Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Robert Perciasepe, Assistant Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Air & Radiation
Mail Code 6101A
Ariel Rios North
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20460
Dear Bob:
Enclosed please find 448 more signatures on our petition calling for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set stringent radiation protection standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository. Please add them to the 1,821 signatures on the petitions which we handed you at our April 4 th, 2000 meeting on this same subject. That amounts to a total of 2,269 signatures, and we expect to send you more soon.
Our hope is that these petitions will show you clearly that there is widespread public and environmentalist support for strong radiation protection standards at Yucca Mountain. The signatures represent entities in numerous states in all regions of the country.
It goes without saying that we support EPA and not the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be the standard setter for the Yucca Mountain repository. Current law requires EPA to exercise its authority and set Yucca Mountain standards. The public interest and environmental movement worked hard to support President Clinton’s veto of S. 1287 in order to preserve EPA’s authority, and we thank you for your good work in helping to sustain the President’s veto. As it turned out, preserving EPA’s authority was the President’s main reason for vetoing the legislation. We urge you to use your hard-won authority to set stringent standards for Yucca Mountain, consistent with EPA’s most protective radiation standards and principles, including ground water protection.
We support EPA as the standard setter because of its stronger protection of public health and safety and the environment at Yucca Mountain. But, as we communicated at our meeting with you last April, and as the petition itself spells out, there are a number of weaknesses in EPA’s proposed standards that we continue to urge EPA to strengthen.
We are thankful to you for your strong stand in the face of pressure from the U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, certain Members of Congress and the nuclear power industry to weaken radiation protection standards at Yucca Mountain. Likewise, we appreciate your recent clarification of EPA’s requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Superfund Maximum Contaminant Levels as the State of Maine, the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors and the NRC set weaker standards for decommissioning of nuclear reactors.
We encourage you to strengthen the proposed EPA Yucca Mountain standards, to defend EPA’s most protective radiation standards and principles, including ground water protection, and to uphold the SDWA and Superfund MCL’s at the proposed national repository. We also encourage you to publish the standards as soon as possible, as federal law authorizes. As was communicated to you at our meeting last April, and as was shown by its united opposition to Congressional attempts to weaken EPA’s authority (please see the attached group letter opposing S. 1287) the environmental and public interest movement strongly supports EPA’s role under current law as the Yucca Mountain standard setter. We urge you to set stringent standards for this proposed dumpsite that would hold over 95% of the radiation generated in the U.S. during the entire Nuclear Age.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kamps
Nuclear Waste Specialist
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
Enclosures
cc: Kathy Crandall, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Kalynda Tilges, Citizen Alert, Nevada
Daniel Hirsch, Committee to Bridge the Gap
Andrew Englander, Friends of the Earth
Rick Hind, Greenpeace
Arjun Makhijani, Institute for Energy & Environmental Research
David Adelman, Natural Resources Defense Council
Judy Treichel, Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force
Kimberly Roberts, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Lisa Gue, Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program
Scott Denman, Safe Energy Communication Council
Corbin Harney, Shundahai Network, Nevada
Dan Becker, Sierra Club
Bob Loux, State of Nevada Governor’s Office, Agency for Nuclear Projects
Anna Aurilio, U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Chief Raymond Yowell, Western Shoshone National Council
Kimberly Robson, Women’s Action for New Directions
Representative Nan Grogan Orrock, Women Legislators’ Lobby