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July 18, 2003
By MARK WAITECOMMISSION SEEKS UNITY Beatty denied approval of YMP wish listPVT However newly elected Nye County Commissioners didn't follow the same path their predecessors did last fall, when they accepted a similar resolution by the Amargosa Valley Town Board. Commissioners turned down the Beatty town resolution in favor of a unified county approach. Plans by the federal government to store 77,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain beginning in 2010, took a leap forward this week, when the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recommended spending $765 million on the repository in the 2004 budget. Beatty is 29 miles north of the turnoff to Yucca Mountain off U.S. Highway 95 at Lathrop Wells. The resolution states, "The siting of the high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain will result in Beatty and its people becoming the involuntary, most proximate neighbors to the nation's millions of pounds of deadly radioactive waste as well as the hosts to any mode of transport eventually chosen to move the waste to Yucca Mountain." Commissioner Candice Trummell said she thought the closest neighbors were in Amargosa Valley. She also had concerns over strong language. Trummell said the county commissioners need to look at the whole county and not have each town pass resolutions. That was a sentiment echoed by Jan Cameron, a member of the Amargosa Valley Town Board. The Beatty resolution stated the federal government must be aware of the burden it is imposing on the community by hosting Yucca Mountain nearby. The project creates the potential for catastrophic hazards and accidents as well as creates a downturn in tourism and property values, the resolution states. The wish list by Beatty officials includes: • A 24-hour medical facility capable of responding to any emergency at Yucca Mountain with free medical care for Beatty residents; • Road improvements, including the widening of U.S. Highway 95 to four lanes between Tonopah and Mercury and improvements to Beatty Airport; • Upgrading water, sewer, parks and public facilities, with a new library, and upgrading or replacing schools, upgrading the town park with a heated pool, horse stables, golf course, and a gun club with state-of-the-art equipment. • Upgrading telephone lines for state-of-the-art service within 200 miles of Beatty; • A full complement of emergency medical technicians and fire department personnel; • At least 50 percent of administrative staff working at Yucca Mountain should reside in Nye County, with any new housing needed for workers in Beatty constructed by the federal government; • Refueling of trucks hauling material to the repository should be at Beatty fuel stations; • A yearly grant of $500,000 for Beatty tourism and economic development; • A world-class research institute studying repository performance, reuse of nuclear waste, disposal technologies and other issues; • Other financial assistance, including a payment equal to current ad valorem taxes assessed in Beatty, adjusted upwards of 6 percent per year. "I do believe we should ask for a lot of things from the federal government. I just don't know if this is the right way to proceed. I just think everybody is going to be asking for everything, we just need to prioritize," Trummell said. Beatty Town Board member Rick Wilson said, "This just begins the paper trail so they can't come up and say, 'Well you never asked for anything.' " Commissioner Patricia Cox agreed with Trummell. She said there are several towns lobbying for benefits, when it should be a united county approach. "Nye County has done a very admirable job of representing the wants and needs, on a general basis, of Nye County," Chairman Henry Neth said. "I think it's important that Nye County continue to function as it has in the past and represent all of the communities in Nye County, instead of everybody splitting off into splinter groups and going crazy." Commissioner Joni Eastley, who represents Beatty and Tonopah, said she was hesitant to deny issues important to Beatty residents. She noted the commission had accepted a similar resolution from Amargosa Valley. The Amargosa Valley Town Board last October passed a resolution requesting a number of programs from the government, including a drinking water system; sewage collection and treatment system; telecommunications including broadband digital, television and cellular telephone; a complete system of paved roads; kindergarten through 12th grade public schools; higher education and workforce training; primary health care; an early warning system within 50 miles; emergency qualified personnel on duty 24 hours a day and economic development opportunities. Amargosa Valley board members also asked for an end to busing commuters from Las Vegas to jobs in Nye County. In their resolution they asked DOE to compensate businesses at their highest gross income prior to the actual storage of nuclear waste; payments in lieu of taxes equal to amounts paid in 2010 and a royalty to local landowners of $1 per $1 of assessed value. Neth said when the time comes for the Yucca Mountain Project to become a reality, "There's got to be room for some frills." Nye County has received $10 million per year from the DOE in Payment Equal to Taxes for the land value of Yucca Mountain. Nye County's main bargaining points are included in its Community Protection Plan. That plan urges DOE to locate research and development facilities be located in Nye County; ongoing funds for monitoring nuclear waste; transporting nuclear waste by rail away from Nye County communities; the donation of more federal land to the county for economic development; and federal investment in non-nuclear energy, like solar and wind power, along the U.S. Highway 95 corridor. "For us to have any credibility with DOE and the federal government the things we need to be asking for are the things that are going to directly mitigate the effects of Yucca Mountain," Neth said. But he added, "It'd be fantastic to put together a joint resolution of all the communities in Nye County." Neth urged officials from Beatty and Amargosa Valley to put together a joint document and add their requests to the county's community protection plan. |
