Cautious optimism is in order. Bush put his stamp on a defense bill that includes declaring the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area to law. This would likely be a deterrent to nuclear waste being stored by Private Fuel Storage (PFS) on the Goshute Reservation in Tooele County, Utah.
With Bush’s signature about 100,000 acres of land will become federal wilderness area, giving it protection from motorized vehicles, roads, mining and other intrusions. The land includes a portion of BLM that Private Fuel Storage wants to use as part of its railroad to the proposed nuclear-waste site. By including it in the wilderness area, it cuts off that transportation option, which “substantially hinders” the project, Senator Rob Bishop(R-Utah) said.
While this plan does not stop the PFS plan entirely, it apparently causes a change to the plan.
Private Fuel Storage can still use a trucking transportation plan, although it prefers the rail route. Its license application included both transportation options. PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin has said that it would be safer to move waste on a train in an isolated area rather than on trucks but it will still use that option if needed. With the legislative portion over, the Bureau of Land Management’s work on the newly designated land begins. It will now take several months and about a dozen people to get everything in order.
The agency also will create a management plan, defining what it needs to be done to protect the land according to the law. Williams said this will include studying wildlife and other natural elements to ensure the area “remains in as natural a state as possible.”
It is steps like this that move more towards shutting PFS down. One can only hope and keep moving forward.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 