Bill Addington Interview, Part 2 of 3

DT: Bill, I was hoping you could complete the story that you were telling us before about a meeting in Midland where you realized that your personality had sort of evolved.

BA: Yeah, I was always a shy, introverted per, person. My mom remembers when I was growing up that even when I was like eight or nine years old I wouldnt hardly talk to people and I would ask her to ask people like at stores if they'd, if, you know for, for me instead of asking them myself so I was really shy.

So after this hit here, you know, and, and saw I was going to be involved with it to oppose it, I went. What stands out is I went to a meeting in Midland, Texas,

the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal board of directors, Dr. Gibertow and other appointed board members by the governor all talking about maybe buying the Faskin Ranch for radioactive waste disposal in near Sierra Blanca.

Here they all are all these guys and women are up there with their Armani suits and really imposing and intimidating and very authoritive, being the authority that they are, disposal authority, and so they do all their business

and, of course, the last thing is the public forum, I mean the public input, you know. They're going to hear from us after they've made all the decisions.

So I go, well, you know, all these little scenarios they would go through your mind like, oh God, I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know what I'm going say, I'm going to screw up and I'm going to say the wrong thing and then the dumps going to come into Sierra Blanca.

You know, all these dumb scenarios and you get butterflies and get scared about speaking in front of these crowd of people and these people from Austin.

And I go, you know what, this my little voice in my head said, you know what, you'd better get up there and say something and keep saying it or the dump will come in.

From that moment on, I will tell you, it got easier and easier to talk to these people in authority, whether they be legislators of any kind or even the president of the United States. It, sure, I'd still feel maybe a little bit nervous but theyre no better than we are, they're they're were not any less than they are and I, I thought, you know, I finally understood that we have the right and the responsibility to speak to these people. So I wasn't intimidated by them anymore.

And like I said, it got easier and easier until I don't care whose sitting across from, from me, I'll give my opinion, and have, to the White House, you know, in Washington, to president to Vice President Al Gore, to Julio Haveres, the (Julio Haverez?) in Mexico.

You know, its very important people we've talked to about this issue andand they don't intimidate me anymore.

DT: Could you talk about how you've become empowered and carried through to stop the Sierra Blanca dump?

BA: How what?

DT: How you've become empowered to go ahead and stop the dump the last I guess five or six years that you went up against it?

BA: Oh yeah, yeah.

DT: The last five or six years, your effort against it.

BA: Well it from '91 it kind of went on and after the public hearing, you know, we'd have meetings and we were organizing.

My the group we also co-founded which is worth mentioning, I, I co-founded a group called here in Sierra Blanca called the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund.

Three of us organized that group in a motel room here in Sierra Blanca after a meeting we had. And I was one I was one of the three founding board members, Don Gardner and Les Brething were the others.

And we had to organize and through the media, we tried to get out information about the project and why, why its opposing, why it's a bad idea for all of Texas.

And originally the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund was, was formed to oppose and contest the project in the state hearings process, state office of administrative hearings.

That was our mission. I had, I had worked very hard to convince my fellow board members who I got some more on later from they were supposed to have a majority of them from Hudspeth County to convince them that we had to be do activism and organizing, not just be a legal defense fund

but we had to take up from what no one else was doing and that's organize and, and stop this dump politically, the way that we would stop it.

That was ver that was, you know, we have to sure we have to fight legislative battles and legal battles but we also have to make sure we do the proper organizing to get people up in arms to affect the politics which in the end did kill it the politics of it all.

And we have to remember, David, in all these issues, and I hope anyone seeing this will remember this. This isn't about political science, excuse me, this isn't about science it's about political science and that is what the driving force that puts these things here.

The, the dump was brought in by politics and the only way the dump can leave is by politics, these are political decisions. So again, it's not about science its about political science and I'd, I'd vote very hard to convince my board of directors, I was kind of alone for a long time, of this.

They for example quickly, and you know, there was a compact proposed to bring radioactive waste from Maine and Vermont, you know, and (?) decomissioning waste, thirty years of this. Texas, Ann Ri-, Governor Richards, Sarah Weddington the lobbyist for the state of Maine pushed that right through, went through like a rocket through the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Went on to Maine and in Maine they got to vote on it by referendum. I traveled to Maine asking them to vote no but they voted yes anyway, seventy percent of them voted yes to send their waste to Texas byand, of course, their legislature then approved it, Vermont legislature approved it.

And it went to Washington to be anointed by the United States Congress. And so I, I had to convince my board, David, that it was in our best interest to oppose this all the way, all the way to congress and they said, no we can't focus on that, we've got all this other stuff to do and the hearings process thats coming up and all that.

And I'm saying look, its a political issue. By doing by giving me funds to go to Washington to oppose this in D.C., to lobby against it and to bring out, you know, scream against it to the media, we win either way. If the compact passes, we still win because we make it stink.

If, if we stop the compact, so much the better. They would never give me any money to go up there so out again I had to go with my mom's money to Washington. They never would give me a penny to go up there.

Miraculously because of three people's work, actually about four or five, we stopped the compact, a record vote of 243 to 176 on September 16th 1995.

That compact was defeated in the United States House of Representatives, the first time in the history of the United States that one of these nuclear waste compacts had ever been debated in congress, much less stopped.

They usually they're, they're going through non, non non-controversial measures, just go ahead and appro-, anoint what the states had done and that's it.

However they try to do this non-controversial, non-voice voting in, in, in the house and there was a lot of opposition, bi-partisan opposition that we had generated, the republicans and democrats, and it failed.

So then I can't I'll never forget the board meeting, the, the telephone conference with my board and they're saying, Bill, y'all stopped the compact, how did you do it, you know, we're blown away. And I'm saying, I told you guys, you know, even if we hadn't of stopped it, we'd made it stink.

So this is a lesson, these are, you know, if we the politics are really what take it out and we, you know, you don't know what you can do until you try. And we did then, David, I guess I should go on, build upon that.

However, I shouldn't say that Governor Bush immediately upon the defeat of this nuclear dump compact with Maine and Vermont, I mean, we'd blind sided the nuclear industry.

They didn't know they, they couldn't believe that they lost, you know. Theyre not used to not getting their way, all these reactor operator, the, the reactor owner.

Governor Bush ordered his, made a statement that he wanted the compact reintroduced in congress. He ordered his state office of, his Texas has a office of state federal relations in Washington.

He ordered his office to get on it and with Roy Coffee and others, Susan Rich, they, they worked the congress for two years working side by side, hand in hand with the nuclear industry. They called it the, the compact coalition, working hand in hand with the utilities to get this bill passed using our state money.

And so I when I would go lobby up there after the defeat of this compact because it was going to be reintroduced, I' d see all the state, the state off, the state office, the state federal relations up there doing the same thing.

And, of course, we couldn' t match that type of, they had a permanent presence there with about thirty people, how could have we matched that, you know, we dont have the money. So eventually it did pass in 1997 and it did, and then it did pass the senate in 1998.

And, of course when it did, we had had this very, I mean we should also, I should also say that we had the, the Council of Environmental Quality, that's the White House, convinced to have President Clinton veto this bill.

We had them convinced to veto it on environmental justice grounds because of the site, they were only looking at Sierra Blanca. The, this compact didn't mention Sierra Blanca anywhere in it, they could have it was all free they could put it anywhere in Texas but lets get real,

everyone knows that they were only looking at one site, Sierra Blanca, and that, that this money, the fifty million would, would, that Maine and Vermont would give us would basically construct a site.

And they really, it was really, well, in any case, President Clinton I should say, we were told by the Council of Environmental Quality, CEQ, Kathleen McGinty that the president may not be able to veto this because it had passed by a, a wide margin in the senate.

And I, and I told Mrs. McGinty and other C-, the Council of Environmental Quality people, I saying well, what's, what you do, what's expedient or whats right? If, if your, if your boss the president believes in his, and this is and were talking about a meeting with (?) and other people there that were supporting us at the white house,

saying if your people believe, Ms. McGinty that, and then the president truly believes in his own executive order on environmental justice, which says that federal agencies should be considering, you know, cumulative impacts on, on disproportionate impacts on minority communities, then he will veto this bill.

If he won't, that, that executive order is not worth the paper its printed on. If Sierra Blanca isn't a case of environmental racism and environmental injustice, I dont know what is and I gave her the reasons.

So he did, he did sign the compact into law in September of 1998, why? Because there was two sponsors of the compact, Senator Leahy from Vermont brings one to mind, Senator Lay fr-, Leahy from Vermont was on the Judiciary Committee which was overseeing the possible impeachment of the president and was also a sponsor of the compact.

So I guess you could say we got Monica-ed. And, and, and the compact passed for that very reason because he didnt want to make mad, excuse me, to piss off Senator Leahy and we've done a lot of accountability of the hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders whos supposed to be a progressive and Senator Leahy, Olympia Snow and of

DT: [inaudible]

BA: Yeah, socialist, representative from Vermont and, of course, our own senator, Kay Bailey Hutcheson and Phil Graham, we've done a lot of accountability on them.

In fact, her office has called the capital police on me when I was talking with them and that's a whole other story. In any case, I should say that even though the compact passed and was signed into law, we made it stink so bad that it delayed this whole process, just like I told my board members and everyone.

I says we delayed this whole process two years with Senator Wellstones help, oh we're going to have to stop here, here comes the Coke salesman.

DT: So you've brought us up through 1998 when the compact was passed and I was wondering if you could maybe complete the story about the nuclear waste dump at Sierra Blanca.

BA: Yeah, yeah. Well after, like I said, after President Clinton signed the bill into law, I was saying that we succeeded in making the compact stink in the media, the Washington Post, New York Times, a lot of different magazines and national newspapers.

And I should also mention, David, that they were starting to feel the heat in Washington in the State Department because of Mexico. This is a very important part of our work, its not just in this country but in Mexico.

I should tell you that we put, we started with resolutions and, I know this may be off the track but I want to get this in. We started with a resolution in El Paso.

We went to Juarez, the city of Juarez and started a, and had a resolution passed opposing Sierrathe Sierra Blanca dump. We got one passed in ChihuaState of Chihuahua in the state congress.

Eventually we had seventeen counties and twenty-two cities in Texas and every state from Baja all the way to the state across from Brownsville opposing, that's every state in Mexico on the border, every county except for Hudspeth County along the border all the way to Brownsville, bizarre isn't it?

And twenty-two towns and cities on the border opposing this. We, we also I should mention, and Linda was, Linda Lynch was a part of this, went to Mexico City, in fact Linda did a lot of this work and, and worked with a group (?) and had a press conference in 1992.

This is the first time that we brought up the La Paz Accord, which is a, an agreement, a little, it was a little known agreement, now it's known because of us more, that prohibits that sets up I should say, a sensitive zone a hundred kilometers on either side of our common border, the frontier with Mexico.

It's a sensitive environmental zone and no new projects should be placed in this sensitive zone that could impact the border environment. It was originally proposed by Ronald Reagan because of sewage washing up in San Diego.

And he asked for it and the Mexican gave it to him and it was ratified in their senate. So it was, it's a treaty in Mexico. It's kind of like not a treaty here because it was never ratified in our senate, its an agreement or an accord, but the presidents of both countries did sign it, Reagan and the Mexican president.

And we brought that up with the press conference and, of course, it made a lot of media, it gave us a lot of media attention in Mexico throughout the whole country for about a week and got the attention in Mexico City that had already been opposing the dump at Fort Hancock before, with Salinas.

After passing all these resolutions years later, you know, several years later in the Mexican states, we then went to the Communado Deputados, the Mexican Congress and took our expert, Dr. Resnicoff to tell them about the size and scope of the project to the entire congress to testify and to work with the different parties.

DT: Did he talk about the (?)

BA: Yes, yes, the fault line through the dump, yes. And so Dr. Resnicoff brought his geologist and, and Kim Nolton and they went to Mexico City and did, did that work.

And then afterwards Mexico, the concongress of Mexico were talking about six hundred deputados, that's Mexican congressman, did fail to pass anything because they couldnt agree on the language but the next year I should say in 97, they didn't do anything.

In '98 they passed a resolution after they saw all of course, all the border states had passed resolutions, they knew all about this and about all of our briefing about what the project and how it could a, pac-, impact Mexican natural resources, the water, the air, what not.

And so using the La Paz Accord as a, as a reason to oppose this, they passed this resolution demanding that the dump be moved, relocated. I should also say in this limited time that we took Mexican federal senators and congressmen to Washington, I that I'd asked to go, invited, to lobby against the compact in the senate.

And, and a delegation of eight Mexican federal congressman, Senator Norberto Corer who's a real hero in my eyes, very outspoken, very eloquent man, educated in University of Arizona was their leader and spoke and basically said the same thing that the resolution eventually said, I should say the, the resolution that demanded that the dump be moved.

He said this the same thing, David, to the aides that would meet with us in the United States Senate even though that the senators had three weeks notice to meet with these, this Mexican delegation. Not one senator would come out to meet with them, an insult to this, these very refined group of legislators from Mexico.

You see, in Mexico when a, when you're when, when a fellow senator, a colleague, even if it's from another country comes to visit, out of respect and courtesy, you come out and shake his hand, even if he's your enemy. That's out of basic respect and decorum.

However, in our congress, they didn't meet out of lack of respect to the country of Mexico, they refused to even come meet with him even though they had proper notice. They only sent their aides out. However, it was okay.

Senator Corer from Baja told me, he said, Bill, that's okay, you know, Mexico would never do that but now we have the ammunition to go back to Mexico City to convince our congress to pass this resolution and they did.

They passed it in the wording the very same thing he said at press conferences in Washington and with the aides, like Senator Monahans aides and different senators aides that he visited withthat the delegation visited with.

He said, you know, at the press conference, he said, you know, in Mexico we have we passed a bill called the La Paz Accord at the request of your president, Ronald Reagan in 1983 that sets up a common border of a hundred kilometers of, of a sensitive environmental zone.

Now the State of Texas wants to place a radioactive waste dump, a facility, near our common border, eight kilometers from our common border, virtually on our doorstep. The State of Texas proposes on bringing radioactive waste including decommissioning torn apart nuclear plants from Maine and Vermont.

We're talking about bringing radioactive waste, Mr. Corer said, Senator Corer from the Canadian border and dumping it on the Mexican border. We will not stand for this. If you would like to place this facility next to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Louisiana near the border there, go ahead, we can't stop you.

You can put it on the Texas border near there, we can't stop you, it's out of the zone. But when you're talking about bringing it from the Canadian border and dumping our doorstep, it becomes our business, especially after your, your president came over here and said that we set up the zone to not impact the United States natural resources.

We demand the same of our natural resources and we will oppose this in our congress, legislatively, legally, diplomatically, we will take this to the world court if we have to and we will and we will take it to the Council of Environmental Concerns in Quebec that's put in place with NAFTA. They even they that, that, that was all said and done.

Just a side note to that, eventually did put the complaint to the CEC, Counsel of Environmental Concerns in Quebec which is the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the EPAs of all three. And they said, oh we dont want to hear that, thats a state issue, they always try to switch it around.

And these Mexican congressmen said, either you take the complaint or we will pull out of NAFTA, that's what the congress threatened them with, not that they might do it, but they threatened them with it, the, the entire congress did.

We're talking about six hundred deputados and two hundred senators. I should also say quickly, David, for, for this archive that, that President Bush, Governor Bush at the time, flew to Mexico City in 1998, July of 1998 and tried toand had a meeting with about ten deputados that were his so-called friends to ask them and implore them not to pass this resolution, it would hurt us, hurt Texas.

Attempts and everything was fine. I had a friend that attended that meeting and one that didnt that witnessed it and he said that, yeah the meeting was very cordial and in the end though, even those ten deputados at the dinner party with Bush signed onto the resolution, not obeying Governor Bush, or, or observing his request because they didnt want it to be 590 to 10.

Hi (?). So, you know there's it's these types of things that are just been(?) may I help you?

DT: And tell us about the last phase of the fight against the Sierra Blanca radioactive waste dump and when the commissioners at Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission finally decided to vote against siting it at Sierra Blanca. How did that come about.

BA: How, how it came about, I should probably give you a little bit of background about laying the, laying it out of, of what we have done. Not only has all this been opposition for many years and a lot of media attention to this issue locally, regionally, state-wide, nationally, internationally,

whatever, we'd also done a lot of work in accountability of, of our elected officials including Governor Bush who had revived the compact like we've talked before and eventually helped get it passed in the United States Congress and basically promoted and done everything he could to see the project along to be built here in Sierra Blanca.

So when he announced that he was going to be running for Governor again on his road to the White House, I have to tell you that we it was I, I was the, the chairman of the accountability campaign which I started that cam-, that committee myself

and part of the accountability campaign is, is our local official our, our officials, our elected officials and Governor Bush being our chief elected official here in Texas and a proponent of this, we targeted him.

And what we did was he'd be going to on his on the campaign trail and, of course, Gary Mauro had announced against him, I made the deci-, decision and the committee agreed that we should follow around Governor Bush and let everybody know at these rallies that he was having at least in west Texas, we couldn't follow him around all over the state, that what he was doing here, to hold him accountable.

The first one was in Marathon, Texas. He came on a working vacation to promote tourism in Marathon and tourism of the Big Bend and, of course, satellite trucks were all over and the Austhe Capital Press Corps followed him because he was an' everyone knew that he was going to run for the president to be the president candidate for presidency.

So over there at the Gage Motel in Marlittle bitty Marathon with about two hundred people only on Highway 90, we set up shop across the road and he was having a big shin dig there at the Gage and twenty of us, all wearing cowboy hats, got behind a banner that said, Governor Bush pushes radio-, radioactive waste near the Big Bend no Governor Bush pushes Yankee nuclear waste near the Big Bend.

And there was some arguments of some people that weren't on our committee that we were being too hard on the governor and that we should appeal to him about tourism and they just didn't understand what we'd already been through with the governor

and our proprevious governor Ann Richards and they weren't going to change their mind and that we had to we had to hold the line and get tough with them.

So when we did this protest, the media picked up on it and we got a good op ad out of the Austin American and I mean should say an editorial the next day and a big picture of us in front of the Gage Hotel in thein the state section of the Austin Stateman, Statesman.

And, of course, they're saying that in the editorial that, that west Texas didn't have to be reminded about were a tourism jewel, that we already know that, but we don't need low-level flights by the Air Force.

We dont need marines killing our children on, on the river on joint task force six and we certainly dont need us sludged up in a nuclear waste dump from Maine and Vermont here.

And so it and so that was the, the first hit on Governor Bush, that we already know what tourism is here.

We then followed him to El Paso, it was an orchestrated rally at the community college, the main campus there of the community college and, keep in mind that Governor Bush had been coming, this is very important about leading to the defeat of the dump, it's really what pushed it over the edge.

Governor Bush was, he made fifteen or twenty visits to El Paso over the past two years in '97 and '98, I mean Laura Bush would, would come with the Governor and they would go to the (?) Bakery and eat (?) and, and, and (?) and everyone would all the Mexican people would clap and scream and were just star struck by the Governor.

Keeping in mind this is a democratic straw county stronghold where mainly Mexican people, Mexpeople of Mexican origin.

So they were actually at the Bellwether I should tell you for the Governor Bush proceeding and this was I read Forbes and Fortune and there's actually articles in Forbes and Fortune stating that the republican party believed that if he could take a county like El Paso,

democr-, predominately democratic county, that was a Hispanic county, that he could prove to his party that he could take the Hispanic vote for the Y2K presidential vote. And that's why he was coming out here.

And his approval rating soared with all these visits, it was like eighty-five, ninety percent, you know, which is unreal, you know. We always vote democratic in, in El Paso County and a lot of these counties out here in west Texas.

And so at the community college they had this rally and here he is, it was all orchestrated with a lot of satellite trucks around and, and they, they'd actually bussed in kids from Segundo barrio, the poor part of El Paso to come up, get them out of school, they were all happy, bus loads of them, to hold up Bush signs and, and, and campaign signs

and the plan was all these people were going to have a rally and there were several thousand of them at the community college campus. And he was going to the plan was that he was going to walk by on the sidewalk up to the gazebo and make his speech for the rally and everyones going to clap and there's a band there, some, some school bands playing and mariachis playing music and it was really orchestrated.

So here we are, ten of us again, we came from Sierra Blanca and a few of us from El Paso and took the same sign that we had at Marathon and said Governor Bush pushes Yankee waste near El Paso instead of Big Bend because its actually pretty near El Paso too.

And we all had them folded up, we had signs and we actually had foam block heads made of foam with Governor Bushs picture on the foam block head that you put on your head and the eyes had nuclear symbols in them.

And so we whipped those out when Governor Bush started walking by and people put on the foam block heads and were teasing him with that you know. And then some of the kids that saw us with these other sides in preparation said, what are you all doing?

Little kids, six and seven and eight years old. And I said well were, we're going to be protesting against this nuclear dump here shortly because they want to put it in Sierra Blanca and those kids would say, we saw that on the news, give us those signs.

They dropped the Bush signs and picked up, well the security guards were knocking them out of their hands and I'm saying leave those kids alone, they asked for the signs, they have a right to do what they want.

And so some of them still had the signs. Well here he comes walking down the sidewalk, the gauntlet of all these kids, some of the scream all of them scream everyones screaming and yelling for the governor.

So then we unfurled the banner and the block heads come out and he gives these guys with the block heads a really dirty look, the governor does. And, and then he goes up to the gazebo and, and the band plays and all this and he makes a stump speech, his campaign speech there.

And we had, we had one guy in our group that just disrupts his speech by saying, by yelling out right in the middle of his speech, what about Sierra Blanca in a Mexic-, Mexican accent.

And the governor would stumble and then catch up with his speech and then another minute would go by and they would say, what about Sierra Blanca, you know really loud (?), you know, a scream.

And so this went on about four times and people were gettinga few people that supported Governor Bush were getting quite peeved at us for doing this, hey you all be quite, because were here and it is our business. And so, sure enough, they had a press conference in private in the auditorium after the rally and the media asked him, well Governor Bush, what about Sierra Blanca.

And, of course, this was a turning moment, he goes, it was beyond belief, David. The governor goes, he said he actually stated this, he says, this is a very emotional issue, condescending, this is a very emotional issue. And I'm listening, I'm listening to these people.

But this isn't about high level fuel rods, high-level radioactive waste, this is about low-level radioactive waste, its x-rays, and syringes, x-rays likes being produced all over El Paso right now.

So this was printed in the paper in the El Paso Times and here we are talking about decommissioned nuclear power plants and other stuff. Well, you know, we've been working on the media to educate because the media sometimes doesnt understand.

They, they, they don't have the time to really research anything and they, they don't want to believe us at face value, we have to prove everything but they'll believe the authority and the state about everything and print what they have to say.

So they started looking at this and one reporter, I saw a couple of reporters started doing some research and started finding out, well number one like we'd been saying all along, x-rays are not radioactive waste, they're invisible. They're produced by an x-ray machine that you just turned off and off with an electron tube and there's no radioactive waste involved, even the film is recyclable.

So, and, of course, looking at the figures from the TNR, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and from the Disposal Authority of Texas and from the, the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission all state that ninety-nine and one half percent of all radioactive waste in this compact

and what the State of Texas produced, ninety-nine and a half percent of the curies, the radioactivity, come from nuclear power plant waste and over seventy percent of the volume comes from nuclear power plants. And that's history that's for the whole United States (?) more or less.

And so they started saying this and saying, well the governors trying to blow some smoke here just like the authority is and they published it. And after all these series of events of us holding the governor accountable, his popularity plummeted in El Paso.

There was a pole by Kay Associates done, the poling organization for the El Paso Times in contract with the El Paso Times, the newspaper there and the headline of the day shortly after all this went down with the governor, was eighty-nine percent of El Paso is against the Sierra Blanor opposed Sierra Blanca nuclear dump, that was the headline of the day.

And (?) Governors Bushs campaign chair in El Paso was just devastating, you know, they built it up to nearly ninety percent and, and her, her popularity rating had gone down to forty percent or less.

And so the decision, you know, later you know, later that year in October, actually to beyou know, October 23rd 1998 was the hearing date for finally set for the Sierra Blanca facil-, the nuclear dump facility.

Keeping in mind that two administrative law judges nearly a year before after looking at this issue and volumous reports and hearings and, and actually a legal proceedings for weeks and weeks and weeks, recommended against this site being built.

Two state office administrative hearings examiners, Keri Sullivan and Mr. Rogan said this shouldnt go here because of the buried fault that wed discovered in the license application. And so the commissioners, three commissioners that Governor Bush appointed were going to make the final decision.

They could, they could say over, they could just say, well we're not going to go with the recommendation of the hearing examiners, were going to vote to build the dump or not, it's up to them, three people, it went down to that.

And, you know, here it goes back to believing. If you believe in yourself and you know you're in the right and you have the tenacity to see it through, its a predetermineditsits aits a self-fulfilling prophecy on what you do and what you cant do if you can see it the way through.

And I knew from then, and we-, I knew we were going to stop it anyway but I knew when the hearing date was set, the final hearing date, two weeks before the election of Governor re-election of Governor Bush, I knew there was no way, that we had lost, we had won.

The announcement was the day that I knew we'd won. Now some people are so much in denial that we can actually win, most people, they still thought there was something fishy or sinister or they're trying to pull something here.

But no, the Governor wouldn't have allowed this nor would the TNRCC commissioners scheduled this hearing two weeks before the election unless it was going to be a no. They would have scheduled it two weeks after the election if it was going to be a yes and that is what happened.

Apr-September 23rd 1998, three commissioners, Barry McBee being the, the head of the commission, Barry McBee was the first one to say it, he said, and I quote, he said, this agency, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission has never heard a more lara larger or more important case than this that has so much interest to so many thousands of people.

We are ba-, we, we are committed to, and I dont believe this, to, to rule on this on, on science and it has to be full science, not just a partial, you know, proving something partially in other words.

He says, I recommend that this license application be denied and I, I con-, I conclude and con, and, and agree with the hearings examiners. The other two, Ralph Marquez and Mr. Baker agreed and they unanimously voted to, to not construct the dump in Sierra Blanca.

So, of course, it was a very sweet moment I've got to tell you this because here I am sitting in a room, a room with about three hundred and fifty people, a hearing room, speakers set outside with lots more listening, sitting next to representative Chavez, Norma Chavez from El Paso, state rep

and I see, I see a lot of the people that I've been working against and opposing and a lot of people Ive been working with in Mexico and in Texas and seeing the expressions on their faces, even people from Sierra Blanca here.

And I actually saw people crying from the authority that the dump wasn't going to go in, crying, that they'd actually stated in the paper the day before that they'd be praying the dump would go in. And that's the most bizarre thing, Susan Diamond from the authority.

But seeing those expressions of those peoples faces, the lawyers and everyone was very sweet, profound moment to see the Mexican congressman that had been on hunger strike also in the hearing room, to see people from Sierra Blanca, people from across the state that had been involved for years

and our like I said, our neighbors from Mexico and then, like, like again, the, the people had a vested intvested interest in the project going through, got to see some of them and the expressions of disappointment and shock that this dump could be defeated.

And so that was something that definitely stands out in my mind and, like I said, I agree with Chairman McBee, this is the largest and one of the I wouldn't say its thethe most important case, but he did.

I would say it was the largest case that that agency has ever heard on environmental matters in Texas to this date yet, I'll agree with him on that.

The size and scope of that project regardregarding a facility for the application, the size and scope, it's just hard to imagine. This would have been a national dump, the, the compact which was passed and promoted by the passed in congress, promoted by seventeen congressmen from Texas

and the governor had a, a clause, still does, still a law, section 305, paragraph 6 which allows appointed compact commissioners, David, appointed by the governors of Maine, Vermont, and Texas that allows them to contract with any other state, person, regional body, or group of states for importation of waste into Texas without going back to the governor, without going back to our legislature, without going back to the congress, just they can do it by themselves.

This, with no volume cap, when Maine and Vermont is limited to ten percent of what Texas generates for thirty years. So I don't see how allowing eight people, six from there would be from Texas to determine the future of where there will be a national dump or just let anybody in including the Department of Energy to dump waste here is a right thing for Texas.

And that bill still exists and that bill is still puts Texas communities at risk in a form of radioactive roulette to be targeted for a dump, a national dump.

Until its changed, that still exists and its ongoing and will on go until that compact is rescinded and stopped. It ha-, would have to be rescinded and stopped the same way it started. Our Texas legislature would have to introduce a bill to rescind the compact, Maine and Vermont would have to do the same and then the U.S. United States Congress would have to agree.

It would have to do that be done. I, I've already talked with congressman (?) who we've worked with in the past. He, he's willing to do the Tex-, State of Texas would have to start it. And, of course, the whole reason, and this goes back to what could happen in Texas or any other state, the whole process I should say the whole guiding light,

the law, is that United States Low Level Waste Policy Act and this all sounds boring but its not because this act is whats causing a lot of people pain inthroughout the United States with these sitings.

The act says that every state must manage its own low-level radioactive waste or enter into a compact to provide a common solution to dispose of waste for for the for the compact for several for two or three states or more.

It doesn't say you have to build a dump and it certainly doesn't say you have to compact, (?) either or and, and you dontit doesn't it just says you have to manage your own waste. No one can force you to build a dump.

The only that can force is their own state government. So the, the, the, the, MissRepresentative Bone a, and we've talked with him about this, this whole, the Low Level Waste Policy Act needs to be re-examined in United States Congress, it's a total failure.

There's been ten compacts passed in the United States since 1983 when the when the U.S. low-levels poli-, U.S. low, United States Low Level Waste Policy Act was passed. There's been ten compacts, Texas being the tenth.

But there's been not one dump ever built since 1980 I should say the 1980 Low Level Waste Policy Act. There's been not been one dump in twenty years ever built so the bill, even though you have ten compacts, no one's really willing to build a dump cause nobody wants to be stuck with a national dump.

This is a form of radioactive roulette and if one sta-, why should Texas, this is the last thing, why should Texas be the first out of the whole United States to develop the first low-level radioactive waste dump in the nation? We will be the receptacle for all the waste because other states will say, why should we have to open up a dump, Texas will take it.

This gets this is a very political hot, very hot political issue and no one wants it. So were still the, the last thing is we are still under the gun Texas communities west Texas communities are under the gun because of this compact

and like I told you before, David, theres a bill being deba-, being that's been introduced and is being heard today and today this day, September 28th in, in United Stin Texasin the Texas senate the senate natural resources by our own senator here, Senator Duncan and Mr. Chi-, and Representative Chisum,

the (?) that, that allows private disposal of radioactive waste, allows a dump to expanded, allows Department of Energy waste to be dumped here and, and, and states that the dumpthe facility can only be placed in an area with less than I think twenty-five or thirty inches of rainfall.

That's all west Texas again and their, their, by doing that, by the rainfall requirement, they're saying that it has to be west of the Pecos River is what they're basically saying when they're saying twless than twenty or twenty-five inches of rainfall.

So it nothing changes, its still the same and the last thing also is that Sierra Blanca was not saved, we didn't talk much about sewage sludge but we have the largest sewage dump in the world here from New York City.

DT: Before we get into thatand

BA: I forgot about that.

DT: We talked about the politics and law and even the science of the nuclear waste dump but I think it might be worth talking about the things that are most immediate, intimate to you,

sort of personal cause to doing this. I think we mentioned before that you're not the Sierra Club, you're not the Audubon Society, you're not the Environmental Defense Fund, you're one individual and I wonder if you could talk a little about how you managed to take this on and at what cost.

BA: Sure. I'll, I'll tell you that but quickly before that I wanted to mention one thing that came just popped in my mind. There's a Washington Post reporter that came here in the hearings in 1996.

There was a big public hearing in prep that, that started off the contested case hearing process, another big public hearing at our school gym which hundreds of people attended.

This Washington Porsh Post reporter, Sue Ann Presley from Texas, shes really nice and very easy to talk to, talked to her a long time, she went to the hearing and talkshe talked to the other side of course to do her storyand(misc.)

BA: Sue Ann Presley bas-, you know she talked to the other side and the other side I should say our county judge which I consider the other side,

he was promoting the facility, the dump, Billy Love and others, maybe Rick Jacoby of the disposal authority and maybe some lobbyists that had, were at the hearing were telling them that I was,

and I dont know if they believe this, David, that I was being supported and got a lot of money from Green-, got a lot of money from Greenpeace, that I had a lot of money coming in from Greenpeace.

And this is how I could do all this and this is all outside they try to make the thing this is all outsiders, you know. They had a problem because I lived here but they liked to make her think that Sierra Blanca wanted it and this is all outsiders that were trying toto stop the project, you know, people that are butting in, you know, the tree huggers type of thing.

DT: Carpetbaggers.

BA: Carpetbaggers, yeah, well, you know, these are nuclear carpetbaggers that came from the northeast to come into our state is what it was, that's what I call it, nuclear carpetbaggers,

you know, from Maine and Vermont. And I didn't name the reactors, Maine Yankee, Vermont Yankee, but its Yankee waste, you know.

So Sue Ann Presley said, you know, some of your opponents like the county judge were saying you're being financed by Greenpeace, is that true? And I says, and she was standing right there here in our store and I said, Ms. Presor Sue Ann letlet me show you something.

And I led her through the store and we had a lot more stock in the store than then even, David. I said, look at this leaking roof, look at the little bit of stock on our shelves, and there was even more than then as she could see,

yeah, its not as much as there should be even three years ago. And I said, this is coming out of our own pockets, this is a grass roots campaign if you want to call it that.

This is coming from my mom's pocket and from people that may donate a little bit of money to us. Yes, we take donations, but I can tell you Greenpeace isn't one of them and theyre not giving me any millions or thousands of dollars.

But let me tell you something, if Greenpeace would give me thousands of dollars or even one dollar, I'd take it. I told her I would almost take money from the devil if it would stop this dump, you know, I dont care who it is, you know.

So she got a big laugh out of that and did a very good write up, you know, that I was very knowledgeable and could talk about tridium and scientific issues and the pros and cons of the, you know, the legalities of, of, of, you know, on any level, you know, I wasn't trying to mislead her.

I think thats real important to other activists and people that want to be involved and make a difference, is to always remain credible, don't overstate the truth, don't understate the truth, just tell the truth,

it's strong enough by itself and always tell the truth, that way you develop a relationship where people will trust you, the public, and the media will trust you and they won't have to be questioning you

and looking up to if, if you're, if you're, if you're just blowing smoke or, or not really telling the truth. And that can come back toto bite you so we were always realreal focused on making sure that, that, that, that the truth be told in its entirety but not overstating it and not exaggerating.

DT: I guess your accuracy and your knowledge about the issue really helped you but I guess there's also the credibility that when she came in the store and she saw the sacrifices youd been making that there was a real commitment there.

BA: Yeah. It's like I said and I do want to say this for anyone hearing this is that I don't consider myself a hero, I don't, you know, we've been called that, I've gotten award, you know, awards and plaques and all this.

But this wasn't about Bill Addington, this was about the people and it took real, you know, I did a lot of work, yes, but I consider this my I, I don't consider myself a hero but I consider myself responsible.

And I will I will that's why I did what I did and, and it took thousands of people in two countries to stop this dump, to put enough pressure, political pressure on our governor.

But Im going to tell you one thing, David, it didnt happen by accident. There was a conserconsorted, there was a planthere was a very detailed plan andand the strategies we used were very well thought out and very creative.

We had to be creative. We didn't have much money. The state out-spent us about a thousand to one. They spent sixty-eight million dollars trying to force the dump on Sierra Blanca.

My mommy, mom and I, my mom and I, my mother and I spent about a quarter of a million and our legal defense fund spent about another hundred and fifty thousand, you know, plus a lot of work, we dont get paid for our work, that's eight years of my time, my life went into this.

So the story needs to be told and really and, and I appreciate everything that, that you've done to make sure it is told for future generations of Texans.

I, I think this is a very super important project and it reaches out into the future and it, it, it makes me feel good to know that my words will someday be heard by, by others in the near future and people that aren't maybe not even born yet because, you know, the, the, the story of Sierra Blanca is, is not about it's not an ego thing with me, believe me, but it needs to be told in its entirety.

And thats why I, I've been approached to write a book and we've actually been approached for a movie which, which has not happened because I refused to do it for twenty-five, thirty thousand dollars and I refused to not have any creative control over the issue.

Showtime was going to was committed to do the story. I, the producer was disappointed with me for not signing the contract and of course now theyre not interested because I wouldn't back off from that but I, I, I have an agent and I want to tell the story in the right way.

It's not, it's not about me or making enough money, it's not it, but it's about at least having I know the story would have to be fictionalized in a movie in a, in a film a feature film,

it would have to be fictionalized a little bit, but I am wanting to have some a little bit of creative control and they were going to hire me as a consultant but I, I'm just going to wait to do the, to, to actually finish a book. And then the book can hopefully be used as a screen play

because the story is so important, it can show others, I believe, since we don't win that often, the people that are fighting these projects environmental projects, negative environmental projects.

They need to know that we can win if we stick together and work and, and the basic things is, basic thing is just like I've told the, the new groups that have sprouted off,

I've watched the birth of several environmental groups, is that you have and when you start an environmental group or any group, when youre working together for for a common cause, you have to have respect for each other and trust for each other. If you dont have respect and trust, just a few people even,

I mean just three or four people could do so much if you just have that basic respect and trust and not let egos get in your way. If you have love the love on top of that, love for yours each other and love for the earth, your, your powers magnified a thousand times and your and people do not realize the power they have, even in small groups,

if they will just remember what they have by trusting and respecting each other and loving each other. You can do you can move mountains and we I think we proved we proved that with Sierra Blanca. We we were never expected to win.

I cannot tell you the times that I've been laughed at, ridiculed by reporters, by, by congressmen, by state officials, saying that we can't stop it, it's a done deal. Being I've been I've been called Don Quixote, tilting at win-, windmills

and they, they, they like to give out the id-, the impression this creates powerlessness and helplessness among the people, further disenfranchising them, that it, it, it, that you cant stop these types of things, the governments all powerful,

they're the government and they dictate to us, the other way around, were supposed to be telling them what to do as our public officials, weve forgotten that but we've let that happen. You know, the the people forget that so.

DW: Can the government, can they threaten you, can they decide surprisingly that youre going to be audited, can they decide to have police just search your things for no reason at all?

BA: Yes they can.

DW: Okay so but for the activist in the crowd, you know because it does paint a very rosy picture (?) not necessarily (?)

BA: Yeah sure, and, and you're, and you're right, David, you're, you're right, both of y'all are right and I can testify to that.

Because of my activism we've had an arson of our lumber yard. It was an arson and I didn't call it, I mean, I, we knew it was an arson but the fire marshal said it was an arson, he found combustibles used, and it was a, a, it was a big fire and it was meant to intimidate us.

I've been shot at in my car on a state highway just taking photos of Merco off the side of the road and of a ranch nearby. We've had death threats on my telephone, I've had my phone tapped, we found bugging equipment on the roof of the store.

I've had my wife threatened, my wife was threatened and said that theyre going to get me if I don't back out and that lumb-, your lumber yard was first, they're going to burn the store down next.

Sure, there's lots of intimidations that can happen. But if the people stick together and work together, you know, this and, and, and support each other, they will go away.

They saw that I wasnt going to go away just because our lumberyard burned down, the warning wasn't strong enough. It just made me more determined.

And I will tell you this also because it, it, it's emotional to me, it drains me, but it's important for your project, for people in the future to hear this. It does come at a high cost but it doesn't have to be that way if wed all work together.

There doesn't have to be people screaming out in the wilderness by themselves for a long time to get others to listen if we'd all do it from the beginning.

I lost my wife and family because of this. My wife, I had a very beautiful wife, and son we were adopting and we were going to move to the river, to the farm and my other life and she in nineteen ninety in January 1st 1994,

she told me, she said, I love you Bill but I cannot take this anymore. You said it was going to be over soon and we thought it would be and it wasn't. And I said I could not promise her when this radioactive waste project would be stopped or a decision one way or the other.

And she said, well Bill I love you and but I'm going to leave. I'm taking our son because I can't take this anymore, this isn't a life. She was only twenty-four years old, you know,

and she said I see you more on television than at home and I, I love you but I'm leaving. And she did and, you know, its hard.

I have, I, I don't want to dismiss it and paint a rosy picture that we can all do these things together and its just easy. Its not going to be easy, but its our responsibility to act on this as human beings.

And, I thought I was doing this for my wife and son, you know, protecting them. To me what they wanted to do here, David, the state of Texas and the authority is no different than if someone came into my house, some criminals waving guns, threatening my family.

It's no different to me, it's just more insidious what this what, you know, what happens, this is a medical issue, what happens when a radionucleide that mimics a, a mineral like calcium, goes in your body and gives you bone cancer?

What happens that's what and that is why, you know, that is why we do what we do. We, it's a medical issue, its a health and safety issue.

It's not just about being environmentalist and protecting the trees and the land. Its about the protection of life and its about radioactive waste issue, its about the protection of our genetic code, our the book of life, you know.

Radioactive materials disrupt the genetic code, our chromosomes which its been described as like when, when these radioactive elements and contaminants invade our body, its like setting, it's like a mad man going through a library throwing books everywhere.

That's what it does to our chromosomes, our genes. And we certainly don't want our children suffering birth defects, defects, lowered immune systems, cancer, bone disease.

I was told and I did it, go off on these tangents, a lady asked me from Maine, she's a doctor that was a legislator that was opposing the compact. She said, Bill, if you thought that if you could save one baby's life by cutting your hair, would you cut your hair? I said, well certainly.

Then she said, well cut your hair. And the next day I cut my hair. Yeah, it grew back but I did cut my hair because, you know, people think, you know, they, they, they, they want, they believe that, they judge you by the way you look.

And I was a leader and I had, and I wanted people to respect me and to listen to me. So I, you know, not that it, it shouldn't matter, but it does, so I cut my hair.

But I went off on this long tangent but I would say that also that having a, a people working together, that's where I was going, bear with me.

By having people working together we, we can do a lot and it shouldn't it won't, you know, if they speople, if the other side sees theI should say the, you know, believe it or not I, I call this I call them the forces of darkness, you know.

There's good and bad in the world and the love of money can do some real strange thing and corrupt some really nice people but theand [End Reel #2137]