LANDFILL MEASURE VETOED NUCLEAR-WASTE BAN TOSSED OUT BY DAVIS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Despite widespread support from Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill Monday that would have banned the dumping of low-level radioactive waste at urban landfills.

The measure took on significance locally after disclosure that low-level radioactive waste from Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory was dumped at three Valley-area landfills.

Despite his veto on banning such dumping, Davis agreed to uphold a court-ordered moratorium on dumping low-level radioactive waste above background radiation levels at public landfills.

``The practical effect of this bill would be to force California businesses, universities and medical facilities to ship tons of material, such as dirt and concrete, that has not been determined to present a public health risk, to out-of-state disposal facilities,'' Davis wrote in a letter to the Senate.

``The cost of shipping this material out of state would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, placing an enormous burden on critical research and manufacturing.''

State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Rosemead, author of the bill, said the veto allows the nuclear industry to dump waste at other landfills and to continue recycling radioactive metals into household products.

``The Radiation Safety Act of 2002 vetoed (Monday) would have prohibited the recycling of radioactive wastes that can end up in our children's braces and in the baby spoons we use to feed our babies their morning cereal.''

She said she wasn't ``totally surprised'' since there was intensive pressure by the industry.

Last week, a host of Hollywood stars, including Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Martin Sheen and actor-director Rob Reiner, signed letters asking Davis to sign the bill.

Their concern followed disclosure that low-level nuclear waste was dumped for decades at the Sunshine Canyon, Calabasas and Bradley landfills, or was recycled into scrap that could be converted into spoons, zippers and children's strollers.

The waste included radioactive soil and debris from Santa Susana in the hills west of Chatsworth at levels estimated by the U.S. Department of Energy to be the radioactive equivalent of two chest X-rays.

The bill would have banned the disposal of low-level radioactive waste into all of California's 170 urban landfills and barred recycling of contaminated metals into consumer products. Romero initiated the bill after the state Department of Health Services late last year issued a regulation that would permit radioactive waste to be disposed of without restrictions into California landfills.

The regulation also allowed radioactive material to be used in consumer products. The regulation was adopted without conducting an environmental or public health assessment.

The Committee to Bridge the Gap and the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility sued the state over those regulations. A Sacramento County judge struck down the regulations in April and ordered the state to use the California Environmental Quality Act and to craft new rules on low-level waste disposal.

``In simple terms, we are on our way to meeting the spirit and intent of the legislation,'' said Winston Hickox, the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. ``We just thought the bill was ill-thought- out and ill-crafted.''

Davis' order also allows waste to go to Class I and Class II landfills. Class I landfills take toxic waste and Class II facilities take industrial and municipal waste.

Daniel Hirsch, president of the nuclear watchdog group the Committee to Bridge the Gap, said even with the moratorium, radioactive waste could still be shipped to the state's 19 Class II landfills, including the Simi Valley Landfill in Ventura County and the Chiquita Canyon landfill west of Val Verde off Highway 126.

``The San Fernando Valley area has a couple of landfills that have never received radioactive waste,'' Hirsch said. ``The governor just opened up two more facilities for dumping.''

The policy permits exposures from deregulated wastes at 25 millirems per year, or the equivalent of 300 additional chest X-rays over a lifetime. Hirsch said exposure to 25 millirems over a lifetime would produce a fatal cancer in one of every 1,000 people exposed.

``Most of us don't even get one X-ray unless there is a medical need,'' Hirsch said. ``Davis' policy would permit members of the public to get the equivalent of an X-ray every three months from conception to death, with no medical benefit or informed consent, just to save money for the nuclear industry.''

Hirsch said Davis has accepted $55,000 in contributions from Boeing-owned Rocketdyne; $153,000 from Southern California Edison, which owns the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente now undergoing decommissioning; and $123,000 from Pacific Gas & Electric, which owns a nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo.

``It seems clear that he would not have vetoed the bill had there not been pressure to do so by these nuclear contributors,'' Hirsch said.

Southern California Edison spokesman Ray Golden said the company had opposed the bill because it was not based on good science. Golden said Edison will not ship low-level radioactive waste to local landfills as it decommissions its nuclear reactor.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

DAVIS' MESSAGE