H-4572              _______________________________________________

                            SUBSTITUTE HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 25

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By House Committee on Energy & Utilities (originally sponsored by Representatives D. Nelson, Jacobsen, Long, Sutherland, Todd, Unsoeld, Miller and Wang)

Read first time 2/7/86 and passed to Committee on Rules.

WHEREAS, It is the sense of the legislature that public confidence in the United States Department of Energy's program for the study and selection of the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 has been seriously eroded because:

          (1) The department has been overly concerned with meeting schedule, which may sacrifice quality of work;

          (2) The ranking methodologies and decision criteria that have been found seriously flawed by the state of Washington Nuclear Waste Board, the United States General Accounting Office, the Office of Technology Assessment, and other affected states and public interest commentators; and

          (3) The United States Department of Energy has refused to grant certain requested moneys to affected states, as required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982; and

          WHEREAS, The travel times of ground water to the Columbia River are still uncertain, as stated by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and independent contractors; and

          WHEREAS, The United States Department of Energy formally intends to preliminarily declare the Hanford, Washington, reference site suitable as a high-level nuclear waste repository prior to completing extensive site characterization studies of the site; and

          WHEREAS, Site characterization is not yet underway and more studies need to be substantially completed before any site is found suitable; and

          WHEREAS, If the department proceeds with this preliminary determination of site suitability, if other sites amongst the top three chosen for site characterization are disqualified, Hanford could be chosen by default;

          NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, By the House of Representatives of the state of Washington, the Senate concurring, That the Governor and Attorney General of the state of Washington should immediately pursue all means, including litigation, to prevent the United States Department of Energy from preliminarily declaring the Hanford Reservation a suitable repository site before site characterization studies are completed.