April 5, 1984
A number of sites in Presidio, Jeff Davis and Brewster counties are now being considered for possible disposal of low-level nuclear waste in Texas, according to the director of the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority.
Meanwhile, the authority is still looking at possible sites in Hudspeth, Dimmit, Borden, Garza and other counties, said Authority Director Tom Blackburn in a press interview this week. Thus far, the Big Bend sites are being considered only on a preliminary basis, based on geological formations located there according to map studies, he said.
Within two to three weeks, those sites will be matched against state-owned land in the tri-county area to determine site availability, according to Blackburn. The authority must obtain both surface and mineral titles for a site. Originally, 105 Texas counties were designated as site possibilities to satisfy an act of Congress that each state producing nuclear waste be responsible for waste disposal within its own borders.
The Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Act of 1980 set a deadline of Jan. 1, 1986, for compliance. However, Blackburn has said the lengthy site approval process is expected to push site construction back to early 1988 in Texas. He said two other locations are being newly considered, along with the Big Bend area. One of those is somewhere in the Panhandle and the other in South Texas. The site possibilities in Presidio County include a “major site” a few miles east of Marfa and running 15 to 20 miles toward the center of the county, and four “minor sites,” Blackburn said. He did not define “major” and “minor.”
In Brewster County, the authority is looking at two major sites and 13 to 18 minor ones, according to Blackburn. One major and one minor site are under consideration in Jeff Davis County — Blackburn said he planned to notify the three county judges on Tuesday by telephone.
Presidio County Judge Charlie W. Henderson on Wednesday confirmed Blackburn had called. “He said essentially that they were looking in the West Texas area for sites, had looked in Presidio County and might come back and look again; but at the moment there wasn’t any indication of any immediate activity, anyway.”
Henderson said there is “quite a bit of school land” owned by the state of Texas in Presidio County; and that the state General Land Office controls land in the southern part of the county, but who owns that land is unknown at present.
It was not known how much, if any, land in the county is owned by UT. Asked if the authority’s search for a site concerned him, the county judge said it is too soon for alarm and that he can only defer judgment. “If we get down to the point where there is to be an installation in Presidio County, well, of course we’ll get into it…(But) until we know how they’re going to actually contain that stuff wherever they put it, we don’t know the risk factor involved,” he said. He reminded that county judges have been sworn to uphold state law. “This (place for waste disposal) is something we need, and there has certainly been an expression of support from the county judge up there (in Hudspeth County).” The judges visited at a recent WTCOG Rural Affairs Committee meeting, Henderson said.
