By Matt Hansen and Josh Long
Jackson Hole Guide

The war against a proposed nuclear incinerator continues as residents of Teton County gather donations to consider court fight with the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

On Monday Jackson Hole attorney Gerry Spence urged Teton County Commissioners to cancel a scheduled public meeting on July 26 with INEEL representatives unless the public comment session on an air permit - which officially ended last month - is extended.

Despite Spence's arguments, the county will meet with the Department of Energy, the INEEL oversight committee, and BNFL, Inc., the company that has been awarded a contract to build a facility to incinerate and store nuclear and hazardous waste.

The Department of Energy expects the incinerator to emit roughly 19,000 cubic meters of nuclear and hazardous waste - 22 percent of the 85,000 cubic meters of mixed waste at the facility - during a 13-year period, an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality spokesman said.

The meeting will occur at 11 a.m. in the Teton County Administration Building. Teton County Commissioners also anticipate creating a formal resolution to request that the INEEL facility extends the public comment session on an air permit to construct the proposed nuclear incinerator, said commissioner Sandy Shuptrine.

The county commission has also scheduled a meeting on Aug. 26 to meet with INEEL representatives to "create a legitimate comment opportunity for our citizens here," Shuptrine said.

On Monday Spence reportedly flew in from San Francisco specifically to attend the county meeting. He said the Department of Energy and INEEL "betrayed" the residents of Teton County. He said recently that valley residents were not properly notified of the proposed incinerator. However, an IDEQ official has maintained the department received 400 comments from Jackson residents on the proposed nuclear facility during the public comment period.

Citizens worry that nuclear and hazardous waste emissions from the incinerator will carry into the atmosphere and reach Jackson Hole and the national parks. Many residents, including town and county officials, are seeking more information on the project, while others seem dead-set against any emissions settling here.

A group of residents have recently mobilized to pursue litigation options, and Spence reported on Monday that donations were being collected and a lawsuit is expected to be filed.

Spence opposed the county meeting with INEEL representatives unless the comment period on the air permit is extended.

He added, "It would be like talking into the wind because the official record has been closed. This is a government, beauraucratic conspiracy that doesn't give a damn."

Sophia Wakefield, an owner of Harvest Natural Foods, has been active for several weeks in gathering information on the INEEL facility. She said roughly 1,200 signatures have been gathered in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on a petition to oppose the nuclear incinerator. Also, a group of residents are planning to create a website on the INEEL facility.

She said residents asked DEQ and INEEL officials to convene a meeting in Jackson when the public comment session on the air permit was still open, but they declined. Now, Wakefield said, "anything that is exchanged has no official ground whatsoever."