ANDREWS, Texas — Keep it out of our county. Andrews County Commissioners are sending a loud and clear message to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They don't want high levels of radioactive waste to be stored in their county.
However, there is no guarantee that today's vote will block the license needed to store high-level nuclear waste in Andrews. There's only so much the county can do.
"There’s no guarantees, and that’s what I tried to state during the meeting. The fact is that if we pass a resolution in opposition, this process can continue and that is strictly out of our hands. It goes to the federal government’s," Andrews County Judge Charlie Falcon said.
So why would the county vote anyway if it may not make a difference?
"We opened up to our citizens at that time so that way we could hear from them. Ultimately, we represent our constituents so what we did we started emails, phone calls, offices visits, etc. and as they came in and talked to us, that gave us a feeling of what our constituents wanted," Falcon said.
However, despite voting against the high-level waste, this doesn't mean that the county doesn't support what Waste Control Specialists, who was in favor of bringing high-level waste, does on a daily basis. It simply has to do with the fact that it's high-level waste.
"They do a great job. There’s a lot of safety out there. I know several of the workers that are out there that are actual workers, and I hear from them quite frequently. Very safe, very conscientious of what they do. They’re very proud of what they do," Falcon said.
For now, a issue that was brought up several years ago, will take another turn with the resolution in opposition to high-level waste.
"I’ll get with our county attorney. We will write up a resolution. As I propose that to the court, of course it's already been passed. It’s just a resolution. We'll actually read the resolution and sign it at that time. We will send our resolution to the governor and to various other people, again our representatives, our senators, etc.," Falcon said.