Barbara Boxer: “It seems to me very interesting that, as we are about to address a very important subject of corporate irresponsibility…”

“It seems to me very interesting that, as we are about to address a very important subject of corporate irresponsibility and try to fix the mess that is happening on Wall Street, we would be disrupted from that task to go to an issue such as this, which is so very harmful to our people. My State of California is one of the most affected by the Yucca Mountain project because Yucca Mountain is only 17 miles from the California border and from Death Valley National Park. Scientific studies have shown that the regional ground water aquifer surrounding Yucca Mountain discharges into Death Valley because Death Valley is down gradient from Yucca Mountain. If the ground water is contaminated, that will mean the demise of the park and the surrounding communities. The tests that have been done on the site are not what we would want to see. We see leakage; we do not see dryness. We see problems with Yucca Mountain that would lead most people to assume there will be a problem with leakage into the ground water. It is an absolute travesty waiting to happen to my State. Water is life in the desert.”