ACTION HALTS HUGE BOMB BLASTS AT LIVERMORE LAB SITE 300, Community Members, Environmentalists Hail Air District Decision to Revoke Permits Following Citizen's Challenge

For immediate release: March 7, 2007

Tri-Valley CAREs

TRACY: In a major victory for local activists, permits that would have allowed Livermore Lab to increase its open air explosions annually by 8-fold have been cancelled by the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District. Citizens and groups challenging the permit received the news by phone from the air district; no formal statement has yet been released.

Site 300, Livermore Lab's high explosive testing range, was granted permits in November 2006 to detonate up to 8,000 pounds of high explosives annually and 350 pounds daily. These explosions would also involve unknown quantities of toxic and radioactive material including Uranium 238. The Lab's permit application was silent about the exact contents of the explosions.

Site 300 covers 11 square miles, and is located on Corral Hollow Road, just off I-580 in the Altamont Hills between Livermore and Tracy. Local businesses and community members were alarmed and demanded that the air district conduct public hearings, disclose more information about the blasts, and look carefully at the health and environmental impacts that could result from the explosions.

Tracy business owner Bob Sarvey formally appealed the permits and a hearing was scheduled for today in Modesto. The district notified the parties yesterday afternoon that the Lab would have to reapply if it wanted to obtain permits for these large explosions.

"The big winner today is the environment in and around Site 300," declared Tri-Valley CAREs' Staff Attorney, Loulena Miles. "If these huge explosions had been allowed to go forward, the hills, nearby waterways, the workers and the surrounding community would have all been put at risk. We adamantly argued that additional environmental review was required before any permit could be considered. I am gratified that the air district heeded our plea."

Miles continued, "Community opposition truly made the difference in getting these permits cancelled. And, continued vigilance is critical to ensure that Livermore Lab does not return to the air board with a second permit application that is similarly incomplete. We will be watching."

"I filed the appeal because I could see the Livermore Lab wanted to fast track these permits without informing the community about the risks involved in the project," said Bob Sarvey, a long-time Tracy resident and business owner. "I certainly feel safer not living under a cloud of radioactive materials exploded at Site 300." Sarvey and his family live on Corral Hollow Road, where past blasts from Site 300 have blown out windows in their home.

The permits that were revoked today mark the first attempts by Livermore Lab to obtain county permission for open-air detonations at Site 300. The Air Pollution Control District has only been in existence for 15 years. During this time, Site 300 open-air explosions were conducted without permits because the blasts were at a lesser volume and yield. Livermore Lab is also applying to the Calif. State Dept. of Toxics to increase Site 300's waste storage from 3,300 gallons to 5,500 gallons.

"It was astounding that the Air Pollution Control District issued permits to detonate explosives involving radioactive materials outdoors on a hazardous waste site, a mile from a planned 5,500-unit residential area, without the public review required by the California Environmental Quality Act," said Trent Orr, a lawyer with Earthjustice, a national nonprofit that, along with Tri-Valley CAREs, provided written arguments to buttress the challenge.

Orr continued, "We're pleased to learn that the District has withdrawn these permits and look forward to the required in-depth review of this dangerous proposal, which should lead to its rejection as utterly incompatible with human health and the surrounding natural environment."

Site 300 is already on the federal Environmental Protection Agency's "Superfund" list of most contaminated locations in the country. Livermore Lab is presently cleaning up extensive contamination throughout the site, including a two-mile plume of heavily contaminated groundwater containing radioactive and toxic debris from past operations.

The residential population in the area surrounding Tracy is growing dramatically. A 5,500 housing development called Tracy Hills is planned for one mile outside of the fence line. The seven million people in the San Francisco Bay Area could be affected by wind or water-borne contamination from the blasts.

Site 300 is also on Homeland Security's "short list" of sites being considered to host a massive bio-lab, known as the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, where bioweapon agents will be studied on animals in a maximum containment laboratory the size of 5 Wal-Mart stores. Homeland Security will decide whether to study the Tracy site as one of "finalist" candidates for the massive bio-lab in the coming months.

Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director Tri-Valley CAREs

San Joaquin air officials rescind permit for testing nukes

Officials Block Radioactive Weapons Test In Altamont Hills

David stuns Goliath
Shoe store owner Bob Sarvey won an appeal when regulators revoked a permit for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to test bigger bombs in Site 300

Mock nuke blast permit revoked:
Bombs would contain radioactive material

San Joaquin air officials rescind permit for testing nukes

POSTED: 8:40 am PST March 8, 2007
UPDATED: 1:48 pm PST March 8, 2007

TRACY -- San Joaquin Valley air officials have rescinded their decision to
allow the federal government to test its nuclear weapons arsenal in the
Altamont Hills after they learned the bombs would have radioactive material.

The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District initially granted a permit
to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to test the 350-pound bombs on Site
300, a 7,000-acre open field owned by the lab off Interstate 580 near Tracy.

But air officials changed course when they learned the tests would involve
depleted uranium.

"They did not tell us they had radioactive emissions (in the explosives),"
agency executive director Seyed Sadredin told the San Francisco Chronicle.
"I'm not saying they tried to hide it. They did not think it (the
radioactivity) was significant."

Sadredin said the agency found out about the radioactivity after local
residents brought it to his attention.

Lawrence Livermore lab spokesman David Schwoegler defended lab officials'
decision not to mention the use of depleted uranium in the original permit
application.

"Generally, depleted uranium is not considered radioactive because its
radioactivity level is so low as to be equal to or below background level,"
he said. "It is in the ballast of every sailboat and jetliner in commercial
use."

Schwoegler said lab officials have not decided how to respond to the
agency's decision, which was made public Wednesday.

The planned tests, which were to be conducted over the next 18 months,
would have simulated full-scale nuclear weapons blasts. Because the U.S.
halted testing of real nuclear bombs in 1992, officials have used depleted
uranium to determine how well the nuclear weapons are holding up with age.

"If these huge explosions had been allowed to go forward, the hills, nearby
waterways, the workers and the surrounding community would have all been
put at risk," Loulena Miles, staff attorney for Tri-Valley Communities
Against a Radioactive Environment, said in a statement praising the
agency's decision.

Copyright 2007 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David stuns Goliath
Shoe store owner Bob Sarvey won an appeal when regulators revoked a permit for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to test bigger bombs in Site 300

By Niko Kyriakou/TRACY PRESS

Press file photo - VICTORIOUS:Local activist and shoe store owner Bob
Sarvey shows a map of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Site 300 to
the Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond committee in October during discussions about
a proposed bio-lab. Sarvey's work against increased outdoor bomb testing at
Site 300 has resulted in the lab's air pollution permit to be rescinded.

TRACY: Local activist Robert Sarvey has convinced air pollution regulators
to pull the permit allowing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's to
increase the size of outdoor test explosions conducted at Site 300
southwest of Tracy.

Anti-nuclear weapons groups applauded the news.

"Those explosions were a very credible threat to the people and the
environment," said Loulena Miles, staff attorney for Tri-Valley Communities
Against a Radioactive Environment. "This is a major victory for the
community because there will be opportunity for public comment and even a
hearing."

Last November, the lab obtained permits to detonate up to 350 pounds of TNT
per day and up to 8,000 pounds per year at Site 300 - exceeding a previous
limit of 100 pounds per day and 1,000 pounds per year.

Tracy's City Council also voted 3-1 in February to support the lab's plan
to increase the size of its outdoor explosions, with Councilwoman Irene
Sundberg in dissent. Mayor Brent Ives did not vote because he works at the
lab.

But the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District revoked the new
permit Tuesday after reviewing an appeal filed by Sarvey, owner of a local
shoe store.

Sarvey's appeal tipped off the district that the lab's tests sometimes
involve radioactive materials like depleted uranium and tritium - something
the lab had not reported.

"(The lab) did not quantify the emissions or describe the radioactive
emissions on their application," said Seyed Sadredin, director of the San
Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. "Out of caution, we are
rescinding the permit."

But the lab argues radioactive materials were absent from its permit
application because those substances fall under the jurisdiction of the
Environmental Protection Agency and not the county's air pollution control
district. The lab insists that its explosives tests abide by all state and
federal laws.

Sadredin said he was not sure whether California's Environmental Quality
Act had jurisdiction over the radioactive pollution produced by Site 300.

"It's a question whether CEQA would apply, or federal requirements," he said.

But Sarvey says the state's environmental quality act does cover Site 300.
The act mandates the lead regulator agency, in this case the San Joaquin
Valley Air Pollution Control District, to investigate all health-related
pollutants, including radioactive ones, he said.

Once the air pollution district finds out just how much radioactive
material is exploded at Site 300 - information the lab said it would gladly
provide - the district will do a health study.

The district will seek outside help to do the analysis as it rarely deals
with radioactive materials, Sadredin said.

Initially, the air district only looked into the health impacts of
nonradioactive toxic materials and fine dust released in the test blasts,
which it deemed were within legal limits.

If regulators find in their new study that the radioactive pollutants pose
a human health risk, the lab may decide to "scale down how much
(radioactive) material they want to burn or use in explosions," Sadredin
said.

Tri-Valley CAREs believes the radioactive tests pose health risks to the
local community, especially people who will live in Tracy Hills, a
5,500-home development planned to be built about a mile from the Site 300
boundary. Houses may not be built there until 2012.

AKT Development, which is building Tracy Hills, also appealed the lab's
permit allowing bigger blasts but later dropped that appeal.
Representatives from AKT could not be reached for comment.

Tri-Valley CAREs claims the radioactive blasts also threaten endangered
species living in Site 300, including the California tiger salamander, the
alameda whipsnake and California red-legged frog.

Lawrence Livermore spokeswoman Linda Seaver said the lab "is confident that
when all is said and done, we will get the permit."

But activists like Sarvey want the federal government to move its
radioactive materials tests far away from Tracy, something that may be a
serious problem for the lab.

Last week, the lab announced it had won an ongoing competition with Los
Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico to design a submarine nuclear warhead for
the Department of Energy - the first new nuke the U.S. will have built in
more than 10 years.

Sarvey and other activists hypothesize that the lab's request to enlarge
explosives testing is tied to its recently won federal contract.

"I haven't seen any concrete evidence to say that, but it really does seem
to make sense that their request to increase the size of outdoor bomb
testing is linked to the new-age bomb," said Loulena Miles, staff attorney
for Tri-Valley CAREs.

Seaver said there was no connection between the two projects.

Activists worry that the new nuclear development is not only a danger
locally but could damage efforts to persuade Iran and North Korea to scale
down their nuclear technologies.

Congress has approved $88 million to research the new ballistic nuclear
weapon, but money to pay for its development has yet to be approved.

Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, says the lab's new
contract is part of a wider plan put forth by the DOE to rebuild the entire
federal arsenal of 10,000 nuclear warheads at a rate of 125 a year.

Mock nuke blast permit revoked:
Bombs would contain radioactive material

Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Thursday, March 8, 2007

The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District landed a blow to the federal
government's efforts to test its nuclear weapons arsenal by rescinding its
decision to allow the lab to blow up radioactive 350-pound bombs in an open
field near Tracy.

The tests, planned for an open field off Interstate 580 in the Altamont
Hills, were to be part of a multibillion-dollar U.S. effort to simulate
full-scale nuclear weapons blasts to determine the reliability of the
nation's nuclear arsenal.

Three tests were to be conducted over the next 18 months on Site 300, a
7,000-acre site owned by the lab, but lab officials didn't fully disclose
everything that was to be involved -- that the explosions would contain a
radioactive material called depleted uranium.

"They did not tell us they had radioactive emissions (in the explosives),"
agency executive director Seyed Sadredin told The Chronicle. "I'm not
saying they tried to hide it. They did not think it (the radioactivity) was
significant."

Lab officials said they had not formally decided how to react to the
agency's rescinding of the permit. Lawrence Livermore Lab spokesman David
Schwoegler defended the failure of lab officials to mention the
radioactivity in the original permit application.

"Generally, depleted uranium is not considered radioactive because its
radioactivity level is so low as to be equal to or below background level,"
he said. "It is in the ballast of every sailboat and jetliner in commercial
use."

The agency's decision, announced to lab officials and local activists
Tuesday afternoon, was made public Wednesday.

Because the United States stopped testing real nuclear bombs in 1992, it
has no direct way to ensure the reliability of the nuclear weapons arsenal.
By detonating bombs using depleted uranium to simulate the fissionable
plutonium that gives nuclear explosions their kick, officials can determine
how well components of aging nuclear weapons are weathering the
vicissitudes of time.

Sadredin praised local residents who brought the lab's failure to mention
the radioactivity issue to his attention.

"I want to commend the people in the community that took the time and
brought this to our attention and made us take another careful look at
this," Sadredin said.

A leading activist is Bob Sarvey, 20-year operator of Sarvey Shoes in
Tracy. Many years ago, he told The Chronicle, a blast at Site 300 caused a
long-distance shock wave that shattered a window in his home. "Fortunately,
my baby girl wasn't in front of the window" at the time, he recalled.

The rescinding was welcomed Wednesday as a "major victory. ... If these
huge explosions had been allowed to go forward, the hills, nearby
waterways, the workers and the surrounding community would have all been
put at risk," said a statement from attorney Loulena Miles of Tri-Valley
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment.

E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on
page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle © 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.

San Joaquin air officials rescind permit for testing nukes
The Associated Press, Scott Lindlaw

TRACY, Calif.- San Joaquin Valley air officials rescinded their decision to
allow the federal government to test its nuclear weapons arsenal in the
Altamont Hills after they learned the bombs would have radioactive
material.

The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District initially granted a permit
to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to test the 350-pound bombs on Site
300, a 7,000-acre open field owned by the lab off Interstate 580 near
Tracy. But air officials changed course when they learned the tests would
involve depleted uranium.

"They did not tell us they had radioactive emissions (in the explosives),"
agency executive director Seyed Sadredin told the San Francisco Chronicle.
"I'm not saying they tried to hide it. They did not think it (the
radioactivity) was significant."

Sadredin said the agency found out about the radioactivity after local
residents brought it to his attention.

Lawrence Livermore lab spokesman David Schwoegler defended lab officials'
decision not to mention the use of depleted uranium in the original permit
application.

"Generally, depleted uranium is not considered radioactive because its
radioactivity level is so low as to be equal to or below background level,"
he said. "It is in the ballast of every sailboat and jetliner in commercial
use."

Schwoegler said lab officials have not decided how to respond to the
agency's decision, which was made public Wednesday.

The planned tests, which were to be conducted over the next 18 months,
would have simulated full-scale nuclear weapons blasts. Because the U.S.
halted testing of real nuclear bombs in 1992, officials have used depleted
uranium to determine how well the nuclear weapons are holding up with age.

"If these huge explosions had been allowed to go forward, the hills, nearby
waterways, the workers and the surrounding community would have all been
put at risk," Loulena Miles, staff attorney for Tri-Valley Communities
Against a Radioactive Environment, said in a statement praising the
agency's decision.