The Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday joined a long list of opponents to a proposal to transport spent nuclear waste over local roads or rails to a disposal site in Tooele County.
Private Fuel Storage officials want to dump about 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on land owned by the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians, about 50 miles away from Salt Lake County.
The council passed a resolution opposing the shipments in a 6-to-1 vote, with Republican Mark Crockett as the lone dissenter. He praised nuclear energy as an environmentally friendly and sustainable power source. All the hubbub is just needless worry, he said, like fretting whether "the sky is falling."
"This is not a county issue," Crockett said.
Councilman Joe Hatch quipped back, saying Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who have opposed the shipments, shouldn't be characterized with the likes of "Chicken Little."
"It is important when we solve this problem," Hatch said, so that Salt Lake County and Utah don't become a "dumping ground."
The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce is urging government and business leaders to tell the Bureau of Land Management that they want the bureau to deny an application from PFS for a right-of-way permit on public land. The permit would be necessary to bring the nuclear waste onto the reservation site.
Chamber officials believe the PFS plan would devastate the economy and cripple Hill Air Force Base. F-16 pilots from the base train in Utah's west desert, which is dangerously close to the proposed waste site, said Natalie Gochnour, chamber spokeswoman.
The county's resolution also urges Salt Lake County residents to send their opinions to the BLM on the proposed PFS plan. The BLM is accepting comments through May 8.
Comments can be directed to the BLM through Pam Schuller, pam_schuller@blm.gov, or by fax to 801-977-4397, or by mail to Pam Schuller, Bureau of Land Management, Salt Lake Field Office, 2370 S. 2300 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84119.
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com