WASHINGTON - May 18 - More than 150 national and local environmental groups are calling on U.S. Senators to strike sections of the Defense Authorization Act that allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to leave radioactive wastes in underground tanks at the Savannah River, South Carolina, weapons plant and hold back cleanup funds at its Hanford, Washington, and Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory facilities. Votes on amendments to eliminate the provisions, added by the Senate Armed Services Committee without public hearings, are expected later this week.

In a letter delivered to every member of the U.S. Senate today, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, 26 national organizations, including the League of Conservation Voters, National Council of Churches, and Union of Concerned Scientists, and 131 local groups charged that the Armed Services Committee provisions “will have serious detrimental consequences for vital water resources around the country” and “will undermine the rights of States and Tribes to protect their residents.” The letter was initiated by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a network of 33 groups representing the concerns of communities downstream and downwind from U.S. nuclear weapons facilities.

The controversial sections are designed to overturn a U.S. District Court decision, which blocked DOE’s plan to “reclassify” high-level radioactive wastes as less dangerous, so they would not have to be pumped out of storage tanks, some of which are already leaking. Instead, DOE wants to pour grout, or concrete, over the remaining materials. In addition to allowing reclassification and grouting at Savannah River, the Armed Services Committee proposal would allow DOE to suspend tank cleaning projects at Hanford and INEEL until the states of Washington and Idaho accepted similar proposals.

The groups’ letter concluded, “We, the undersigned, represent communities and families that will be directly impacted by reducing the cleanup standards at the DOE sites. We do not want our health and environment to be further contaminated as a result of DOE’s failure to adequately clean up the legacy of nuclear weapons production.

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne and New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid have also called on the Senate to eliminate the Armed Services Committee language.

Other signers of the letter included the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace International, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Public Citizen.

Strike DOE's Authority to Reclassify High-Level Radioactive Waste and Preserve the High-Level Waste Cleanup Requirements in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act

May 18, 2004

Dear Senator:

As national and local environmental and consumer organizations, we urge you to strike sections 3116 and 3119 of the Defense Authorization Bill that allow the Department of Energy (DOE) the authority to reclassify and abandon high-level radioactive waste in underground tanks at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina and to withhold funding to clean up high-level radioactive waste in South Carolina, Idaho, and Washington. Both provisions will have serious detrimental consequences for vital water resources around the country, will undermine the rights of States and Tribes to protect their residents, and will significantly alter the design of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), passed by Congress over two decades ago.

Chief among DOE's responsibilities for protecting public health and the environment is the cleanup of the 239 underground tanks containing approximately 100 million gallons of high-level waste in Washington, South Carolina, and Idaho. Agreements between the DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and affected states require that the tanks be fully cleaned up. DOE wants to reclassify some of the waste in the tanks as "incidental to reprocessing," even though the waste itself has not been altered and will still be dangerous for thousands of years. DOE would then pour concrete grout into the tanks, leaving highly radioactive waste. The DOE's attempts were declared illegal by the Idaho federal court in 2003. The DOE has filed an appeal, but in March 2004 the six most directly affected states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, South Carolina, New York, and New Mexico) filed a friend of the court brief in support of the Idaho court decision.

DOE wants to have Congress change the law, and Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina inserted language into the FY2005 Defense Authorization bill, without a minute of public hearing or debate. Section 3116 would (1) exempt DOE from complying with the requirements of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) in South Carolina; (2) overturn an Idaho federal court ruling that DOE may not arbitrarily and unilaterally reclassify high-level radioactive waste; and (3) allow DOE sole discretion in deciding what is high-level radioactive waste in South Carolina.

Section 3119 of the Defense Authorization Bill allows DOE to withhold $350 million from necessary cleanup of the high-level waste tanks until Washington, Idaho, and South Carolina agree to accept DOE's lower cleanup standards. Failing to clean up the tanks will lead to severe and long-lasting pollution of the Columbia River, Snake River Aquifer, and the Savannah River, which provide drinking water for thousands of families and water for fish and crops that feed millions of people nationwide.

Both of the provisions would open the door to a rash of lawsuits and disputes for any nuclear waste crossing the South Carolina border, creating even more uncertainty regarding high-level waste disposal, have long-term, costly, and potentially catastrophic environmental and public health risks and squash States' rights.

We, the undersigned, represent communities and families that will be directly impacted by reducing the cleanup standards at the DOE sites. We do not want our health and environment to be further contaminated as a result of DOE's failure to adequately clean up the legacy of nuclear weapons production.

We urge you to strike sections 3116 and 3119 of the Defense Authorization Bill.

ENDORSERS OF HIGH-LEVEL WASTE LETTER

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Fort Hall, ID

National Groups - 26

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

American Rivers

Church Women United

Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)

Friends of the Earth

Global Green

Greenpeace International

Indigenous Environmental Network

League of Conservation Voters

National Council of Churches

National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans

National Environmental Trust

Natural Resources Defense Council

NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Peace Action

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Public Citizen

The Episcopal Church, USA

U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Union of Concerned Scientists

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

Women's Action for New Directions

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section

20/20 Vision National Project

Individual Groups - 131

Abalone Alliance Safe Energy Clearinghouse, San Francisco, CA

Action for a Clean Environment, Alto, GA

American Friends Service Committee-Colorado Area Office, CO

Americans for a Safe Future, Sherman Oaks, CA

Amigos Bravos, Taos, NM

Arizona Toxics Information, Bisbee, AZ

Atlanta Women's Action for New Directions, GA

Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, San Francisco, CA

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Glendale Springs, NC

Carolina Peace Resource Center, Columbia, SC

Center for Environmental Justice, Savannah, GA

Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Falls Church, VA

Central Pennsylvania Citizens for Survival, State College, PA

Citizen Action, Sandia Park, NM

Citizen Alert, Las Vegas, NV

Citizen Power, Pittsburgh, PA

Citizens Advocating Responsible Development, INC., Scotia NY

Citizens Awareness Network, Shelburne Falls, MA

Citizens Democracy Watch, Florence, OR

Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Lake Township, MI

Citizens for Safe Energy, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two, Livonia, MI

Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Monroe, MI

Coalition for Health Concern, Kevil, KY

Coalition for Nuclear Justice, Brookport, IL

Coalition for Peace Action, Princeton, NJ

Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Waste, Springville, NY

Columbia Riverkeeper, White Salmon, WA.

Committee to Bridge the Gap, Los Angeles, CA

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Santa Fe, NM

Connecticut Opposed to Waste, Broad Brook, CT

Consumers Health Freedom Coalition, New York, NY

Cumberland Countians for Peace & Justice, Pleasant Hill, TN

Don't Waste Michigan, Holland, MI

Don't Waste Oregon, Portland, OR

Earth Concerns of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK

Educators for Responsibility Metro Area, New York, NY

Enviro-Health Concerns, Wichita, Kansas

Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power, State College, PA

Environmentalists, Inc., Columbia, SC

Escalante Wilderness Project, Escalante, UT

Eugene Media Action, Eugene, OR

Fernald Residents for Environmental, Safety & Health, Ross, OH

Georgia Conservation Voters, Atlanta, GA

Georgians Against Nuclear Energy, Atlanta, GA

Glen Canyon Group, Sierra Club, South-Eastern UT

Government Accountability Project, Washington, D.C

GRACE Public Fund, New York, NY

Grandmothers for Peace (Northland Chapter), Superior, WI

Grandmothers for Peace International, Elk Grove, CA

Grandmothers for Peace/San Luis Obispo County Chapter, San Miguel, CA

Green Party of Michigan, Lapeer, MI

Hanford Action of Oregon, Portland, OR

Hanford Watch, Portland, OR

Harrisburg-Hershey Chapter of PSR, PA

Heart of America Northwest, Seattle, WA

Heartwood, Bloomington, IA

Idaho Conservation League, Boise, ID

Izaak Walton League of America, Gaithersburg, MD

Justice and Witness Ministries, NY Conference, United Church of Christ

Justice Not War Coalition, Eugene, OR

LandWatch Lane County in Eugene, OR

Lane County Physicians for Social Responsibility, Eugene, OR

Lone Tree Council, Bay City, MI

Loretto Community, Denver, CO

Metro Detroit Alliance for Democracy, Redford, MI

Miamisburg Environmental Safety & Health, Inc., Miamisburg, OH

Mississippi 2020 Network Inc.,

New Hampshire Council of Churches, NH

New Jersey Peace Action, Montclair, NJ

No New Nukes, Clinton, IL

North American Water Office, Lake Elmo, MN

North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network, Durham, NC

North Dakota Peace Coalition, Bismarck, ND

Northwest Media Project, Eugene, OR

Northwest Regional Conservation Committee, Sierra Club, OR, WA, ID, MT

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA

Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC

Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM

Obed Watershed Association, Pleasant Hill, TN

Oregon PeaceWorks, Salem, OR

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Portland, OR

Oregon Toxics Alliance Eugene, OR

Peace Action New Mexico, Santa Fe. NM

Peace Action of Connecticut, Greenwich, CT

Peace Action Texas, Austin, TX

Peace Farm, Panhandle, TX

Physicians for Social Responsibility / Northeast Ohio Chapter, OH

Physicians for social Responsibility, SF-Bay Area Chapter, CA

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Atlanta, GA

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Baltimore, MD

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Greater Kansas City, MO

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Los Angeles, CA

Physicians for Social Responsibility/NYC, NY

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Philadelphia, PA

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Sacramento, CA

Physicians for Social Responsibility/Western NC Chapter, Ashville, NC

Prairie Island Coalition, Minneapolis, MN

PRESS, McDermott, OH

Radiological Evaluation & Action Project, Great Lakes, Ewen MI

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Boulder, CO

Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter, Atlanta, GA

Snake River Alliance, Boise, ID

S.P.L.A.S.H., Remus, MI

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Savannah, GA

Southwest Research and Information Center, Albuquerque, NM

STAND of Amarillo, TX

Stop Uranium Mining, Montclair, NJ

Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, Austin, TX

Temple Sinai Social Action Committee, Amherst, NY

The Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Denver, CO

The Environmental Justice Foundation, Provo, UT

The Greater Lansing Peace Education Center, MI

The RadioActivist Campaign, Belfair, WA

The Suburban Conversion Project, Eugene, OR

Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA

United Church of Christ, Network for Envir. & Economic Responsibility, Pleasant Hill, TN

Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, Oxford, MI

Uranium Recovery Education Project, Moab, UT

Ursulines of Tildonk for Justice and Peace, New York, NY

US/Adorers of the Blood of Christ, Justice and Peace Office, Red Bud, IL

Valley Watch, Inc., Evansville, IN

Veterans for Peace, Asheville, NC

Voices Opposed To Environmental Racism, Washington, DC

Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Seattle, WA

Washington Public Interest Research Group Seattle, WA

Women's Action for New Directions, Lane County, OR

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