Kyle City Limits
by BRENDA STEWART
Tell me, honestly, do you ever get used to rape and pillage? Is there some point at which you just accept the, ahem, inevitable like Clayton Williams asserted 20 years ago in his campaign against Ann Richards? Texas seems to be laying back but, unless you’re Dallas millionaire Harold Simmons, the art of enjoying it must be in that adage “ignorance is bliss”, because no one’s talking about this and I’m not feeling the love.
Last spring, I wrote about a Perry-created group, the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission which granted a billion dollar contract to Waste Control Specialists to store the nuclear waste of Texas and Vermont just outside of Andrews, Texas. And, as life in Perryland would have it, not only was WCS the only company that vied for the contract, it just happened to be owned by his second largest campaign donor, Harold Simmons, who made his fortune creating toxic waste, thus completing the circle of strife.
But let’s back up. In anticipation of a lucrative opportunity, Simmons bought a dump site in 1995, in desolate west Texas, far far away from any trees that someone might want to hug, and began pumping cash into our permeable governor’s coffers (to the tune of $1.2 million in the last decade). Unfortunately, the 1,300-acre site Simmons bought to store the nation’s radioactive waste sits directly over Texas’ largest aquifer, the Ogallala, (which lies a scant 14 feet below his dump) and is interconnected to four additional aquifers. Despite continued objections by state engineers, geologists and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, licensing was approved in 2009.
Then WCS decided that they weren’t turning the profits they felt they deserved so in January, the Disposal Compact Commission agreed to allow 36 additional states to flush their nuclear detritus directly into the Lone Star. But here’s the real kicker: After collecting and “disposing” of the radioactive waste from 38 states, Simmons is only liable for a total of $35 million to cover any “corrective actions and post-closure” expenses. Who’s writing these contracts?
Last Wednesday, House Bill 2184, which will dictate how much, from where and how safely radioactive waste is dealt with by WCS, was voted out of the Texas House State Affairs Committee. Amendments were proposed in regard to transportation routes, containment viability, stewardship in transport and accident cleanup liability, but none were agreeable to the bill’s author, Tryone Lewis (R-Odessa), and therefore none were attached when the bill passed out of the committee.
I can just hear Simmons laughing all the way to the bank, marveling at the chump change it cost him to turn Texas into America’s pay toilet. But what about this man we just elected governor? Tell me what kind of man sells his home state to the highest bidder? Past robbing her piggybank to fund a transient, hollow lifestyle, it’s like putting your daughter out there for hire to “enhance your revenue stream.”
I just can’t shake the visual of Rick Perry, grinning like the Cheshire cat, feathers stuck to his lip, with Texas his canary.
