If you're nearing the California border with a back seat full of peaches, you're going to have to pull over.
If you forget, a friendly agriculture inspector will remind you.If you're driving down the Skull Valley Road in Tooele County with a trunk full of spent nuclear fuel rods, you're going to have to turn around and go get a state permit.
If you forget, a friendly sign will remind you.
"HIGH LEVEL NUCLEAR WASTE PROHIBITED EXCEPT BY PERMIT," reads a sign unveiled on-site Saturday by Gov. Mike Leavitt.
Leavitt and the state lawmakers who passed three anti-nuclear waste storage bills during the recent legislative session don't actually think anyone will try to haul nuclear-reactor waste down the road to the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation.
Nor do they believe Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of private utility companies from the East and Midwest, will try to transport spent nuclear fuel rods to the reservation without first obtaining approval.
The sign, unveiled ceremoniously by Leavitt moments after he signed the three bills into law Saturday morning, is purely symbolic - a show of force, however insignificant it may be, and a public notice that the state can at least regulate, if not control, the storage of nuclear waste within its boundaries.
"Symbols are valuable," said Chip Ward, a member of the environmental group West Desert HEAL and one of a handful of area residents who turned out to see the new sign. "It's a constant reminder of the governor's perseverance on this issue."
Signed into law by Leavitt was SB78, which takes control over the road away from Tooele County and gives it to the state. He also inked HCR6, a resolution opposing nuclear-waste storage in Utah, and SB196, which establishes state regulations and a permitting process PFS will have to fol-low.
SB196 requires a $5 million up-front application fee and a $2 billion bond in case anything goes wrong. It enables the Utah Department of Transportation to charge fees for the transportation of nuclear waste across its roads.
"Signing these bills will add substantially to our ability as a state to protect the health and safety of our citizens against the storage of high-level nuclear waste," Leavitt said from behind a podium on the side of the road.
"This is material that is lethally hot for 10,000 years and we don't want it here."
Neither do many Goshutes, according to Margene Bullcreek, Garth Bear Sr. and Sammy Blackbear, three of the 17 adult Goshutes who actually live on the reservation. They came out to support Leavitt and let Utahns know that not all of the 69 adult members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes like the agreement the tribe already has signed with PFS, despite the riches it could bring.
"The thing is, a lot of members that want it don't even live out here so they don't have to suffer the consequences. They just want the money," said Blackbear, a 33-year-old single parent who is raising three children on the reservation.
Blackbear said he has told Leon D. Bear, chairman of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, that tribal property could be used for other forms of economic development, including farming.
"Of course I could use (the money), but there are some things that are not for sale," Blackbear said.
Before PFS has to worry about the state's requirements, it must receive permission to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel rods on the reservation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That could take three or four years.
Dianne Nielson, executive director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, joined Leavitt behind the podium Saturday. She said the state should know soon if it will be allowed to officially argue its case against the PFS plan before the commission.
"We've raised a number of issues, technically and procedurally, with the permit" application, she said.
After unveiling the sign, Leavitt took off for a flight to St. George. He was scheduled for two more bill signings Saturday - one in Pan-guitch at 3:30 p.m. and another in Richfield at 4:30 p.m. Leavitt could have signed the bills in his office, but said he likes to sign some bills on location to emphasize new laws he thinks are particularly important.
Vicki Varela, the governor's spokeswoman, said she didn't know how much the daylong bill-signing tour would cost taxpayers.
Leavitt apparently got off to a late start Saturday. The black sedan carrying the governor clearly exceeded the posted 75 mph speed limit on I-80 in a rush to get to the media event on time. Leavitt said he was taking a nap and didn't notice how fast the car was going.
The governor has until midnight Tuesday to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature. He still has not decided which ones to veto, he said, but has separated the measures he might veto into a pile of their own. He said he doesn't know how many bills are in that pile.