[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6363-S6364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE COMPACT

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, last night, I spoke about the Texas/
Maine/Vermont Compact bill, H.R. 629, that is now going to conference 
committee. It has to do with low-level radioactive waste being dumped 
in the community of Sierra Blanca, TX. It is a compact between Maine 
and Vermont that affects the people of Sierra Blanca.
  Last night, we sent instructions to conferees to insist on two 
amendments that had been agreed upon by the Senate. One amendment says 
that if the people of Sierra Blanca, disproportionately poor and 
Latino, are able to prove disparate impact--that they are 
disproportionately affected, that they have been targeted because of 
low income, because they are a poor community, because of the color of 
their skin--then they have every right to challenge the dump. I don't 
know why we don't at least give people that chance. That amendment has 
now been approved by the Senate. It is terribly important, because all 
too often when it comes to the location of these sites, we dump them--
no pun intended--right on the heads of poor people and communities of 
color.
  The second amendment--and I had a chance to speak about this last 
night--I call a protection clause. It is very similar to the amendment 
offered by Congressman Doggett which passed in the House. Basically, it 
says that if the compact waste is only supposed to come from Maine and 
Vermont, then let's affirm this with an amendment which makes it clear 
that the waste will only come from Maine and Vermont. Otherwise, there 
is a very good chance that the people of Hudspeth County and Sierra 
Blanca will become a national depository for nuclear waste from all 
over the country. That is the last thing I think the people in Texas

[[Page S6364]]

want. That is certainly the last thing that the people in the community 
of Sierra Blanca want.
  The reason I mention both of these amendments is that we now have 
instructions to our conferees to insist on these amendments in 
conference committee. This is a battle that has been going on for over 
a year in the Senate. I raised questions about this starting a year 
ago. What I said was that, as a Senator from Minnesota, I am concerned 
about this issue of environmental injustice and, if we have to approve 
this compact, let us make sure there is some fairness to this and some 
justice to it.
  My colleagues in the Senate have gone on record in favor of both of 
these amendments. The House of Representatives has gone on record as 
being in favor of the Doggett amendment, which is also a Wellstone 
amendment, that says, indeed, the waste will only come from Maine and 
Vermont.
  As we go to conference, I want to emphasize one point to my 
colleagues, and that is, don't strip these amendments from this bill in 
conference committee. That is what the nuclear utilities would like 
conferees to do, but it will make a mockery of the House and Senate. It 
will, in fact, give people not only in Texas but from around the 
country reason to think this is another example of a back-room deal, 
another example of the legislative process at its worst, another 
example of big utility companies riding roughshod over poor communities 
and, for that matter, regular citizens in this country.
  I want to make it clear to colleagues that it is extremely important 
that the conferees live up to our instructions and that these 
amendments become part of this bill. If they do not, it will be a 
striking example of unequal access to political power, which is, I 
think, the reason we have too much environmental discrimination all 
across the country in the first place.
  I make this plea to my colleagues, to the conferees: We have voted to 
keep these amendments in this bill. The Senate is on record unanimously 
as saying that these amendments should be part of this compact and 
therefore it is extremely important that these amendments not be 
stripped out. The issue of environmental justice deserves better than 
that, the people of Sierra Blanca deserve better than that, and people 
in our country have a right to expect a higher standard of conduct from 
their elected representatives than to try to knock this out in the dark 
of night.
  I say to colleagues, I have tried to work with my colleagues, even 
those who are in disagreement with me. But if these amendments are 
taken out of the conference committee--and I hope that they will not 
be, I pray that they will not be--but if they are, I will take 
advantage of every procedural means at my disposal to make sure that 
this does not happen, and to make sure that there is some environmental 
justice when it comes to this compact which all of us are going to have 
to vote on as Members of the U.S. Senate.
  I thank my colleague from Washington for letting me have an 
opportunity to speak from the floor to give colleagues a sense of where 
we are on this compact. I yield the floor.

                          ____________________