Los Angeles – The U.S. Energy Department’s controversial plan to build a nuclear-waste dump in Nevada was trumped by Western water law Tuesday, when a federal judge rejected the agency’s demand for 8 million gallons of water that state officials have refused to release.
Energy officials have said they need the water to drill test holes at Yucca Mountain, the site 90 miles north of Las Vegas where the government wants to store 70 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste from across the United States.
President Bush and Congress approved the site in 2002, but legal and political setbacks have stalled the project.
U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt denied an injunction sought by the Energy Department against Nevada, saying the department had made contradictory arguments that had no merit and were not supported by federal law.
“The validity of Western states’ groundwater rights and the right to regulate water in the public interest is not a right to be taken lightly, nor is it a right that can cavalierly be ignored or violated by a federal agency,” Hunt said.
Hunt said energy officials had acted with “arrogance” and possibly had misled Bush in 2002 when they said Yucca Mountain was suitable to store radioactive waste.
An Energy spokesman said the department would make no immediate comment.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
PENSACOLA, Fla.
Leader accused of misusing Scouts’ data
A Girl Scout troop leader accused of stealing her Scouts’ Social Security numbers and netting $87,000 in a tax scheme pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors say Holly M. Barnes, 33, asked parents of the 18 girls in her troop to give the children’s numbers on a fake medical release.
She entered the numbers of the Scouts, most of them ages 8 to 12, and other false W-2 information into Turbo Tax software, the 34-count indictment states. She filed false claims for more than $187,000 and got payments of more than $87,000, the indictment says.
Randall Lockhart, Barnes’ federal public defender, did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
WASHINGTON
Ex-Calif. legislator takes U.S. House seat
Former California Assemblywoman Laura Richardson was sworn in Tuesday as the newest member of the U.S. House. She replaces the late Juanita Millender-McDonald, a seven-term lawmaker who died of cancer in April.
Richardson, once a field worker for Millender-McDonald, won a special election in August to represent the heavily Democratic 37th Congressional District.
Her swearing-in leaves one vacancy in the 435-seat House, which now has 232 Democrats and 202 Republicans.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark
8 accused of planned attack, al-Qaeda link
Danish police arrested eight suspected Islamic militants Tuesday, charging two with planning a terrorist attack and attempted murder in what was described as a plot with direct ties to al-Qaeda.
Police evacuated a building in the Danish capital before searching an apartment, where they found large quantities of explosive materials. Six suspects hold Danish citizenship, officials said. The two chief suspects, both 21, were identified as a taxi driver of Pakistani origin and a man of Afghan origin.
MOSCOW
Mayor tries to ban bureaucratese
The mayor of a Siberian oil town has ordered his bureaucrats to stop using expressions such as “I don’t know” and “I can’t” or lose their jobs.
Megion Mayor Alexander Kuzmin, 33, has banned these and 25 other phrases as a way to make his administration more efficient, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Other prohibited phrases: “What can we do?” “It’s not my job,” “It’s impossible,” “I’m having lunch,” “There is no money,” and “I was away/sick/on vacation.”
