Federal judge says U.S. Dept. of Energy must stop drilling at nuke dump site in Nevada

September 2007

U.S. Water News Online

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada can shut off water that the U.S. Department of Energy says it needs for drilling at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, a federal judge has ruled.

The federal government can't ignore state limitations and continue using water for drilling test bore holes near the repository site, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas said in a strongly worded order.

"The only argument the DOE makes is that because the site has been approved ... it has the authority to do whatever it wishes," Hunt said in his 24-page order. "It has failed to demonstrate the necessity of its voracious water demands."

Nevada has long complained that the federal government kept increasing the scope of the drilling and its water needs -- from about 15 bore holes to 80 and from 300,000 gallons of water to 3.5 million gallons.

Hunt did not decide the merits of the case, filed in August 2002.

Instead, he denied the federal request for a preliminary injunction that would hindered the state from restricting water to the arid site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson in Las Vegas declined to comment immediately on the ruling, saying Yucca Mountain project officials were reviewing the order. Benson said he didn't know whether drilling had stopped.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who has led state opposition to the Yucca project, hailed the ruling as a victory for state rights.

"The federal government will do anything it can to try to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dumping ground, even if that means ignoring the law and the will of the people who would be most affected by the dump," Reid said in a statement. "I am pleased that Judge Hunt upheld Nevada's right to enforce its water laws."

Marta Adams, a deputy state attorney general, said the state would seek a contempt of court order if drilling did not stop.

The judge rejected federal claims that scientists needed to test areas around the Yucca site to "meet congressional mandates" and demonstrate the suitability of the site for entombing 77,000 tons of radioactive waste now being stored at nuclear reactors in 39 states.

Site characterization tests were supposed to have been completed before the site was recommended to Congress in 2002, Hunt said.

Hunt also rejected arguments that state officials were using water as a weapon to delay the project, and that the Energy Department would suffer irreparable harm if data collection was delayed.

The government lost $350,000 by paying for idle drill crews after the state issued a cease-and-desist order on June 1, Justice Department lawyer Stephen Bartell had argued. That order was temporarily lifted June 12, but was reinstated eight days later, after the two sides failed to agree on conditions for using the water.

The Energy Department once hoped to open the repository by 2010. But the projected opening date has been pushed back at least to 2017 by legal challenges, budget issues, political opposition and scientific controversies.