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Great News!
See Also: July 2002 Tell the California Legislature to Save Ward Valley Forever from a Nuclear Waste Dump! Support AB 2214: Read the Action Alert, Fact Sheet (PDF format), and Background!
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"No Ward Valley Nuclear Waste Dump" Legislation Signed by California Governor! Victory for Environmental Justice! In a victory for health, environmental justice and Native American rights, California Governor Gray Davis has signed Assembly Bill 2214 (sponsored by Assemblyman Fred Keeley) which prohibits the use of Ward Valley for a nuclear waste facility. The nuclear industry and the state of California had fought for years to site a nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley. If it had been approved, highly radioactive and long-lived radioactive waste from nuclear power plants would have been dumped in unlined dirt trenches above an aquifer with pathways to the Colorado River, drinking and agricultural water for over 20 million people. Ward Valley is also sacred land to the Native peoples who have lived in the area since time immemorial. In 1998, the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance (Ft. Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah and Colorado River Indian Tribes), Greenaction and many other organizations and individuals joined together in an historic 113 day nonviolent direct action and occupation of the proposed dump site that physically prevented federal police from entering Ward Valley to begin tests for the dump. The signing of AB 2214 by Governor Davis should forever prevent the beautiful and sacred area known as Ward Valley from being a nuclear dumping ground. |