"We're Not in the Business to Count Votes"

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BLM Says Letters Had Some Influence on PFS Decision

(KCPW News) Utah officials and local community groups credit the thousands of people who wrote letters to the Bureau of Land Management for stopping a plan to store spend nuclear fuel at Skull Valley. Salt Lake Chamber Vice President Natalie Gochnour says her organization's letter-writing campaign contributed substantially to the 4,500 comments submitted to the BLM:

"We know the Chamber campaign led to thousands of letters to the BLM," says Gochnour. "I guess I would just reference Senator Hatch's comment that all of the letters to the BLM made a difference."

Glen Carpenter, Salt Lake Field Manager for the BLM, says the letters certainly influenced the decision to deny a permit for Private Fuel Storage to transport nuclear waste through public lands. But he says the decision was not made solely on that basis:

"We're not in the business to count votes, and if there's any perception from this that by inundating us with comments will cause us to make a decision on anything other than the merits of the application, then that's an incorrect perception."

Carpenter says the location and safety concerns request were paramount in the BLM decision. The Bureau of Indian Affairs also made a similar denial late last week. PFS officials say are considering other options to keep their Skull Valley storage plan alive.

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