Hidden Truth/Hidden Truth.iso/data/ftp-stuff/newstuff/nts-hearing

INI File | 1996-05-28 | 9.5 KB | 172 lines

[Nevada trip report]
[April 3, 1996]

On March 26, 1996, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a public hearing
on their environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Nevada Test Site (NTS)
at Cashman Field, in North Las Vegas. The Air Force's secret airbase at Groom
Lake came up during the hearing (mentioned below), because it is strongly
linked to the NTS. A copy of the 8 books in the NTS can be obtained for
no charge by contacting:

  Environmental Protection Division
  U.S. Department of Energy
  P.O. Box 14459
  Las Vegas, NV  89114
  telephone: [phone] or [phone] (for Nevada residents)
(Ask for the Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site, document
number DOE/EIS-0243).

Also, for a good piece of press coverage on the hearing, see the story by
Mary Manning on page 4A of the March 27, 1996 Las Vegas Sun newspaper.

The hearing was chaired by Don Elle, the Director of the Environmental
Protection Division at the Nevada Test Site. As one wag in the audience said,
"It's as if central casting in Hollywood supplied someone who looks like
the classic mad scientist!". The DOE had a number of exhibits with pictures
in the hearing room. I suppose the DOE was trying to convince people that they
are environmentally friendly at the Test Site by showing pictures of 'cute'
small furry animals. After Don Elle explained the EIS process, he opened the
floor to questions. The public's generally hostile tone for the evening was
set by the first question, when Michael di Floria stood up and asked, "Why are
we still making this deadly poison when we don't know how to clean up what
we've already produced?" Another man, whose name I didn't catch said that
he was a former NTS and Area 51 (Groom Lake base) worker and wanted to know
why the DOE lost his records, so that he was unable to get medical benefits.
Somebody asked Don Elle what he meant by "fissile materials" and he tried
to dodge the question instead of answering that fissile materials were the
plutonium and uranium in nuclear weapons. A woman asked about H.R. 1020,
currently under discussion in Congress, that would significantly increase
nuclear waste at the Test Site. This led a senior DOE official to ask Don
Elle, "what the hell is H.R. 1020?" during the break, exposing the DOE's
lack of knowledge about how events in Washington, DC could influence future
activities at the NTS.

After the break, the floor was opened to public comments. David Timothy, a
rancher from Utah, discussed the horrible medical problems that he and his
family had experienced from radioactive fallout, being downwind from nuclear
tests during the 1950s. He got cancer of the thyroid and lymph nodes at age
18, and family members had medical problems such as leukemia, and being born
without any protective enamel on their teeth. A Clark County government
official for nuclear waste matters, expressed concern that the DOE planned to
ship more nuclear waste to be stored at the NTS, through poor, minority
neighborhoods. A number of environmentalists complained about the storage
of chemical and nuclear wastes at the Test Site, and the cleanup plans for
the Nevada Test Site. This angered a former Air Force officer, Vic Skaar,
who said that he had been part of a nuclear weapons accident clean-up team
in Spain in 1967. He said that he had "ate, drank, and pissed plutonium for
81 days" and it didn't harm him. He said another member of the clean-up team
had died of cancer, but didn't think it was caused by exposure to plutonium.
This led to the quote of the evening, when a woman stood up and said, "I don't
want to wee-wee plutonium!". I presented material and used a military map and
other documents to prove that the DOE's predecessor, the Atomic Energy
Commission, and the DOE were deeply involved in building and operating the
secret base at Groom Lake (see below). If anyone is interested in the NTS
EIS process, you should make your comments to the address above before May 3,
1996.

I also did some hiking while I was there. I recommend hiking up Grapevine
Canyon, about 90 miles south of Las Vegas to see the ancient Native American
petroglyphs carved on the canyon walls and the small caves and springs. To
get there from Las Vegas, take U.S. Hwy. 95 south, and then go east on Nevada
Hwy. 163. (the turnoff is just south of the tiny town of Cal-Nev-Ari.) Several
miles before the turnoff to Laughlin, make a left turn on the dirt road with
the sign that indicates the road goes to Christmas Tree Pass. Go north on
this dirt road, and then turn left on the dirt road to Grapevine Canyon. The
petroglyphs are about half a mile up the canyon. (The U.S. Geological Survey
topographic 7.5 minute quad map is "Bridge Canyon, NV".). If you climb the
ridges, you can see the Colorado River and surrounding mountains off in
the distance and watch the hawks soaring above. If you continue north on the
dirt road to Christmas Tree Pass, you will pass Spirit Mountain. The Mojave
tribe called Spirit Mountain "Avikwame" and believed that it was the center
of the universe.

Paul McGinnis / [e-mail] / [e-mail]
   http://www.portal.com/~trader/secrecy.html

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STATEMENT OF PAUL MCGINNIS, NTS EIS HEARING, MARCH 26, 1996

Although the DOE prepared a comprehensive environmental impact statement (EIS)
for the Nevada Test Site, I am bothered by what was omitted for "national
security" reasons. For example, the DOE tried to obscure the existence of a
classified appendix to the EIS that discusses the Lyner complex in Area 1 among
other topics.[1] Without the information in the classified appendix, it is
difficult for the public to determine the safety and health risks posed by some
NTS projects.

Another project that the DOE has studied, that is omitted from the EIS, is the
Air Force's nuclear rocket program originally code-named TIMBERWIND, that later
became the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (SNTP) program, that was notorious
for having a classified EIS. This 253 million dollar program was planned for a
site near Saddle Mountain in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site.[2][3] If you want
to discuss safety risks, consider the effects of a rocket explosion like that
of the Space Shuttle Challenger or the Titan missiles, except with a nuclear
reactor onboard.

Perhaps the biggest thing that the DOE has tried to conceal is their role, and
the role of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in the saga of the Air Force's
secret airbase at Groom Lake. The EIS mentions plutonium contamination in what
it describes as Area 13 of the Nellis Air Force Range Complex, and then shows
maps in the EIS that clearly indicate that Area 13 is part of the Groom Lake
base.[4] The northeastern part of restricted airspace R-4808N, shown in the EIS
maps, forms a rectangular box on military maps, sometimes referred to as
"Dreamland" by military pilots, that contains Groom Lake and its secret Air
Force base.[5] The maps show that the NTS supplies electrical power to the
Groom Lake base and provides access to Groom Lake on 2 NTS roads, Mercury
Highway and Valley Road. Although R-4808N contains an Air Force facility, this
restricted airspace is controlled by the Department of Energy.[6]

AEC documents from the 1950s and 1960s have been released that reveal the role
of the DOE's predecessor at Groom Lake. The Groom Lake base was originally
built in the mid-1950s by the AEC's contractor REECo (Reynolds Electrical
Engineering Company) under the cover name "Watertown Strip" [7] for the CIA's
U-2 aircraft program. A 1957 press release about a pilot who had to make an
emergency landing at Watertown Strip revealed that "the Watertown landing strip
is in the Groom Lake area at the northeast corner of the Nevada Test Site."[8]
The Groom Lake facility eventually became known as Area 51 Camp and was
frequently referred to as such in Nevada Test Site employee bulletins in the
1960s. For example, one bulletin even provided the telephone numbers for Area
51's base commander and security office.[9]

By withholding information, like that described above, during a public
environmental impact statement process, the DOE decreases the public's trust
and violates the spirit of Secretary O'Leary's openness initiative.

References

[1] Dept. of Energy, Nevada Operations Office. Draft Environmental Impact
Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of
Nevada. Volume 1, Appendix A. DOE/EIS 0243. January 1996: page A-12.

[2] Dept. of the Air Force. Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Program. Particle
Bed reactor Propulsion Technology Development and Validation. AD-A281 442. May
1993.

[3] Dept. of Energy. J.F. Whitbeck and T. Olsen. Preliminary study of facility
options for ground testing of a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Engine.
EGG-NPD-9548 (DOE contract AC07-76ID01570). June 1991.

[4] Dept. of Energy, Nevada Operations Office. Draft Environmental Impact
Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of
Nevada. Volume 1, Chapter 4, Part A. DOE/EIS 0243. January 1996.

[5] Defense Mapping Agency. Nellis AFB Range Chart. NRCXX01. October 1988.

[6] Defense Mapping Agency. Area Planning. Special Use Airspace. North and
South America. AP/1A. September 14, 1995: page 81.

[7] Atomic Energy Commission. Col. Alfred Starbird. Telex 8103 to K.F.
Hertford on the Watertown Project. October 17, 1955.

[8] Nevada Test Organization, Office of Test Information. Watertown press
release. OTI 57-70. July 29, 1957.

[9] Nevada Test Site. NTS Bulletin Volume IV, Number 2. January 15, 1960.


For further information, contact:
    Paul McGinnis
    P.O. Box 28084
    Santa Ana, CA  92799