some substance other than political value to the Democratic Party.”

Stennett insists he is not playing politics, although it is unclear whether state lawmakers have the authority to do what he wants. Besides authorizing a plebiscite, Stennett wants legislators to:

Give the Idaho Transportation Board authority to regulate nuclear waste shipments, issue permits, conduct inspections of shipments and disclose shipment schedules to state and local law enforcement officers.

Empower the Division of Environmental Quality to set air and water quality standards for nuclear waste storage. Stennett says the measure would essentially allow the state to block waste storage.

Batt’s agreement is still caught up in a Snake River Alliance court challenge to the safety of resumed dumping, and the governor has argued that if shipments are halted, all actions to clean up and remove waste already at the INEL will halt as well.

Stennett has asked for an attorney general’s review of his plan. If it turns out lawmakers cannot put the nuclear waste shipment to voters on the Nov. 5, 1996, ballot, Stennett said he will launch an initiative campaign. He would need to gather 41,335 signatures by July 5.

Batt’s Oct. 16 deal allows the federal government to send another 1,113 shipments of radioactive waste to the INEL. The state won such concessions as a court-enforced requirement that most waste be removed from Idaho by 2035. But critics say the deal is filled with loopholes that will leave the waste in Idaho indefinitely.

Much of the opposition to Batt’s plan is centered in the Magic Valley. But one Magic Valley Republican who built a reputation as an INEL critic says he is comfortable with the governor’s agreement.

Rep. Mark Stubbs of Twin Falls also said he is skeptical whether state lawmakers can impose many restrictions on the federal government and doubts Democrats will make much headway against nuclear waste.