Follow the Money, Follow the Attitude: Column
LaRocco to Otter, Risch: No Contaminated Sand to Idaho
By Jill Kuraitis, 5-05-08
On Monday, U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco asked Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter and Lt. Gov. Jim Risch to stop 150 rail cars loaded with radioactive sand from entering Idaho. His staff hand delivered letters to each office.
In Idaho, the story of the shipment was first published here on NewWest.Net/Boise.
“I am asking you to stop this dangerous shipment of radioactive material bound for Idaho, for the sake of a clean environment, for the sake of precedent and for the safety of our children,” LaRocco wrote in his letter to Otter and Risch. Risch is LaRocco’s likely Republican opponent for the Senate seat now held by Larry Craig.
The U.S. Army is shipping 6,700 tons of contaminated sand to Idaho from Kuwait. It will arrive at American Ecology in Grandview, Idaho, sometime in May. The sand is from Camp Doha in Kuwait, a former Army warehouse complex used by Army Forces Central Command. The sand absorbed depleted uranium when some spent ammunition was caught in a fire during the first Gulf War.
LaRocco said the Kuwaiti desert is a better place for the sand, which contains lead and depleted uranium.
“Accepting this waste in the United States is poor public policy and environmentally unsound for Idaho,” LaRocco writes. “Let’s not turn Idaho into the world’s dump.”
LaRocco also notes past leaders, former Gov. Cecil Andrus and former Gov. Phil Batt, took firm stances against bringing hazardous materials to Idaho. He urged Risch to put aside partisanship and follow their examples.
In November 2007, American Ecology’s PAC gave $2,300 to Jim Risch’s Senate campaign. The PAC had previously given $1,000 to Risch’s 2006 race for Lt. Governor. Since 2002, the AE PAC has given more that $20,000 to the campaigns of Otter, Risch, Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, and Reps. Bill Sali and Mike Simpson.
“Let’s stop this now,” LaRocco writes. “It’s time for sound public policy to trump powerful special interests that hold sway over Idaho.”
I’ve called called American Ecology nine times since May 30 and asked to speak to their communications director, Chad Hyslop, but he has never returned a call. Several times, I was put on hold and told, “He’ll be right with you,” only to have someone else pick up the phone and tell me “he isn’t available,” a line which was repeated no matter what I said or asked. I also called the company’s landfill site and left a message for its director; the call is unreturned.
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Comments
He mentions former Gov. Andrus as taking a "firm stance against bringing hazardous materials to Idaho," but Andrus works for the Gallatin Group, which was a promoter for the Mid-American (Warren Buffet) proposed nuke plant in Payette. Reminder to Larry: The operation of any nuke plant creates tons of hazardous materials, which we already have a surplus of, since INL & the DOE have never done anything about getting out the radioactive waste that's contaminating the Snake River aquifer.
If Larry is so excercised about Idaho becoming a waste dump, why doesn't he rip on Idaho's tax breaks for the French-owned uranium enrichment plant, AREVA--now slated for erection (no pun intended) near INL. Now there's a major source of hazardous materials!
Larry needs to get real about the nuke industry. Idaho has tons of renewable CLEAN energy sources: both wind and solar. These are what need promoting--not nukes.
I just stand in awe over the absolute lack of citizen involvement and understanding about the nuclear threat our government is working hard to impose upon us. Take, for example Owyhee County. Their inept and outright ignorant and dishonest commissioners can violate their own ordinances and state laws including committing blatant and irrefutable criminal conduct such as that committed by Commissioner Dick Freund when he promoted the since abandoned and flawed nuclear power plant proposal of AEHI while family members were owners in the project!! Now they sit there in dumbfounded awe while U.S. Ecology upgrades their permit to accept this crap and say nothing.
Now Andrus is indignant after prostituting himself to the Gallatin group for some time?? How ironic. Everyone seems to get upset about accepting DU and lead poisoning from the Arabs who are treating us so well in the oil department. Huh, with the recent AREVA announcement being blessed by about all of the Republicans and half the democrats in the legislature what is the big deal?? Hell it is only radioactive stuff and a bit more waste.
Idaho people, you best get your head out and wake up soon, worry less about leash laws in the foothills, and more about the nuclear storm that our Governor, and our other bought and paid for politicians, are sending your way. I like dogs as much as the next person, but your pooch will be dead 10,000 years while this stuff is still killing your ancestors if it hasn't killed them all long before then. Nuclear has no where to go, it is deadly, and it is forever. Anyone who tells you different is either a simple liar or worse. And once it is here, it is here to stay, just look at Hanford, INEL etc. etc. Former governor Batt, where have you been since the DOE has failed to clean up INEL as they said they would. Been awful quiet out there in Wilder or Parma or where ever you are hiding.
At least LaRocco had some sort of awakening even if a bit late, I’ll take what I can get!!!
LaRocco's opposition to the importation of hazardous waste stems from his belief that the whole proposition is foolish. Instead of paying big bucks and risking accidental contamination by shipping radioactive, lead-contaminated waste halfway around the world, a safe and secure dump site for the waste could have easily been found in Kuwait. LaRocco has asked, via hand-delivered letters, Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter and Lt. Gov. Jim Risch to stop the shipments. American Ecology Corp. has contributed big bucks to both men.
LaRocco has not yet gotten a response regarding his letters. We do not intend to let this issue go.
Stopping the precedent of making Idaho the world's dump is something that all Idahoans can agree with.
Thanks for the comments and perspective. Feel free to contact me at . I will make sure LaRocco hears about your concerns.
Incredible reportage as always!
joe
It almost seems right now as if the Bush administration is doing their utmost, as fast as possible, to secure as much profit for greedy polluters as they possibly can, before they get swept from office. They are still hampering the EPA, making it serve their interests instead of the general interests of all citizens. Same for most of Idaho's big agencies: DEQ, ISDA, COMPASS, etc.