(Wash, DC 6/16/98) The Senate's final order of business last night was sending H.R.629 (S.270), the Texas/Maine/Vermont Nuclear Waste Compact, to Conference Committee with the House, with the clear directive to retain the amendments previously approved by the full Senate.
Senator Paul D. Wellstone (D, MN), in an extensive floor statement, clearly articulated the violations of civil rights, environmental justice and sound
science that resulted in siting Sierra Blanca, Texas for the nation's next nuclear power waste pits. He reminded the Senators that they will be directly responsible for the Sierra Blanca dump opening if they approve the final Compact. Wellstone vowed to use every procedural avenue to prevent the final passage of the bill if the two unanimously approved environmental justice amendments are not retained in the Conference Committee Report.
The amendments give the local community the opportunity to challenge, in court, discrimination based on race, color, national origin or income level
and limit the radioactive waste that could go to the dump to that generated in Texas, Maine and Vermont only. Both House and Senate approved the latter
amendment.
Senators Orrin Hatch (R,UT), Strom Thurmond (R,SC) and Patrick Leahy (D,VT) were appointed to the Conference Committee. They will confer with the House
Conference Committee members, Representatives Thomas Bliley (R,VA), Dan Schaefer (R,CO), John Dingell (D,MI), Ralph Hall (D,TX) and Joe Barton (R,TX), appointed in May. If the Conference Report differs from the House or Senate versions of the bill, it will go back for full floor votes.
Leahy, Barton and Hall are cosponsors of the bill which unleashes $55 million in construction funds and clears the way for nuclear power wastes from Maine, Vermont and elsewhere to be dumped in the poverty-stricken town, just 16 miles from the Rio Grande border with Mexico. Sierra Blanca is already the unwilling host to the world's largest sewage sludge dump, and more hazardous facilities are in line.
"Senator Wellstone's principled efforts calling upon the conscience of the Senate are honorable, rare and greatly appreciated. But the U.S. Senate has
taken another step toward forcing atomic burial pits on a poor, earthquake-prone community," stated Diane D'Arrigo of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, "and toward increasing the control of the nuclear power industry by perpetuating the dying Compact system. The Compact and dump can and must be stopped."