Bad Deeds

Rick Perry’s Big Donor Trying to Sneak Through a Nuclear Waste Dump Permit – The Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission (TLLRWDCC) has proposed rules that would allow importation of nuclear waste from 36 states across the country into Andrews County. That’s a massive expansion from the current rules that only allow nuclear waste from Texas and Vermont. In fact, the volume of waste transported, imported and stored could go up as much as 19 times.

The proposed dump would be operated by a company called Waste Control Specialists (WCS), which is owned by Harold Simmons, a powerful Republican donor who has given Gov. Rick Perry $1.12 million over the past decade.

There are significant safety concerns with the proposed dump site, including those that arise from a study performed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

The TCEQ staff who reviewed the permit unanimously recommended against granting a license for a low-level radioactive waste dump. In an interoffice memo, TCEQ technical staff said that it was “highly likely” that radioactive waste would leak into groundwater.

Furthermore, the dump site itself sits very close to the Ogallala and other aquifers. The Ogallala is a huge underground aquifer that provides drinking water for nearly two million people and extends beneath eight states. This aquifer also supplies water for more than a quarter of the country’s irrigated land.

Several TCEQ staffers quit in protest when their recommendations went unheeded by then-Executive Director Glenn Shankle and the facility was licensed anyway. But the TLLRWDCC is trying to push the rules through during the busy holiday season when people are distracted and before the legislatures of Vermont and Texas have had a chance to assess it.

Click the link below to take action before the deadline this Sunday night at midnight.