Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice 202 Harvard SE Albuquerque, NM 87106 505-268-9557   Updated: 22 May 2009 Newsletter June 2009
June 2009 Newsletter Contents A Chance and a Reason to Speak Out on WIPP Membership Application	A Chance and a Reason to Speak Out on WIPP During 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency will be conducting the second re-certification process for WIPP, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, the nations first repository for military radioactive waste. On Tuesday, June 30, EPA will hold an afternoon and evening discussion in Albuquerque to listen to public comment on WIPP's re-certification, times and place yet to be announced. Important information that will hopefully spur much public comment during these round table discussions was revealed last autumn. A peer review group of scientists, pulled together by the Department of Energy, stated that the water flow model for the aquifer above WIPP has failed and that this aquifer, according to monitoring well data, is rain-water recharged, not a perched aquifer of ancient sea water as stated in DOE's original application to EPA. This week Dr. Richard Phillips submitted a study to EPA correlating rainfall events with rises in monitoring well heads and delineating the implications of rainwater recharge of the aquifer above WIPP for the stability of the site.
Yucca Mountain, the chosen repository for high-level (commercial) waste, was recently rejected, partly due to similar evidence of site instability. Conversely, WIPP, or a site close by, is now on a list to be considered for high-level waste disposal. Let's head off this idea with our testimony on June 30th. Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping will hold an information meeting and dinner on Monday, June 15 at six pm at the Peace Center to prepare our community for the round table discussions on Friday, June 30. For more information, contact CARD, 266 2662, 242 5511, contactus@cardnm.org , 202 Harvard SE, 87106. Please send calendar items, comments, and questions concerning this Web document to Web@abqPeaceAndJustice.org .