Hearing On Waste Dumping Delayed Indefinitely

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge on Monday again canceled a hearing on the state’s bid to block resumption of radioactive dumping in Idaho as Gov. Phil Batt prepared to make a major statement on the 7-year-old confrontation with the federal government.

Lodge agreed to the indefinite delay two hours before the hearing was scheduled after meeting with attorneys for both sides as he did last Thursday when he first postponed the hearing on assurances that an agreement on more waste storage was possible.

And about an hour later, Batt spokeswoman Amy Kleiner said the governor would have a “significant announcement” concerning the seemingly interminable negotiations with the Clinton administration.

The negotiations on resumption of nuclear waste shipments to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory have been running parallel to the state’s court challenge to the federal government’s contention that more radioactive material can be safely dumped on the eastern Idaho desert.

Monday’s events suggested that the state had finally gotten agreement to key provisions requiring waste shipments to halt immediately if the federal government fails to meet any of the waste processing or removal deadlines laid out in the agreement over the next 40 years.

Batt said last week that enforcing compliance with those interim deadlines was the final stumbling block to a deal that he could accept. His original proposal to the federal government included 26 deadlines or performance requirements to be met throughout the life of the deal - most during its first 10 years.

After being restricted to just 27 shipments of highly radioactive waste to the INEL since mid1993, the federal government completed an environmental analysis this spring that concluded it could safely store another 1,940 shipments - 161 tons - of highly radioactive waste over the next four decades.

The state has claimed that analysis was faulty and has asked Lodge to order a new one that complies with the original June 1993 directive of the federal court.

Lodge continued the shipment ban until he reaches a decision on that claim.

But faced with the continued moratorium on shipments, the nuclear Navy began building support in Congress to override the court order, and that prompted Batt to see if he could get a deal that at least provided some benefit to the state.

He opened the bidding - with the support of former Gov. Cecil Andrus, who began the battle with the government over waste in October 1988 - by offering to accept about half the shipments the government originally wanted to send to the INEL, excluding nearly all commercial waste. But in return he demanded that the government remove all high-level waste - old and new - and half the low-level waste from Idaho by 2036.

After months of talks, Batt indicated last week that the fines would be lower than the $100,000 a day, adjusted for inflation, that would be assessed beginning Jan. 1, 2036, until all waste is removed.

And he said the number of shipments permitted over the 40-year-period would be over 1,000. He had proposed less than 970.