Why Is Yucca Mountain A California Problem?  (PDF Version)

For more detail: HOME's Testimony in EPA lawsuit and National Academy of Science Transportation Panel

1. California Is Only 17 Miles Away.
Although we hear a lot about Yucca Mountain and Nevada, the California border is only 17 miles away. Both wind and water usually flow south here, away from all but a few Nevadans. Californians have not been informed or considered!

2. All Timbisha Shoshone Tribal Lands Are Within California
All three portions of Timbisha tribal lands, only recently returned to them after a 40 year struggle, lie to the south and west of Yucca Mountain, just inside the California border.

3. Transportation Routes Endanger Much Of The State. 
With nuclear reactors in four parts of the state, moving the irradiated fuel to Nevada would endanger several major cities and large portions of the population. Distinctive caskets on the remote roads in between would make easy targets. In one area, they are even considering barging the deadly waste over the ocean to urban ports with rail lines.

4. It would contaminate the huge underground Amargosa River.
Seven tributaries flow off Yucca Mt. into the Amargosa River. Runoff from the Yucca Mountain area and the Jackass Flats portion of the Nevada Test Site immediately affects all Amargosa Valley communities in California & Nevada. The Amargosa is one of the biggest rivers in the Western U.S. Some experts say that it is the longest underground river in the world. Some believe that it drains into the Badwater portion of Death Valley and ends there. Others believe that it continues south to a point just north of San Diego. It is large, and fast. Portions of it always exist above ground always, like the Tecopa Canyon, 50 miles south, now being promoted by the BLM for additional tourism. Other portions only overflow during flash floods. On the CA/NV border 27 miles south of Yucca Mountain, a new portion of it has been flowing above ground for over a year- very easily contaminated by any water runoff or airborn particles from above ground pools, trucks and cannisters.

On the south side of Highway 95, ten miles south of Yucca Mountain, is a pile of debris that washed down in 1995 and 1998. The US Geological Survey has published a report of those incidents, but the Dept. of Energy has refused to include this information in the Environmental Impact Statement. It is only studying Nevada, not California!

5. It would endanger millions of people in local communities and Death Valley.
Downstream from the site, groundwater is used for drinking, irrigation, and the largest dairy in Nevada, supplying thousands of children with milk. California hosts 1.4 million tourists a year at Death Valley.

6. In the desert, flash floods are common and very sudden.
Imported scientists don’t seem to understand how water functions in the desert. Flash floods are frequent, and can close roads for days. Local residents tell of washouts and closures in the early 70’s, early and late 80’s, 95, 98, 2001, etc. People have been cut off for weeks, with dry ice and food flown in when roads were impassable. In early July 2001, rains in the Yucca Mountain area over several days led to a tidal wave in Tecopa, 50 miles south.

8. We’re Already Hip-Deep In Nukes!
The Amargosa River crosses under Highway 127 thirteen times. This route is already used for an average of over 14 trucks a week of nuclear waste, and will rise to more than 14 trucks a day this year. It is also heavily traveled with toxic waste trucks headed to the Beatty NV dump (which leaks). We have one County Deputy, an overextended CHP officer, and a few local volunteer rescue workers in an area well-traveled by tourists in RVs on unfamiliar roads, driving in heavy winds.