Privatization–This bill is like giving away the farm and keeping the mortgage- after the crops have been harvested- all we will be left with is the wasted land. The bill privatizes profits and socializes the losses.

Texas has a long and sad history of trusting private companies to handle nuclear materials and the promises of federal agencies that they will protect us.

We are distributing copies of pictures from the leaking and abandoned dumps in Karnes County, where a variety of nuclear waste materials were put in unlined waste pits and contaminated groundwater. Under the watchful eyes of state and federal regulatory agencies nuclear wastes that were far more toxic than permitted were dumped into Conoco’s El Conquista strip mine pit near Falls City. At the nearby Sesquehana Western Uranium site near Falls City the companies went bankrupt. It cost taxpayers $22 million in state and federal money to cover up that site. The aquifer is now contaminated. According to the DOE, hazardous and radioactive materials leached into the aquifer below the Susquehanna site and migrated at least 2,500 feet from the tailings piles. The DOE agreed to take responsibility for cleaning the aquifer, but balked at the price tag: $384 million. In 1988 the Department of Agriculture outlined the devastation to these areas and a portion of that report is attached. The Texas Senate studied the issue in 1990 and urged that we toughen our standards and require greater financial security of private companies be required in the future. A page from that report is attached.

· You cannot trust the Feds to clean this up.

· Federal Government has recently cut funding for DOE Clean-Up

According to the LA Times, April 24, 2001, the Bush Administration has omitted any money from the federal budget to continue the clean up of a huge uranium slag heap in Utah that has been leaking radioactive waste into the Colorado River—a source of drinking water for 25 million people. The uranium waste heap is a DOE clean-up project. A private company called Atlas Corporation, which produced uranium for nuclear weapons, generated the waste. Atlas went bankrupt in 1998. Cost estimates for removing the pile range from $300 million to $1 billion. The current administration decided that it is too expensive and not necessary to move the pile at all.

We question the wisdom of not statutorily defining adequate bond limitations and leaving it to the Health Department We are concerned that the bond may not be adequate- Texas Department of Health has lacked the spine to require adequate bonds in the past. Here are several examples:

Intercontinental Energy Corp. (IEC)

The IEC site, one of the oldest in Texas (dating back to the mid-1970s) has yet to be restored. The groundwater has been restored and TCEQ has signed off on that portion of the effort but surface reclamation is still needed. At the present time, there are approximately 60 acres on IEC’s Lamprecht mine site that remain contaminated. TDH inspectors have checked the site and found many gamma readings that suggest contamination in excess of the unrestricted area standards. TDH has acknowledged that IEC does not have adequate financial surety to clean up the contamination. Although TDH knows that IEC does not have proper funding in place, they fail to take action to either clean up the site with a third party or to require IEC to put in additional funds

Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI)

URI has two major sites undergoing restoration (the Rosita Mine and the Kingsville Dome Mine). URI financial surety is several million dollars short. All of the bond money has been spent attempting to restore groundwater at both mines. The groundwater at both sites is far from being restored. Groundwater restoration will require several more years of effort and millions of dollars. Reclamation of the surface has not yet been initiated. Cleaning up of the surface always follows groundwater restoration. As in the case of IEC, TDH has yet to require URI to come up with the required surety. It should be noted that URI has received several million dollars from private investors during the past two years and they were not required by TDH or TCEQ to put up the proper amount of surety. Now that URI has exhausted all of the bond money on partial groundwater restoration, they are trying to work out a new arrangement with TDH and TCEQ to give them the money earmarked for radiation closeout. URI wants to use this money (a fund that is already severely short) to continue groundwater restoration activities. There is only about a million dollars for radiological closeout activities, and this fund is at least $500,000.00 short. If TDH gives URI this money, there will be nothing left for radiological cleanup. Further, the $1milllion fund will not be enough to complete groundwater restoration.

TDH and TCEQ have made a concerted effort over the past 4 years to keep the financial surety fiasco under wraps. TDH and TCEQ have gone to unusual lengths to keep URI in business by giving them special consideration such as: (1) not requiring adequate financial assurance and (2) not requiring them to use a portion of the millions of dollars that came in from private sources to be put toward bringing financial surety up to the required levels. The agencies justify their actions on the basis of URI’s continued groundwater restoration activities. Another way to view it is that the agencies will do almost anything to avoid having to call in the remaining bond money and go to a third party. In doing this, it would be clear to all that the agencies have failed to put the proper surety in place. The agencies are pinning their hopes on URI somehow surviving for many years and having funds to restore and reclaim these sites. If this can be done, the agencies can avoid being called on the carpet for failing to require adequate financial surety from these companies.

Everest Minerals Corp. (EMC)

Everest has an old mine on the shores of Lake Corpus Christi that remains on the books as not meeting unrestricted area standards. TDH has been engaged in an on-going effort with the company to close out the site for many years. Again, because of the lack of proper financial surety, the site remains on the books. It is not only a lack of proper financial surety that has created serious problems but also TDH’s inability to move decisively toward a solution.

Gibraltar

This is another example of a TDH licensee being allowed to not post adequate surety. This site is very contaminated with radioactive materials (not uranium byproduct), and TDH admitted that they did not know how much money should be posted for cleanup. Several months ago the Houston Chronicle published several articles on this case.

Dumps do leak

Our nation's history is littered with infamous failures of the private nuclear industry to keep their promises. Almost every other private dump has leaked and cost taxpayers. Maxey Flats, Kentucky; West Valley, New York; Sheffield, Ill, and Barnwell, South Carolina have cost states millions in clean up costs.

No one can say for certain what it will cost in twenty-five, fifty or seventy-five years to clean up a 350 million cubic foot dump. A 1998 DOE report on the subject estimated that for a radioactive waste dump handling just 1.5 million cubic feet of waste the cost of cleaning up the dump would be $370 million.

1996 Cost Estimates for Clean-Up of DOE Sites

DOE Sites Where NO Feasible Remediation Approach is Possible

Hanford—groundwater
Oak Ridge—several creeks and rivers
Savannah River—Lake and Savannah River Swamp
Idaho National engineering Lab—Snake River Aquifer Plain
Rocky Flats—Several creeks and lakes
Nevada Test Site—Underground Test Area
Sandia National Lab—Chemical Waste Landfill

Expandability of the compact. The bill expands a loophole in the compact that allows Governor-appointed Compact Commissioners to vote to import unlimited amounts of waste. DOE waste may be imported and disposed of in Texas through this compact loophole. Once Governor Perry appoints Texas’s six allotted commissioners (Maine and Vermont each get one, for a total of 8 commissioners), the Texas Legislature has no control over how those commissioners vote on decisions to import additional waste to Texas. Because the US Congress has ratified the Texas-Maine-Vermont compact, it over-rides any state law that may attempt to alter it.