Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
TUCUMCARI — The Tucumcari city commissioners tabled a resolution Thursday that would oppose a proposed three-mile-deep borehole project at Nara Visa.
Bidding contractors and the U.S. Department of Energy say the borehole will be drilled only to test boreholes as being plausible as a means to eventually store highly radioactive nuclear waste.
The project contractors and the DOE have made numerous statements that the test borehole will not be a waste repository site.
Borehole opponents say the DOE will not guarantee that any site will be ruled out as a waste repository site.
A public workshop before the regular city commission meeting Thursday included discussion on the project.
Mayor Pro Tem Robert Lumpkin proposed the resolution to oppose the borehole project, because it “could be the first step in the siting of a nuclear waste repository in Quay County,” which would be at odds with the city’s planning goals, according to the text of the resolution.
Discussion at the workshop centered on whether the borehole at Nara Visa could become a nuclear waste repository.
Borehole opponents Ed Hughs, a Las Cruces resident with family members living in the Nara Visa area, and Bart Wyatt, a Nara Visa rancher, urged commissioners to vote to oppose the project, saying they believe the test borehole could become a nuclear waste disposal site.
Hughs and Wyatt said that based on documents they brought with them, the deep granite rock at Nara Visa makes it among the few places in the nation that the DOE would consider suitable for a nuclear waste repository.
They also said the DOE’s search for a repository site is becoming urgent as states where nuclear waste is currently being stored are preparing to fine the DOE for missing deadlines to establish a high-level nuclear waste repository.
District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya repeatedly interrupted Hughs and Wyatt, saying their statements were based on speculation.
“I don’t want speculation,” he said. “I want facts.”
During the regular commission meeting, Moya said he does not have an opinion one way or another on the borehole issue, but he wants to see better evidence to support either side.
Commissioner Todd Duplantis, District 5, said he would like to draft a new resolution that would oppose the siting of a nuclear waste repository in Quay County but would not rule out the test borehole.
Cydni Wyatt, Bart Wyatt’s wife, said Nara Visa area representatives are seeking wide support for their opposition to the borehole because rewarding of the contract to drill the borehole, like the licensing of a waste repository site, requires local consent.
The DOE could not be reached for comments.
