Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 1990 Page: 2 of 12
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10 RWCREPORT A SUMMER 1990
SMALL
BUSINESS
ANGLE®
Mass, links
leukemia,
N-reactor
By Lori Sharn
USA TODAY
Michele and Robert Miller
watched their daughter die of
leukemia last year in Plym-
outh, Mass., convinced that the
nearby Pilgrim nuclear power
plant caused Danielle’s death.
Now a state report backs up
their belief, they say.
A Department of Public
Health study released this
week found that adults, who
lived and worked within 10
miles of the plant in Plymouth
from 1972 to 1979, were four
times more likely to develop
leukemia than residents living
farther away.
“Maybe people won’t think
we’re such crazy people, that
we’re way out on a limb,” says
Robert Miller.
Thursday, Boston Edison
President Bernard Reznicek
said the plant has not released
ith federal and state packaging and shipping require*
mints. With the expected increase from three to as many
as 16 dumping grounds now being sited across the na-
tion, it is likely that the military will have an even tougher
time complying with a multiplicity of new and differing
regulations.
A Drastic differences exist among the LLRW manage-
ment practices of the three services as well as within
each service. The GAO claims consistently vigilant han-
dling of LLRW will not be achieved without a service-wide
coordinated approach.
Among its final recommendations to Secretary of De-
fense Dick Cheney, the GAO breaks with the Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980 (LLRWPA) and
Amendments Act of 1985 in asking that special excep-
tions be made for the armed services. Rather than forcing
military bases to comply with the stringent LLRW dumping
regulations of their home state or region, the GAO advises
the military to seek preferential treatment for its waste
problems by asking new host states to dedicate a portion
of one or more sites for federal use.
The GAO writes: "We recognize that this approach could
be viewed as providing preferential treatment to federal
agencies that dispose of only a small percentage of
LLRW. On the other hand a federal site could reduce the
potential for packaging and shipping errors to occur...
(due to non-compliance with state regulations)... and
could ensure that LLRW generated overseas can be safely
disposed of.”
This plan exceeds the intent of the LLRWPA and is, In
part, an attempt to ensure that defense waste not be sub-
ject to the same controls as civilian waste and that LLRW
generated overseas be accepted for disposal at sites not
required by law to handle such dumping. Whereas the call
for an improved, comprehensive waste program for the
Armed Services is appropriate, the legality of this final
recommendation is indeed questionable.
To receive a copy of Report #GA0/RCED-90-96 please
write the United States General Accounting Office, PO Box
6015, Gaithersburg, MD, 20877. The first five copies of
the report are free.
Jonathan Farber is a graduate student at Columbia University
and an intern at the Radioactive Waste Campaign.
enough radiation in the last 18
years to cause a single case of
leukemia.
“We wouldn't operate Pil-
grim Station if we weren’t con-
fident that it is safe to do so,"
Reznicek said.
The state results also differ
with a National Cancer Insti-
tute study released last month.
The NCI study found no great-
er risk of cancer deaths near
nuclear power plants.
Radiation emissions from
Pilgrim have declined since
the 1970s, state officials say,
and they found no link between
leukemia and nearness to Pil-
grim for the years since 1984.
That doesn’t satisfy Cheryl
Nickerson. The Plymouth
housewife has tracked cancer
cases since both her grand-
mother died of leukemia and
her child was stillborn in 1984.
Nickerson has recorded 20
leukemia cases between 1978
and 1986 within 7 miles of her
home. She and other activists
want Pilgrim closed.
The new report was a “bit-
tersweet victory,” she says.
“Sweet that the state had lis-
tened to our complaints... but
bitter because we are still at
risk here.”
By Jonathan Farber
After nearly 50 years of routinely working with hun-
dreds of radioactive materials for academic, research and
development, medical, and industrial activities, the
United States Armed Services still do not have a program
to ensure the safe treatment of the “low-level" radioac
tive waste (LLRW) that Is a direct by-product of these op-
erations. In March, 1990 the General Accounting Office
(GAO)-the investigative arm of Congress-responded to
Senator John Glenn's (D-OH and Chairman of the Commit-
tee on Governmental Affairs) request for a full-scale In-
vestigation of the Defense Department’s (DOD) LLRW
program. The request was made in light of a 1986 radio-
active spill which occurred at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio.
Senator Glenn, in asking for the report, noted, “The ac-
cident was caused when workers opened a drum contain-
ing americlum-241, a highly radioactive Isotope similar
to plutonium, which had been Illegally stored on the base.
As a result, several individuals were exposed to contami-
nation, and the subsequent clean-up cost exceeded $1
million. It also appeared that an attempt was made by
some Air Force personnel to cover-up and then minimize
the severity of the accident".
Glenn added that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC), which has responsibility for oversight and licens-
ing of the materials, had serious shortcomings in its per-
formance in the case, as well.
Concerned that there might be more "Wright-Patter
sons” out there just waiting to happen, the GAO investiga
tion exposed the DOD’s past inattention to the serious
“low-level” waste clean-up and storage problems at hun-
dreds of bases across the country and abroad. In short,
the GAO’s findings addressed the significant program ana
policy problems looming ahead:
A Neither the Army, Navy nor Air Force can verify what
type and how much LLRW it has generated, or exactly
where such waste is stored.
A The failure to adequately monitor and coordinate
LLRW inventories at DOD facilities increases the chances
of an accidental spill occurring. For example, the GAO
claims that by consolidating numerous small shipments
and coordinating transportation routes, “the military can
reduce the risk of shipments, sent by thousands of LLRW
generators, being lost on the way to the dump, or worse,
Improperly discarded rather than properly disposed of as
radioactive waste."
A During the 1980s the Army and Air Force were peri-
odically banned from using available LLRW sites, in South
Carolina, Nevada and Washington, for falling to comply
DEFENSE DEPT.’S LLRW RECORD
CRITICIZED
Not many things are harder to tolerate than the annoy-
ance of a good example. —TheFurrow
PAGE 2, HUDSPETH COUNTY HERALD-Dell Valley Review, NOV. 2, 1990
Hudspeth Countv/(ald
and DELL VALL EY REVIEW
Serving Dell City and Hudspeth County
290 Trail West Park, P. O. Box 659 Dell City, Texas 79837 915-964-2426,
964 2490 964 2319
Second class postage paid in Dell City, Texas 798 37
Subsidiary MARY-MARY, INC.
Mary Louise Lynch.....................................Editor-Publishor
Maty Gentry...............................................Assistant & Advertising
Joyce G-lmore.............................................Salt Flat Editor
C. Warr n..............................„..................Crow Flat Editor
Linda Polk...............................................FL Hancock Editor
Bernice M. Elder.........................................Stern Blaaca Editor
Kaye Carron................................................Guadalupe Camp Editor
Sally Brown....................................,............Courthouse News
Advertising rater upon request from Business Office, open all
day Mondays and until noon Tuesdays. Open Thursday A.M.
Box 659 290 Trail West Park
Dell City, Texas 79837 '
(Hudspeth County)
Phone: (915)964-2426 or -2490
964-2319
Any erroneous reflection upon the chatac ter, standing or
reputation of any person, firm or corporation, which may
occur in the columns of the Hudspeth County Herald will
be gladly corrected upon being brought to the attention of
the editor-publisher. The publisher is not responsible for
copy omissions or typographical errors which may occur
other than to correct them in the next issue after it is brought
to attention, and in no case does the publisher hold himself
liable for damages further than the amount received for
actual space covering the error. The right is reserved to
reject or edit all advertising copy as wall as editorial
and news content
Required by the Post Office to be Paid in Advance
PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY OF EACH WEEK
For Hudspeth County. Texas' Third Largest County
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $11.00 in County
$12.00 Out of County
and Out of State
John Sloan is President of the National Federation of Independent
Business, representing more than half a million small-business
men and women
© National Federation •■f Independent "1 iness
BRIGHT IDEAS WE COULD LIVE WITHOUT
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
decided it’s acceptable to let 2500-10,000
Americans die to protect nuke industry
profits. That’s the estimated cancer death
toll from NRC’s long-awaited policy
change that makes a broad range of rad-
waste "Below Regulatory Concern." So-
called BRC waste can be handled with no
greater safeguards than household waste.
NRC Chair Kenneth M. Carr said the
policy would "benefit our nation," by help-
ing the nuclear industry save money. Carr
said he didn’t know how much waste would
come under the BRC rule since "we don’t
have any applications yet." The nuke in-
dustry stayed out of the BRC debate, fear-
ing negative public backlash. A useful,
practical "handle" local groups have used
to fight BRC is to fight for passage of state
and local bans on BRC dumping. •
Citizen’s Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes
by John Sloan
WHY DO 38 PERCENT OF US
RE-ELEC TS PERCENT OF THEM?----
Rare works of art by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and
others draw thousands of tourists to the nation s capital s
museums each year. Little do those visitors realize they are
within walking distance of an institution where hundreds of
artisans are laboriously creating some of the most unusual
masterpieces of all time.
Unfortunately for tourists and taxpayers alike, these old
masters are Washington politicians whose chief talents lie in
crafting elaborately-worded laws which gloss over the real
problems of the nation while gilding the authors with an image
of political courage and statesmanship.
The old saying that death and taxes are the only things you
can count on should be amended. Sadly, these days you can
also count on Congress to shirk its responsibilities and still
rush home to press the flesh with voters in time for the
election. Never mind that government spending continues to
mushroom while the economy is reeling from congressional
neglect; what’s important to incumbents is to convince voters
that they deserve another term.
If 1990 is a typical non-presidential election year, only
about 38 percent of those registered to vote will even bother
going to the polls. Imagine what would have happened in
World War II if only 38 percent of the Allied troops had
reported for duty? How would you feel as they rush you into
the emergency room of a hospital to learn that two-thirds of
the medical staff didn't show up that day?
This deplorable trend, however, makes incumbents jump
with glee. They know their chances of getting re-elected are
better when fewer people go to the polls.
Remember the 1988 election? Nearly all — 98 percent —- of
those in office were re-elected. Congressional Quarterly, a
publication which closely observes Capitol Hill, recently
labelled as “safe” more than 80 percent of the seats in the U.S.
House of Representatives where the member is up for re-
election. Based on that, taxpayers can expect to see at least 353
familiar faces in the marble halls of Congress again next year.
In a Gallup poll conducted last winter for the National
Federation of Independent Business, more than 70 percent of
the small-business owners and members of the general public
favored restricting politicians’ terms. Frequently mentioned
reasons included concerns that lawmakers are too easily
influenced by special interest groups and that their incumbency
offered unfair advantages over challengers.
Congress’s embarrassing theatrics during the budget deficit
debate was an unmistakable signal that something is drastically
wrong with our government. No, there is nothing wrong with
the system. It works. Where the problem lies is that apathy has
become an American tradition, a tradition that politicians and
their campaign spin doctors can depend on as consistently as
death and taxes. Why else do 38 percent of us re-elect 98
percent of them? . .
There is no better opportunity than election day, November
6, for small-business owners, fed up with the performance of
Congress and concerned about the economy, to demonstrate
that they are no longer going to be duped by slick television
commercials and grandiloquent stump speeches.
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Lynch, Mary Louise. Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 1990, newspaper, November 2, 1990; Dell City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1602308/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .