Dear friends,
Rusty and I drove to Midland Friday evening, August 19, to participate in a State Commission meeting the next day. We met the groups from Dallas and Austin, about 12 of us altogether, at the hotel pool area in Midland. It became a good party, meeting each other and sharing information, much of which was new to Rusty and I. Saturday we drove the 40 miles to Andrews and participated in the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission meeting from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., when we left to get home before too late. The meeting went on for a time yet.
As Lon Burnam had told us, most of the meeting was about rules and procedures, and therefore boring and/or complex. Nevertheless, some of the more knowledgeable people among us spoke several times, at first just to get the right to speak, which is in part of the rules, but which was being shut down by the vice-chairman, until the Chairman arrived. I was happily surprised at the amount of discussion between the Commission members about various issues that pertained to the management of the waste dump. I think it bodes well for important issues that will be brought up by the public in regard to the dump as the situation develops. The meeting was filled with local (or is it loco?) waste dump (WCS) supporters with green tee shirts, about 200 or so, until after lunch, .
I had heard of the two women in Andrews who were actively opposing the dump, Peggy Pryor (and her sister, not present), and I happily found myself sitting next to her and hearing a bit about her struggle. She is smart, courageous and has an attitude that will keep her going for the long haul, it seemed to me. She reminded me that the dump had passed the necessary public measure by only 3 votes, so they have a lot of support.
Meanwhile, Lon had wanted me to get on the record with even just a question. So right before we left, I identified myself as a downwinder from Amarillo and asked the Commission the question, "who has the authority to expand the dump when that is requested?" They told me the legislature, which was probably obvious, but I wanted to remind them and others there that the dump will probably be expanded and become even more dangerous, unless something is done now to begin dealing with that possibility, not to mention the reality of the actual dump at the moment. Hopefully we can send someone to the Nuclear Free World retreat by the Dallas Peace Center (and others) in Palestine TX, Nov. 11-13. If anyone from the Peace Farm can attend this, please let me know. I think it may be very important to us. I hope to know more about it for our Sept. meeting.
Jerry Stein |
