The Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico on Thursday tabled discussion on a resolution of opposition to hosting the Department of Energy’s planned deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test.
According to the Alamogordo Daily News, the three-member commission is divided over the project. Commissioner Janet White is vehemently opposed, as she believes it lacks public support, while Commissioner Susan Flores said she has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community. Commissioner Lori Bies’ comments were in line with White’s.
“DOE thinks that if they throw enough money at us they’re going to find a sucker somewhere, and they picked the wrong county again,” White said in a telephone interview this week.
The estimated five-year, $80 million project — which would deliver data on whether 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations are appropriate for storage of DOE-managed waste — has been blocked in three counties dating to 2016. Battelle Memorial Institute, the first company contracted for the test project, failed to overcome opposition in Pierce County, N.D., and Spink County, S.D., after which the contract was canceled last year.
DOE subsequently resolicited the contract, this time requiring that the bidders secure public consent in order to advance in the selection process. Battelle again ran afoul of opposition in Dale County, Ala., and DOE is now considering proposals for field tests in four separate locations: with TerranearPMC in Otero County; ENERCON Federal Services and DOSECC Exploration Services in Quay County, N.M.; RESPEC in Haakon County, S.D.; and AECOM in Pecos County, Texas.
White said three public meetings have been held in Otero County, and public opposition has grown at each gathering. She said the commission started the public process with a neutral position on the proposal in order to gather public feedback.
“I’m hoping that they will hold to their word and not proceed if they don’t have public support,” White said.
Public opposition has also risen in Quay County, where the County Commission has rescinded its support for the borehole project and signed a resolution in opposition. Quay County Commissioner Franklin McCasland said in an interview this week that constituents don’t trust the federal government. Opposition has also mobilized in Haakon County, where residents have asked county leaders to block the borehole.
While DOE has said repeatedly the project would not involve actual radioactive waste, and would not lead to disposal of such waste in the test borehole later, locals have been skeptical of the department’s intentions.
Formal opposition has not formalized at one location: Pecos County, which is about 150 miles south of Andrews County, where Waste Control Specialists plans to build an interim storage facility for nuclear waste. AECOM spokesman Chuck McDonald on Tuesday said his team has received entirely positive feedback from the community in Pecos, though he noted that opposition could form at any point in the process.
McDonald said his team has had a series of public meetings with the community, as well as an open house on March 31. AECOM has also established a full-time office in Fort Stockton, so representatives can commit more energy to the project.
“We’re doing well with the community effort,” McDonald said. “The (local) chamber of commerce came out and did little ribbon cutting ceremony for the office. We got a lot of folks from the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, which is a lead research entity out there.”
At this point, McDonald said, none of the local jurisdictions have taken official stances for or against the borehole in Pecos County.
