18 February 1999 -- Lincoln Journal Star
Committee unanimously passes bill to get out of waste compact
BY AL J. LAUKAITIS
The site in Boyd County was a bad choice.
Lincoln Journal StarMore than $94 million has been spent to date and nothing has been built.
US Ecology Inc., the developer, is in financial trouble and closing down the site.
And the state of Nebraska is being sued by electric utilities who want some of their money back.
That is the short list of key reasons cited by Boyd County residents and activists for wanting Nebraska out of the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. They told a legislative committee Wednesday afternoon that "enough is enough" and it's time to try something else.
"If anyone could have made a worst selection (of a site for the facility) ... I don't know how they could have done it," said Loren Sieh of Naper, chairman of the Boyd County Monitoring Committee.
The Natural Resources Committee heard testimony from about 12 people who supported LB530, a bill that would withdraw Nebraska from the regional compact. Only two people, officials with Nebraska's two nuclear utilities, opposed the bill.
After a three-hour hearing, LB530 was advanced unanimously by the committee and now will be heard by the Legislature.
Bill Neal, with the Omaha Public Power District, had urged the committee to hold LB530 until the state decides what it will do now that US Ecology has no license to build and operate a facility in Boyd County. He and a representative from the Nebraska Public Power District said the state needs to come up with a plan for the long-term storage of low-level radioactive waste.
US Ecology has taken a neutral position on the bill, and no one from the company or the compact commission testified at the hearing.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Mike Johanns told reporters that Nebraska should pull out of the compact if it can do so without any significant financial problems. But he said his administration has made no decision and needs to be cautious to avoid liability.
A recent opinion from a Washington, D.C., law firm said Nebraska would not have any significant liability except for the $25,000 it pays into the compact for expenses each year. The total amount would be $125,000.
Sen. M.L. "Cap" Dierks of Ewing, who introduced the bill, told the committee that too much money has been spent on the project already and that Boyd County residents have endured too much over the past 10 years.
"I see Boyd County as the county of broken promises and shattered dreams," Dierks said.
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