Envirocare, Dawn Fight For N-Waste Firms In Nasty Struggle For Lucrative Leftovers From Uranium Ore Milling

An Eastern Washington and a Utah company are beating up on each other while scrambling for multimillion-dollar government contracts to dispose of nuclear waste.

Both Dawn Mining Co. and Envirocare of Utah Inc. have hired well-connected people to argue their case - and dish dirt on their rival. That’s not unusual in the waste industry, with millions of dollars in disposal deals at stake.

Dawn’s consultants are eager to talk about the problems of competitor Envirocare, which recently was accused of bribing a Utah state regulator with cash, gold coins and a ski resort condominium.

Meanwhile, Envirocare has hired politically savvy Washington consultants to help derail Dawn’s plans for a rival uranium dump near Ford.

The two companies have the only licensed facilities in the U.S. to bury up to 82 million cubic feet of mildly contaminated uranium wastes from the Manhattan Project, the World War II atomic bomb program.

The wastes are leftovers from the milling of uranium ore, and are about 20 times less radioactive than the low-level waste accepted at Hanford’s disposal site.

Dawn wants to import up to 35 million cubic feet of these mill tailings to fill its huge tailings pit near Ford, while Envirocare is vying to import the same piles of uranium rubble to Clive, Utah, 75 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Their rivalry’s heated up in recent months.

Last December, Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani was accused in a Utah lawsuit of bribing Larry Anderson, director of the Utah Bureau of Radiation Control from 1983 to 1993.

Semnani secretly gave Anderson gifts totaling $600,000, including piles of $100 bills, gold coins and a Park City, Utah, condominium between 1987 and 1995, according to court documents. Utah law prohibits public officials from accepting more than $50 from people they regulate.

In an odd twist, Anderson first sued Semnani, complaining he wasn’t compensated enough and that Semnani owed him $5 million from their “verbal agreement.”

In a countersuit, Semnani admitted Envirocare paid up. But Anderson “extorted” the money and he paid out of fear Anderson would use his regulatory authority to hurt Envirocare, Semnani claimed.

Neither Semnani nor Anderson would comment on the bribery scandal. The lawsuits have triggered a federal criminal investigation.

The Envirocare flap may help Dawn get its first disposal contracts from the U.S. Department of Energy, said Jim Kneeland, a public relations specialist for Dawn.

“We expect DOE to be taking a hard look at Envirocare,” Kneeland said.

That’s already started.

In a Feb. 18 letter to Semnani, the Energy Department put Envirocare on notice that its legal problems may cost the company future government contracts.

The bribery allegations “cast doubt on Envirocare’s present responsibility to perform as a Government contractor,” said Richard Hopf, DOE deputy assistant secretary for procurement.

DOE has shipped 4 million cubic feet of mixed radioactive waste and uranium mill tailings to Envirocare’s facility and has been planning to ship approximately 2 million cubic feet more this year.

But Envirocare’s problems may not necessarily benefit Dawn, a DOE spokeswoman cautioned.

“We have no preferred disposal method yet for many of these (uranium) sites. That’s a long ways away,” said Jane Brady at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Dawn is hoping to obtain $15 million to $20 million in government contracts to haul the wastes to Ford and close its defunct uranium mill near the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Washington state granted Dawn a disposal permit in 1995. It expires on Jan. 31, 1999, and the company is feeling time pressure to secure the contracts.

It’s common for waste disposal firms to spend big bucks on lawyers, consultants and public relations.

That’s especially true where nuclear waste is involved. In an April 1993 memo, a former Washington state regulator told Gov. Mike Lowry that Dawn’s import deal would be a hard sell to Washington citizens.

“A major PR effort is required to bring this off,” said Terry Strong, the former head of the Department of Health’s radiation division.

Dawn has retained Kneeland, Gov. Booth Gardner’s former press secretary. His company, Pacific Public Relations, has circulated press reports from Utah on Envirocare’s legal problems.

Envirocare has hired its own Washington consultants to oppose Dawn’s import plan.

They’ve retained Sue Tupper of Tupper Public Affairs, who ran Seattle Mayor Norm Rice’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year.

Under subcontract to Tupper is Darlene Madenwald of The Orion Group of Seattle. Madenwald is the past president of the Washington Environmental Council, a coalition of more than 150 state environmental groups.

One WEC member is Dawn Watch, an Eastern Washington group that’s been fighting the Dawn project for years.

Kneeland complains that Envirocare’s consultants are actively trying to block Dawn’s efforts to get DOE contracts. “It’s verging on tortious interference,” he said.

Madenwald scoffs at that.

Dawn’s consultants “are raising these red flags (about Envirocare), hoping someone will run with the story,” Madenwald said.

“I am helping Envirocare identify people who have concerns about Dawn’s project. But I’ve been on record against the Dawn project for years,” she said.

The WEC “vehemently opposed” Lowry’s 1995 decision to grant Dawn the disposal contract, Madenwald said.

“Even if Envirocare wasn’t involved at all, this fight would go on because what Lowry did was bad public policy,” Madenwald said.

Owen Berio of Springdale, a longtime Dawn Watch activist, denies Dawn’s charges that Envirocare is funding Dawn Watch.

“I can assure you they’re not. I’ve spent thousands of my own dollars on this,” Berio said.

, DataTimes