The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) this week appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court in an effort to halt construction of a new underground shaft at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
The case was filed with the state’s high court Monday after the New Mexico Court of Appeals on June 11 dismissed a stay request by the Albuquerque-based advocacy group.
The appeals court disagreed with SRIC’s basic premise – that the New Mexico Environment Department’s 180-day “temporary authorization” from April to start work on the shaft constitutes a de-facto final “administration action” that cannot be undone.
Finding that no final action has been taken by the state agency, Appeals Court Chief Judge Miles Hanisee and Judge Julie Vargas ruled in the four-page decision that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the challenge.
That final decision from NMED is still pending, with comments on the draft permit modification due Aug. 11. In the April temporary approval, NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said construction would have to be “reversed” if the state ultimately rejects plans for a new shaft.
Last August, WIPP management announced a $75 million award for a subcontractor, Harrison Western-Shaft Sinkers Joint Venture, to build the new underground utility shaft that would serve multiple purposes, including providing a new access point for people and equipment into the salt mine near the city of Carlsbad.
Southwest Research wants any construction stayed until a formal decision from the state, calling it unrealistic and unwise for DOE to sink a 2,100-foot-deep shaft and accompanying “drifts,” or horizontal passageways, only to potentially undo the work if the final permit modification is rejected.
