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In a surprising move that has aroused widespread opposition, the Mescalero Apache signed a deal that is "the first step" toward building a private nuclear waste storage site on their reservation in south-central New Mexico.
Mescalero leaders signed an agreement the first week of February with Northern States Power (NSP), a Minnesota utility, to enter into negotiations to construct a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) site for storing high-level nuclear waste from NSP's reactors.
Mescalero Apache President Wendell Chino said he believes the proposed nuclear waste storage complex is a step toward long-term economic self-sufficiency for his people.
"If we are successful in concluding a joint venture agreement to develop a private storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, it will provide jobs and other economic benefits for nearly 40 years," Chino said in announcing the contract.
Mescalero officials estimate the tribe could earn at least $50 million a year in lease payments for storing radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, many of which are running out of on-site storage space.
The deal immediately drew opposition from New Mexico's congressional delegation and Governor Bruce King, who has consistently fought against additional nuclear waste storage due to health and safety concerns of New Mexico residents.
King acknowledged that as a sovereign entity, the Mescaleros do not need state approval to enter into any agreements, but maintained that he would resist all efforts to build an MRS in New Mexico.
Likewise, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said he continued to oppose an MRS facility anywhere in the state and recommended that nuclear waste be stored closer to its point of origin in states where nuclear reactors are located.
Bingaman sponsored legislation last October to end federal funding for nuclear waste storage studies. The Mescalero Apache Tribal Council had received almost $300,000 to study the feasibility of an MRS, but with federal funding stalled, a privately owned MRS became more feasible, tribal officials said.
The most intense opposition to the deal came from Native environmental groups, including representatives of the Mescalero Apache, the Prairie Island Dakota, and the Western Shoshone, who held a press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol, on 8 February.
Ruffina Laws, a Mescalero Apache educator, blasted the idea of storing nuclear waste on her reservation and said Chino represents only a portion of the people.
"Many Mescalero Apache are opposed to putting nuclear waste on our reservation because they believe it is a violation of our sacred lands and sacred mountain, Sierra Blanca," Laws said.
"The ten-member tribal council has abused the trust the Mescalero Apache people placed in them by creating an illusion for the nuclear power industry that the Mescalero people want nuclear waste," she continued, stressing that many people have deliberately been excluded from participating in the announced plans.
"Why hasn't the plan been presented to the tribal membership to be voted on?" she questioned.
Tom Goldtooth, a Diné/Dakota spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, an international alliance of grassroots Native groups, also spoke at the press conference, calling on the nuclear industry to be accountable for environmental and health problems it has caused on Native lands.
"The history of the nuclear industry and nuclear waste within indigenous territories is a devastating one for our people. It has imposed its radioactive imprint on the bodies of our children and families," he said.
Fourth World Bulletin • April 1994
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
Created by Aigis Communications, Ltd