The Energy Department’s deep borehole field test is once again facing public opposition, this time in Haakon County, S.D., where residents are asking the county commission to block the project.
So far, the estimated five-year, $80 million project — which would deliver data on whether 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations are appropriate for DOE-managed waste — has been blocked in four separate counties in four states.
DOE and its contractors have abandoned potential sites in Pierce County, N.D.; Spink County, S.D.; and Dale County, Ala. Residents in all of the jurisdictions have expressed the same concern: that a successful storage test, which DOE has emphasized will not involve any nuclear waste, will eventually lead to actual nuclear waste storage in their community.
“It’s hard to look and see that the government would spend $80 million to $100 million on this project, just research, and if they find the geology and everything favorable for disposing of nuclear waste, I guess we just have a hard time believing that the Department of Energy would not want to come back into South Dakota and dispose of it,” Haakon County resident Jen Jones said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Jones, along with eight other group members, formed Citizens United for a Non-Nuclear South Dakota to oppose the project. The group now has more than 1,000 followers on Facebook, and Jones said it will continue to press the Haakon County Commission to block the project. The commission has yet to take a stance on the matter, despite fielding a letter of opposition from the group.
The department in January 2016 awarded a $35 million, five-year field test contract to Battelle Memorial Institute, but the company failed to secure support for two separate test sites, in North Dakota and South Dakota. The Department of Energy resolicited the contract in August, this time moving forward with four potential sites.
In the latest round, Battelle was again blocked, this time in Alabama. Last month, the Quay County Commission also rescinded its support for a site that Enercon Federal Services and DOSECC Exploration Services have been exploring about 300 miles north of DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
South Dakota-based Respec is exploring the location in Haakon County. California-based AECOM is exploring a site in Pecos County, Texas, and Pennsylvania-based TerranearPMC is looking at Otero County, N.M.
Respec has promised about $3.5 million to $5 million in economic activity for Haakon County resulting from the drilling project. Jones said that’s a small reward for an activity that carries such a high risk. She said residents worry the drilling carries significant risk of contamination to area aquifers, potentially impacting drinking water and agriculture.
“We produce quality beef and quality crops that feed our country,” Jones said. “And there’s a lot of unknowns and a lot of risk that our community — Haakon County, or even South Dakota if you want to go that far – would be taking to gain nothing.”
Respec could not be reached for comment.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Quay County, N.M., was no longer being considered for the borehole project.
