The Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico on Thursday will vote on a resolution of opposition to hosting the Department of Energy’s planned deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test.
“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,” Otero County Commissioner Janet 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 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 contractors secure public consent. Battelle again ran afoul of opposition in Dale County, Ala., and DOE is now considering proposals for field tests in four separate locations: 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.
The borehole has also garnered public opposition in Quay County, where the county commission has rescinded its support for the project, and Haakon County, where residents have asked county leaders to block the borehole. AECOM spokesman Chuck McDonald on Tuesday said his team has received entirely positive feedback from the community in Pecos County, though he noted that opposition could mobilize at any point in the process.
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.
