Legislature Takes Stand On Waste

More than six years after the battle was joined over nuclear waste storage, the Republican-dominated Legislature on Tuesday finally took a formal stand against using Idaho as the nation’s radioactive waste dump.

“It will put the Navy on notice and the federal government that they’re not going to ship that stuff to us without some input from us on its final disposition,” Republican Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs of Blackfoot declared.

Twiggs emphasized the nonbinding resolution bolstered the stand against further waste shipments to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory taken by Republican Gov. Phil Batt, who had a rocky and much-criticized opening bout with the government on the issue.

Batt was roundly lambasted for refusing to wage what he said would be a losing fight in the second week of his administration against eight additional Navy waste shipments that his predecessor, retired Democrat Cecil Andrus, essentially agreed to in 1993.

Since then, the new governor has admitted poor political judgment on the issue and has stepped up his rhetoric.