Reservations About Hanford

HANFORD, Washington-Indians have not been the only ones to question the selection of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation as a nuclear waste dump.

A government report determined that Hanford is the most expensive of three sites proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE) for the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository, costing $12.3 billion, or $4 billion more than if it were located in Nevada or Texas. Repositories in Nevada or Texas would cost $8.5 billion to build, operate and decommission.

The site's geological complexity would also make it the hardest to mine, operate, and protect the environment from lethal radioactivity for the required 100,000 years, according to an environmental assessment released by the DOE.

"They ignored their own methodology and picked Hanford anyway," said Terry Hussman, director of Washington's Office of High Level Nuclear Waste. "The selection was purely arbitrary."

Federal officials have said only that Hanford is the sole basalt site of the five that were considered.

To counter opposition that has been voiced over the plan, the DOE has announced a $1 million campaign to inform Indian tribes in the Northwest as well as other residents of Washington and Oregon about the plans to store the waste, which has been accumulating since 1944 at Hanford, according to DOE spokesperson Bill Brewer.

The "DOE needs input from the states of Washington and Oregon and affected Indian tribes to guide the multi-billion dollar effort," he said.

But, as Indian groups in the area are currently reviewing 19,000 documents that were recently declassified by the DOE on nuclear accidents and tests at Hanford in the last 40 years, support does not seem likely.

In particular, the documents show that 5,500 curies of radioactive iodine were released by the U.S. government in a 1949 test at the facility, an amount at least 100 times that released at the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island.

- Indigenous Press Network

Indigenous Links

In an innovative use of high technology, a group of Native Americans have established a computer network to link together groups of native peoples, as well as educators, journalists, human rights activists, and policy makers.

AICOM, as the service is called, provides access to a network bulletin board, conferences on particular issues, an electronic mail service, as well as a weekly news service.

The Indigenous Press Network (IPN) issues weekly reports via computer terminals as well as a printed synopsis of stories for subscribers who may not have access to a computer.

NATO Flights Jeopardize Indian Culture

To the Innu hunters of La Romaine, Quebec, lowlevel flights by NATO jets not only destroy the tranquillity of their remote villages, but, more importantly, the flights may jeopardize their subsistence survival.

The Innu fear that the low-flying planes over their camps and hunting territory in La Romaine and other communities in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula would scare away wildlife.

In June, 1985 the Canadian government announced the nomination of Goose Bay as a possible site for an $800 million Tactical Fighter Weapons Training Center, and said it would spend $93 million over a ten year period to encourage NATO to locate there. If approved, the NATO base would bring to the QuebecLabrador peninsula three or more Tactical Air Weapons Ranges, 130 NATO aircraft annually, and 1500 military personnel and their families. NATO air forces will conduct low-level navigation and bombing practices, day and night, at altitudes as low as 100 feet over large areas of boreal forest and tundra, as well as air-to-air training at higher altitudes and air-to-sea maneuvers.

- Ploughshare Monitor

Dam Ousts Malaysian Natives

BELAGA, Malaysia-Deep in the interior tropical forests of Sarawak in Borneo, 5,200 natives in six ethnic groups are fighting for their land and their centuries old way of life.

The threat comes in the shape of a gigantic dam which, if built, will flood about 700 square kilometers (173,000 acres) of forests, including 52 longhouses belonging to the natives of 11 communities.

Work on the Bakun Dam-destined to be Southeast Asia's largest and most expensive project-is scheduled to begin within the next two years. When completed, it will reach a height of 20 meters and will have a 2,400 megawatt capacity. From this dam, 750 megawatts of electricity will be transmitted under the South China Sea to Peninsular Malaysia by cables 650 meters in length-making it the longest undersea cable system in the world.

According to government representatives in Malaysia, the project will spur development by providing an inexpensive source of electricity, saving the country the equivalent of 85,000 barrels of oil a day, and promoting timber exports and tourism.

But some economists are concerned over the cost of the plan. Projected to cost four billion dollars, it will be Malaysia's most expensive undertaking.

"In the present recessionary times, this is too risky," said Ismail Salleh, associate professor of economics at Malaysia's National University, "especially since the dam will take a long time to pay off. And we'll [end] up more heavily indebted to foreign banks when our foreign debt is already too high."

The project is also facing strong opposition from the country~s vocal environmental groups, who argue that a large tract of tropical forests will be covered, disrupting the region's ecological balance, destroying over 30,000 acres of farmland and displacing over 5.000 native people.

Critics also fear that the dam will increase the incidence of water-borne diseases, such as schistosomiasis and malaria, spread by organisms that thrive in lakes.

Proponents of the project claim that the native people welcome the plan since it will enable them to resettle in more "modern" surroundings.

But, among the native peoples of Belaga, resistance is widespread.

"Let the Dam come and flood us," a 60 year old native women said. "I won't move out. I would rather die with the land."

- Third World Network

Apache Lose Water Rights

SAN FRANCISCO-Against strong criticism from representatives of the Apache Indian tribe here, the 9th District Appeals Court on February 7, 1986 ruled that the state of Arizona may determine the water rights from the Salt River for the tribe.

"What is being practiced here is genocide," charged Apache Indian tribe attorney William H. Veeder. "The magnitude of the outrage can't be comprehended unless you contemplate desert land without water."

The 9,000 member White Mountain Apache tribe has accused the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of mismanaging the tribe's water resources in order to increase water availability to federal reclamation projects. The water, which is used by the tribe for agriculture, is being diverted to Phoenix, among other places.

In their suit, the tribe asserted that Arizona has no power of administration over their water and challenged a federal declaration abandoning title to 14,000 acres the tribe argues was erroneously excluded from a survey of the White Mountain reservation in 1887.

But, the 9th District Appeals Court has upheld a U.S. District Court dismissal of all charges against the government except the mismanagement issue.

Although the tribe wanted to represent itself in court, its case has been taken up by the Department of the Interior and the Justice Department.

The tribe's opposition to the federal government's handling its case "has by now become an exercise in futility" although it was "understandable at first," Judge William Canby wrote in his appellate decision.

According to Canby, the tribe "might lose all of its water" if they succeed in forcing the federal government to stop representing the tribe.

- Indigenous Press Network