Contact: Tim Ahern 202-208-5089

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 16, 1998

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today approved scientific drilling to be conducted at Ward Valley in California, according to Bob Armstrong, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management. Separate tests will be carried out by the Department of the Interior and the state of California.

In preparation for the drilling, the BLM also intends to close the immediate area where tests will take place to all but authorized or permitted uses as a way to insure public safety and the integrity of the drilling, said Armstrong, who oversees BLM. The public will be allowed to assemble in an adjacent area.

Ward Valley, located in the California desert about 20 miles west of Needles, is the site of a low-level radioactive waste facility which the state of California wants to build. The state has applied to purchase the 1,000-acre site from BLM, which now manages the land.

The purpose of the testing is to determine the movement of tritium and related materials at depth at the site, as recommended in a 1995 report prepared by a panel of the National Academy of Sciences. The results of the Department of Interior tests will be included in a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement being prepared by BLM and the Interior Department on the proposed sale of the land to the state.

The state will be issued a permit next week and the tests will run sequentially with the federal government going first, Armstrong said.

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