Plea To City: Join County, Block Waste
Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers wants her colleagues to back the county’s request that Dawn Mining Co. not truck uranium-laced rubble through Spokane.
In February, commissioners asked the state to rescind Dawn’s license to ship tons of uranium wastes for burial in its defunct uranium-mill pit in Ford, Wash.
Rodgers plans to ask the council tonight to adopt a resolution supporting the commissioners’ action.
“I really agree that this shouldn’t be done. Anywhere,” she said.
Dawn plans to bring in up to 30 million cubic feet of slightly contaminated uranium wastes from Cold War disposal sites.
Under the plan, about 40 large trucks, each containing 60,000 pounds of uranium dirt, would travel each day from a Spokane rail yard to Ford. The trucks would run 260 days a year for five to seven years.
State Health Secretary Bruce Miyahara was in Spokane last week defending his decision to give the company the license.
Neither the city nor the county has any legal power to stop the shipments.
A briefing for the council begins at 3:30 p.m. in the lower-level briefing room of City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETING The council meets today at 6 p.m. at City Hall.