Battelle drops proposed Dale County project

Hours before a special called meeting of the Dale County Commission was set to begin Nov. 1 an Ohio-based research firm dropped their proposed drilling project on Waterford Road in Newton.

Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship told a standing room only crowd at the commission meeting Tuesday that he had received a letter from Battelle Memorial Institute Program Manager Steven Winberg, dated Oct. 31, stating the company’s intention to officially withdraw its plans to drill a three-mile deep hole on the Dale County property owned by Alabama Power Company.

“The Department of Energy’s proactive approach to solving a critical challenge facing the United States remains a strong and worthwhile scientific endeavor and we fully support the project goals,” Winberg wrote in his letter to Blankenship. “Battelle feels strongly that the project would have provided significant economic and educational benefits to Dale County with very little risk ensured by multiple guarantees. However, we recognize the community’s concern.”

One week earlier, a standing room only crowd attended the commission meeting to express concern about the proposed borehole project.

Citizen concerns at the Oct. 25 meeting centered on perception circulated through social media, that nuclear waste would be used in the drilling project.

Winberg said repeatedly that no nuclear waste will be buried in Dale County but many residents seemed skeptical. The hole bored would be used for research purposes only, but data from the tests could result in future bore-holes being drilled elsewhere that could be used to dispose of weapons-grade nuclear waste, Winberg said. “The only thing that will go down into that well will be test instruments.”

Battelle, a nonprofit research firm hired to manage the five-year research, had submitted a proposal for the Dale County project to the DoE Oct. 24. The federal bid was expected to be awarded in mid-January.

Blankenship said Nov. 1 that after the Oct. 25 commission meeting, he received notification from the Southern Company, owners of Alabama Power, that they had notified Battelle that they withdrew their offer for use of land in Dale County.

Without the Alabama Power land, the project was essentially ended, Blankenship said, but he asked the commissioners to officially withdraw their resolution. The initial commission resolution was simply an authorization for Battelle to hold public hearings to garner citizen support of the project, Blankenship said. Dale County Commissioner Charles “Chic” Gary made the motion to withdraw commission support of the borehole project. Dale County Commissioner Steve McKinnon seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

After a similar project was rejected in North and South Dakota, Winburg said that Battelle committed to obtaining local citizens support first to head off rumors that the tests are a prelude to nuclear waste. “Our intent is to make sure that the first information that people hear about the project is from us,” Winburg said. “And to make the emphatic statement that DoE’s approach to nuclear waste disposal is to not use this as a site for disposal.”

Battelle approached Dale County after being rebuffed in North and South Dakota over citizen concerns that nuclear waste might eventually be stored there. Blankenship said Tuesday that U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions said they are going to support measures to move the project out to desert land in the western part of the United States.

“It’s not commercial waste from power plants but rather it’s nuclear waste from the Cold War and we are storing that in different places around the country and have been for 75-80 years now,” Winberg said previously. “And the DoE is looking for an alternative to just storing it. There are several alternatives out there and they are in the investigative phase.”