Climate Change

Texan fights out-of-state wastes

Staff Feb. 7, 1994 From the print edition

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  In Sierra Blanca, Texas, someone burned Bill Addington's family lumber yard to the ground last September. Addington says the arson was a message to him and others: Stop protesting the importation of sewage sludge and nuclear waste. Addington heads a citizens' group of over 70 people which has resisted waste disposal from other states for the past 10 years. But last year, Texas officials allocated 129,000 acres near the town of 3,000 as a dumping ground for some of New York's sewage sludge. Now, 45 train-cars per day deliver the sludge to the south Texas town. Pat Shaughnessy, an information specialist with the Texas Natural Resources Commission, says another plan is pending that could send up to 1.8 million cubic feet of low-level nuclear waste to Sierra Blanca in the next 30 years. Most waste would come from Texas, but nuclear power plants in Maine and Vermont might also buy some of the space. According to Addington, the soils of Sierra Blanca are permeable, the site is close to a major aqueduct, and it lies in an established earthquake zone. For more information contact Bill Addington, Save Sierra Blanca, P.O. Box 218, Sierra Blanca, TX 79851, or call the Texas Natural Resource Commission at 512/463-4632.


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