HomeMy WebLinkAbout93-050
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RESOLUTION NO. 93-50
WHEREAS, U. S. Ecology is planning to construct a
radioactive waste facility in Ward Valley, California, 22 miles
west of Needles, California, and approximately 20 miles from
Bullhead City, Arizona, and Laughlin, Nevada; and
WHEREAS, the construction of a radioactive waste dump in
Ward Valley, California, may pose a significant risk to both
Mohave County residents in the vicinity, and the Colorado River,
generally. Such risk may be found in the increased potential for
release, leakage, and spill radioactive material during the
transportation of such material through residential and business
communities, and over public highways, and in the exposure of the
dumped radioactive material to the effects of torrential rains,
severe dust storms, and other harsh weather characteristics of
the area; and
WHEREAS, the increased exposure to radioactivity poses a
significant risk of cancer to human and animal life; and
WHEREAS, the nuclear waste problems is national in scope,
and not limited to state boundaries, such boundaries being
meaningless when, as in the case of the proposed site in Ward
Valley, California, the risk of increased exposure to
radioactivity falls equally hard upon residents in Arizona; and
WHEREAS, the California Department of Environmental and
Health Services, empowered to make a decision in this matter, may
be choosing the Ward Valley site, risk contamination of the
Colorado River, and equally essential groundwater sources, to the
damage of Arizona taxpayers potentially burdened with the cost of
cleaning up the waste facility, such burden carried while
possessing no jurisdiction to regulate the operation and
maintenance of the facility; and
WHEREAS, the regulation of radioactive waste facilities is
thus best suited to the Federal Government, not the individual
states; and
WHEREAS, we recognize the need for radioactive materials in
the treatment of various forms of cancer and other medical
exigencies, and do not wish to impede the progress of the medical
community in such efforts, bu't nevertheless insist upon the safe
disposal of radioactive waste, such disposal to be made in
facili ties stLi.(-::tly regulated by national standards rand buil t
only afteJ~- each community which may be adversely affected by the
operation of such a facility has had fair opportunity to assess
the risk involved in its construction and operation;
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NOW, THEREFORE, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors
having considered the risks involved in the construction of a
radioactive waste facility in Ward Valley, California, joins the
Fort Mohave Indian Tribe, the City of Needles and the City of
Lake Havasu in formally opposing the use of the Ward Valley site
as a radioactive waste facility. This disposition, by its nature
in no way endorses the location of such facilities in alternate
sites particularly in Mohave County or other Arizona locations.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Mohave County Board of
Supervisors joins the City of Lake Havasu in respectfully
requesting the Arizona Congressional Delegation to initiate
public oversight hearings in regards to establishment of a
nuclear waste facility at Ward Valley, California.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 16th day of February, 1993.
MOHAVE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
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ATTEST:
the Board