Barstow official says feds behind in training

By Steve Kanigher / Las Vegas Sun

Tractor-trailers travel on Interstate 15 through Barstow, Calif. Photo by Ethan Miller.

BARSTOW, Calif. -- The fire chief in this high desert community midway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas has a beef with the federal government when it comes to nuclear waste.

Fire Chief Eddie Varela said he doesn't care whether Congress designates Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's repository for high-level nuclear waste. His beef is that the federal government has made no attempt to help train his first responders in the event nuclear waste en route to Nevada spills within the Barstow Fire Protection District.

"The feds are behind in their training of the local jurisdictions," Varela said. "This waste will be traveling through our community and we have yet to be contacted by them. We need updated monitoring devices as well as more training. I'm concerned about that."

In Barstow, a truck driver's oasis situated at the junction of Interstates 15 and 40 and California Routes 58 and 247, Yucca Mountain isn't on the radar screen even though the town is at a transportation crossroads to the proposed nuclear waste repository. If Yucca Mountain is approved, thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste could come through Barstow on the way to the dump site.

The local issues of concern, though, are economic development, the Bureau of Land Management's desert protection initiatives and the fact the city of 23,800 residents sits along a major earthquake fault.

Barstow, Calif., Fire Chief Eddie Varela talks about the possibillity of nuclear waste being transported through his city. Photo by Ethan Miller.

"I wish I could tell you Yucca Mountain is a hot topic, but it's not an issue in Barstow," Varela said.

Not yet, anyway. Three years ago the Barstow City Council passed a resolution banning the transport of low-level nuclear waste through its community. That resolution had nothing to do with Yucca Mountain, however.

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale, like Varela, said he doesn't have an opinion on Yucca Mountain. But Dale said he would be concerned about the safety of the nuclear waste storage containers should they pass through town.

"We are obviously concerned about the transport of nuclear waste through our community by rail or highway," Dale said. "As a city we will be looking into these areas when we see a need to do so, and we'll ask for assistance in training.

"My big concern would be the proper packaging of the material for transport, the vulnerability of that packaging to degenerate or degrade in transit and whether it would maintain its integrity in case of an accident. It's something we'll want to know."

Although the City Council has yet to discuss Yucca Mountain, Dale said he believes the issue will come up if Congress selects Nevada for the dump this year.

"It appears that coming through Congress it's a done deal, and I don't know anything that will change that," Dale said. "But before we jump in as a city and make a bunch of statements we want to make sure this is taking place."

So far, area real estate agents say they haven't been overly concerned about Yucca Mountain or the prospects of radioactive material being transported through town.

Barstow Realtor Nancy Wunker of Century 21 Premier Realty said although local residents haven't given the nuclear waste issue "all that much thought," there is a good chance concerns would arise once shipments passed through town.

Because many area residents are tied to either the nearby Marine Corps Logistics Base or the Fort Irwin National Training Center operated by the Army, she does not foresee a mass exodus from town should nuclear waste come rolling down I-15.

"Many of the people that live here in Barstow are here because they have to be," Wunker said. "I doubt they would just pick up and leave just because nuclear waste appears to be coming through."

Commercial real estate business owner Wayne Soppeland said there is potential for an accident involving nuclear waste to have a psychological effect on prospective buyers of property in Barstow. But he also said he believed the only way area property values would decrease because of nuclear waste would be if there was an accident in which radioactive material was released.

"I don't see where there would be any measurable decrease in property values if there was no release," Soppeland said.

Barstow is a city that embraces the trucking industry. There are six truck stops, not to mention a strip of motels along Main Street. Drivers of big rigs eat and sleep in town, fattening the city's sales tax coffers.

Realtor Ron Mederios of Sahara Oasis Realty said he views the transport of nuclear waste as merely another facet of the trucking industry.

"Any type of business generated through Barstow will help the community," Mederios said. "The trucking industry is a great industry for Barstow and Barstow is the hub of the high desert."

Truck drivers passing through Barstow don't mention the subject of nuclear waste when they reach the Flying J truck stop, manager Rick Matthews said.

"Most of them talk about the traffic and the weather," he said.

Maybelle Lipking of Hodge, Calif., a volunteer at the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, talks about the possibillity of nuclear waste being transported through Barstow. Photo by Ethan Miller.

Maybelle Lipking, a volunteer at the Mojave River Valley Museum just off I-15, also said she doesn't hear people talking about nuclear waste.

"They'll wait for it to come to town, and then they'll complain," she said. "The biggest problem I see is that (Interstate) 15 is so congested on weekends. The double trailers concern me. I get behind them going to Laughlin sometimes and their fishtailing bothers me.

"I'm concerned that there could be danger with nuclear waste but no one knows what will happen if there is a wreck."

Barstow has had its share of truck accidents, mostly caused by speeding. Since 1991, there have been 90 truck-related accidents along I-15 in the Barstow area, resulting in two deaths and 30 injuries. But none of those accidents involved spills of hazardous materials, according to the California Highway Patrol.

In his three years on the job, Varela said the worst spills he could recall involved cement and diesel fuel from ruptured tanks. The general feeling in this city is that trucks have adequate safety features.

Varela, in fact, swears by the integrity of the containers that have been designed to transport nuclear waste. He knows about the subject because he was a deputy fire chief in New Mexico when that state was selected to be the site of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a low-level nuclear waste repository.

He said he had opposed the selection of New Mexico for that dump until he saw videotape of the canisters in action.

"I have all the confidence in the world that the container can contain the nuclear material," he said. "The container will withstand tremendous trauma, far greater than anything you'll see on the highway. They ran it into a freight train and it did not fail.

"But you always have to add human error from the chauffeur of the truck trailer or the packing of the container."

Some Barstow-area residents, such as Matthews, said they don't understand the fuss over Yucca Mountain.

"I don't have a problem with it," Matthews said. "This stuff has been around longer than most people want to believe. Nevada has the Test Site and blew up atomic bombs for a long time."

Mederios said a Yucca Mountain dump makes sense because of its location.

"There's nothing around there, nothing around for miles," he said. "I don't think it's a big deal."

But Adam Jaramillo, superintendent of the Barstow Cemetery District, said he doesn't like the idea of nuclear waste going through town because of the highway traffic and also said he feels for Nevada residents.

"My concern would be for those people in Vegas if there's a leak," he said. "Vegas is a big place. If that would ever get contaminated, look at how it would affect all those people."

And Lipking said she thinks Nevada may have gotten the short end of the stick politically.

"Regardless of what Nevada wants they don't listen to you in Washington," she said. "Of course, they don't listen to any of us in Washington."

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