News Release
October 3, 2000
 
Contact: Chuck Broscious 208-835-6152
Erik Ringelberg 307-732-2040
Dave McCoy- 208-542-1449

Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Announces rejection of Department of Energy Permit Application for WERF Incinerator

We are very glad that IDEQ FINALLY denied the WERF hazardous chemical and radioactive waste incinerator permit application and that DOE has agreed to close the plant on November 1, after eighteen years of non-compliance with environmental laws. DEQ and EPA for over a decade turned a blind eye to the WERF's inability to pass three trial burns, yet never ordered (until now) closure.

Everyone should appreciate that the WERF shutdown is happening NOT from DOE or IDEQ's concern for public health but from a Notice of Intent to Sue from the Environmental Defense Institute, Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, and David McCoy. The Notice laid out a concise legal argument showing not only DOE's violations but also DEQ and EPA's violations of non-enforcement of the statutes. Credit for this long overdue action goes to the public's initiative to protect our own safety when state and federal government do not.

It is a sad commentary when the regulators supported by our tax dollars fail to enforce the law, and public interest groups must resort to litigation, before action is taken to stop the polluters.