How Sanders Cleared Way to Dump Toxic Nuclear Waste on Poor Hispanics

[FrenchieCat]

“Before the rally Sanders invited the three West Texans to meet with him privately, and the Texans eagerly agreed. The meeting was no longer than Sanders’ attention span - when it comes to Sierra Blanca. “He didn’t listen,” Curry said. “He had his mind made up.” Afterward, Bernie was giving his pro forma campaign speech, never mentioning nuclear power or nuclear waste. Sierra Blanca activist Bill Addington, who’d arrived just that morning to join the march, along with his neighbor María Méndez, had had enough, and he yelled from the crowd, “What about my home, Bernie? What about Sierra Blanca?”

Several others joined in. “What about Sierra Blanca, Bernie?”

Sanders left the stage, which surprised no one in the small Texas delegation. Earlier, he had told them, “My position is unchanged, and you’re not gonna like it.” When they asked if he would visit the site in Sierra Blanca, he said, “Absolutely not. I’m gonna be running for re-election in the state of Vermont.”
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/2/17/when-brown-lives-did-not-matter-to-bernie

[NWCorona]

1. “My position is unchanged, and you’re not gonna like it.

I can appreciate his honesty. A normal politician would have just given lip service.

http://archive.bangordailynews.com/1998/07/30/maine-vermont-nuclear-waste-compact-approved-by-house/

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/105/hr629

[RobertEarl]

2. He's not in favor of nukes

The whole country has evolved, except for the H types on this matter.

Using this old situation is a detraction from the present day campaign and points out the utter shallowness of Bernie's opposition.

[NWCorona]

4. Agreed.

[TheBlackAdder]

23. That place opened 6 years earlier as a Yucca Mountain-type of waste depository! nt

[Live and Learn]

3. Recycling again, I see. If it were up to Bernie there would be no nuclear waste. Unfortunately,

corporations that donate to Hillary and other establishment individuals created the waste and it had to be dumped somewhere. Unicorns don't eat nuclear waste what would you have done with it?

You know damn well that he had very valid reasons for his vote. Here they are in his own words"

Let me address it from the perspective of someone who is an opponent of nuclear power, who opposes the construction of power plants and, if he had his way, would shut down the existing nuclear power plants as quickly and as safely as we could.

One of the reasons that many of us oppose nuclear power plants is that when this technology was developed, there was not a lot of thought given as to how we dispose of the nuclear waste. Neither the industry nor the Government, in my view, did the right thing by allowing the construction of the plants and not figuring out how we get rid of the waste.

But the issue we are debating here today is not that issue. The reality, as others have already pointed out, is that the waste is here. We cannot wish it away. It exists in power plants in Maine and Vermont, it exists in hospitals, it is here.

No reputable scientist or environmentalist believes that the geology of Vermont or Maine would be a good place for this waste. In the humid climate of Vermont and Maine, it is more likely that groundwater will come in contact with that waste and carry off radioactive elements to the accessible environment.

There is widespread scientific evidence to suggest, on the other hand, that locations in Texas, some of which receive less than 12 inches of rainfall a year, a region where the groundwater table is more than 700 feet below the surface, is a far better location for this waste.

This is not a political assertion, it is a geological and environmental reality. Furthermore, even if this compact is not approved, it is likely that Texas, which has a great deal of low-level radioactive waste, and we should make the point that 80 percent of the waste is coming from Texas, 10 percent from Vermont, 10 percent from Maine, the reality is that Texas will go forward with or without this compact in building a facility to dispose of their low-level radioactive waste.

It was very low level nuclear waste, an agreement by the 3 states involved and Texas wanted it because it made them a ton of money (George Bush was a strong proponent.) The landscape and low population (900) were the reason it was chosen.

Your slanderous accusation of racism is completely invalid and is adding to the toxic environment on DU.

[californiabernin]

12. Thanks for giving some perspective here.

"80 percent of the waste is coming from Texas, 10 percent from Vermont, 10 percent from Maine, the reality is that Texas will go forward with or without this compact in building a facility to dispose of their low-level radioactive waste."

That context makes all the difference. Context usually does.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. The permit for the Sierra Blanca waste site was ultimately denied

"On September 20, 1998 H.R. 629 and S. 270, the Texas Radioactive Waste Disposal Bill became Public Law 105-236. This third attempt successfully authorized the Texas-Maine-Vermont tri-state compact. However, despite Federal and state support, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission voted 3-0 on October 20, 1998 to deny the TLLRWDA a license to build a disposal facility outside Sierra Blanca. They rejected the application, citing concerns regarding the socioeconomic impact and safety. Others believe that pressure from Mexico and the SBLDF, along with Gov. Bush's last minute decision to oppose the vote two weeks prior to his reelection helped influence the decision."

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/blanca.html

[oasis]

5. Word gets around in the Latino community. I remember their boycott

against Coors Beer in the late seventies, early eighties. They dropped Coors from their favorite beers list and never came back. The same with Cal Gov. Pete Wilson and the anti Latino Bill 187. The GOP has got hammered by the Latino backlash. If I'm not mistaken, that was the period Loretta Sanchez wrested a longtime held congressional seat from GOP stalwart Bob Dornan.

Donald Trump will also feel their wrath in the GE.

[gordyfl]

7. Signed Into Law By...

Bill Clinton.

[FrenchieCat]

8. who wasn't from Vermont.....

But thanks for playing.

Cause it appears anything Bernie has done is ok...
especially if someone else did something too....

What has the guy been actually accomplishing for the last 20 years,
besides being a splinter?

And how did they come to a decision to pick that town? Fighting the passage of bill H.R. 629 in the senate, Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) spoke on the matter in great length and detail. In short, it was a case of environmental injustice. Despite the findings of the consultants that Sierra Blanca was not a good site due to its “complex geology” and also a history of earthquakes in the past due to tectonic faults in El Paso and Hudspeth counties, the Waste Authority still went ahead and picked the site because the people living there would be least likely to resist or make a fuss about it, since the majority of the residents are Spanish-speaking and poor. They had tried to pick other locations for the site, but was met with either lawsuit or fierce opposition. So, finally, the Waste Authority just gave up and chose the path of least resistance, procedures and recommendations be damned. Texas legislature also gave a helping hand by passing the Box Law and stripped the rights of the residents in Sierra Blanca from suing. The only recourse they could take was to obtain an injunction from the state Supreme Court, which means they would have to make the 500-mile trip to Austin just to be heard.

A factoid one should note here was that at this time, the governor for whom the TLLRWDA was working was none other than George W. Bush. Oh, and Jane Sanders, Bernie's wife, sits on the Board of this wonderful Texas authority.

[Dragonfli]

9. Sanders made him do it! by ptending to be a republican with something to sign to end welfare

For Spanish minorities (we all know Bill can't say no to signing something written by a Republican to further harm the impoverished), Bernie took advantage of that and so Bill was helpless before him and unwittingly signed it into law.

[Beowulf]

10. The People's View = AstroTurf

Self-proclaimed progressive site that pushes all the Clinton bull shit. Of course no listing of the people behind it. Despicable. Speaks to the character of Clinton and her supporters.

[FrenchieCat]

11. Story is real....

and better written and fact sourced than the stuff I see here for sure!

But I forgot where I am.....factless forum!

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Did that story mention that the permit for the waste site was ultimately not granted?

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/blanca.html

[FrenchieCat]

16. Did you read it...

and yes....but not because of Bernie!

[Art_from_Ark]

17. And not because of Bill Clinton, either

Because of, um, George Bush...

[Fumesucker]

18. Do a DU search for "spamden"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023729838

[Beowulf]

20. I just did. Thanks.

I think I'm going to need to take another shower before I go to bed after mucking around in that sewage! And the OP thinks that's a credible source for fact-based journalism.

[stonecutter357]

13. K&R!

[Cha]

19. Thank you for this, Frenchie!

[left-of-center2012]

21. Another hit piece by the Clintonistas

Keep slingin' that mud!
How will we join hands and sing 'Kumbaya' in November?

[Bluenorthwest]

22. In 2008 I learned from Ms Huerta that Obama took money to dump waste on poor people in Nevada...

"One of the things that, you know, they keep talking about, the progressive candidates, you know, Hillary Clinton voted against the nuclear waste dumping in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, while on the other hand Barack Obama actually took money from the company that was creating the nuclear waste and wanted to dump it in Nevada. So, you know, I think that that pretty much offsets Ted Kennedy’s endorsement."
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/1/democratic_presidential_nomination_could_hinge_on

Because of that I learned that what really got dumped at Sierra Blanca was not Nuke Waste from Vermont at all, it was trainloads of shit, actual sewage, from New York City.....New York City!?!?

" It is hard to imagine places more different than New York and Sierra Blanca, and the contrast has always underscored the mercenary marriage between the nation's largest city and the small town where it has dumped its sewage since 1992. That year, after Congress had prohibited the city from dumping its sludge in the Atlantic Ocean, New York signed contracts with several companies to treat and transport its sewage. One of them was a Long Island joint venture, which began shipping up to 250 tons every day on the 2,065-mile journey to West Texas. The Texas Observer, the political journal, recently called it ''the poo-poo choo-choo.''

The Long Island company, Merco, had first sought a site in Oklahoma, but after meeting resistance there learned about a failed resort called the Mile High Ranch in Sierra Blanca. The company purchased the 81,000-acre area so that the treated sludge could be spread on ''application areas'' as if it were fertilizer. The company rotates the areas of land chosen to absorb the sludge."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/27/us/new-york-s-sewage-was-a-texas-town-s-gold.html

So basically those who told me Obama was dumping waste at Sierra Blanca were not telling the full story, they did not mention that there was ongoing sewage dumping in Sierra Blanca for years and years out of NYC. Home of neither Obama nor Sanders. Home of Hillary Clinton, whose State was in fact dumping shit on Sierra Blanca at the time when some operatives blamed Obama for waste that was not in fact dumped while not mentioning the NY connection to real, ongoing waste disposal on a massive, repulsive basis.

So. Should I really be blaming Obama?