Coastal Commission Meeting October 11 – Huge chance to stop the nuclear waste dump!

I’m hoping you’ll join Public Watchdogs in Chula Vista tomorrow to publicly demand the revocation of Southern California Edison’s California Coastal Commission’s permit to bury nuclear waste on the beach at San Onofre.

Together, we have a real opportunity to stop, suspend or delay the nuclear waste from being buried 108 feet from the beach at San Onofre State Beach Park on Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM in Chula Vista near the Mexican border at Chula Vista City Council Chambers, 276 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista 91910 (get map).

The California Coastal Commission will be meeting on Wednesday, October 11^th , and San Onofre is back on the agenda (See Agenda Item 9). This is your chance to speak directly to the Commissioners to request that they revoke or suspend Southern California Edison’s permit to bury the waste (here’s the internal staff memo to the Commissioners).

Under Coastal Commission rules and State law, the public can request that a permit can be REVOKED  under the following conditions:

1)  If the original vote was improperly noticed, and …
2)  If there is evidence that the applicant (Edison) mislead the Commission.

As you probably know, there is massive evidence that the vote was unlawful (#1 above), and that Edison mislead the Coastal Commission on public safety issues (#2).

Can you join us at 9AM or earlier?

Here’s the evidence that the vote was improperly noticed:

•    Only a week’s notice! When the Coastal Commission voted in favor of this crazy nuclear waste dump, they only gave a one-week notice of the public hearing on Edison’s application. Then they held the vote in Long Beach instead of locally, where the public could attend. That’s improper notice.

•    Secret lobbying by Edison! The Commissioners admitted on video tape that they had been secretly lobbied by Edison in advance in “ex parte” meetings where the public was not allowed to participate!

•   The vote was unlawful.  Edison sent out a press release announcing the Commission’s unanimous vote one-hour before the Commission even voted for it publicly. This means the vote was taken secretly in advance, in violation of the law (see last line of this news story).  Members of the public were still testifying when Edison sent out the press release announcing (i.e. predicting) the “unanimous” vote!

Here’s the evidence that Edison deceived the commissioners

•   Edison claimed falsely — without public rebuttal — that the dump was “SAFE.”

•   The Commission accepted  claims without seeking the opinions of qualified experts.

•    Finally, the public was not provided adequate notification or time to properly rebut Edison or to explain why the burial of 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste, 108 feet from the beach and in steel cans three feet above the water level in a tsunami and earthquake zone is a very bad idea.

Here’s what we all need to do:

First: ARRIVE early enough to sign up to speak, and show support for speakers

Second: INFORM the Commissioners that the public was not given proper notice to prepare a rebuttal, and should be given the opportunity to do so.

Third: EXPLAIN to the Commission that the current location is unsafe in your own words.

DEMAND that the Commission hold hearings to revoke the permit, where the public has a chance to make its argument that the original vote was unlawful, and that the current burial location and seismic conditions are totally unacceptable!

Together, we can force the Coastal Commission to revoke its unlawful vote and we need to turn out a large crowd to do it.  Your actions tomorrow will help us get the time to stop this unlawful permit to bury waste on our beloved beach.

Please pass this e-mail along to anyone you know who might be interested in attending this critical event.

To speak, you must sign in early. Be prepared to speak for a minimum of one-minute, or a maximum of three minutes.

Thank you for your help, support, and concern.

P.S. You may have read headlines falsely touting a winning settlement to “move the waste.”  The ugly truth is that those who brokered the deal got $800,000.00 from Edison to drop the case. The waste isn’t going anywhere under this dirty deal, which is being denounced as a “recipe for sustained failure” by the former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Get the full story here.

Warm Regards,

Charles Langley, Executive Director
Public Watchdogs (858) 752-4600
www.publicwatchdogs.org