104th
Congress: Democratic Perspectives 103rd-107th
Congress Committee Activity The `Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act'--H.R. 558--does not deserve the support of the United States Congress and should not be ratified by the House. The overwhelming vote in the House Commerce Committee should not lead one to believe this compact is non-controversial. What the Commerce Committee did was vote against the interests of the 2,900 citizens of Texas' Hudspeth County.
By not being regional in nature, this compact does not conform with the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Act of 1980. By choosing to locate the compact site within fourteen miles of an international border, this compact subjects the Federal Government to an unnecessary and excessive financial liability. The siting of the compact clearly violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the La Paz Agreement between the United States and Mexico which called for mutual cooperation to protect and improve the environment along our common border.
Section 4, Subsection (a) of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act states:
(2)(A) To carry out the policy set forth in paragraph (1), the States may enter into such compacts as may be necessary to provide for the establishment and operation of regional disposal facilities for low-level radioactive waste. (Emphasis added.)
The benefit of a regional compact is to minimize the risk to citizens living in states outside of the compact. It was not the intent of the framers of the Act that radioactive waste would be moved over thousands of miles through numerous states, including highly populated areas, that have no vote or legislative oversight of the compact.
This compact is unlike any other compact previously approved by Congress in that the host state--Texas--is the only state that has proposed to place its compact site on an international border, near the Rio Grand River, in an environmentally sensitive area.
The proposed site, which is the only site being considered by the State, is also a volatile earthquake zone. On April 13, 1995, an earthquake scoring 5.6 on the Richter scale struck the West Texas region. Its epicenter was less than one hundred miles from the proposed site, and the quake was felt by individuals several hundreds miles away. Numerous earthquakes have occurred in the area--the largest, 6.4 on the Richter scale in 1931 with its epicenter only 40 miles from the site--and the U.S. Geological Survey has concluded that quakes of 7.5 magnitude could occur at any time along any of the fourteen faults in the immediate vicinity.
Any contamination in Mexico resulting from damage to the disposal facility due to an earthquake will force the United States government to compensate the Mexican government and private citizens for any damages. The siting of this compact in a geologically volatile area should be of considerable importance to this Congress.
Proponents claim that the siting of the compact does not violate the La Paz Agreement because the State of Texas has notified the Mexican Government of its decisions throughout the selection process. However, the Agreement clearly calls for a coordinated, cooperative effort to resolve the environmental problems along the border--not to create new ones. What is the point in attaining bi-national agreements to cooperate if a U.S. state entity can unilaterally circumvent the agreement, leaving the foreign government no recourse? That is why the Federal government has reserved foreign relations as its responsibility. This Congress would not tolerate any such action if taken by a Mexican state government. It is our responsibility to assure that state governments do not violate or jeopardize international agreements.
It is completely within the purview of this Congress to attach conditions to the approval of a low-level radioactive waste interstate compact.
I was pleased to have the support of fourteen of my colleagues for my amendment which would have made approval of this compact dependent upon the siting of the disposal site in a location no adjacent to an international border which is also an active earthquake zone.
I believe this to be a reasonable and rational provision and am disappointed that this committee chose to ignore the potentially devastating effects ratification of this compact will have on the border region and the federal taxpayer.
John Bryant.
104th
Congress: Democratic Perspectives
103rd-107th
Congress Committee Activity