Andrews County Commissioners Want Citizens’ Opinions About High Level Nuclear Waste

Storage of high level nuclear waste has been an issue in Andrews County and West Texas for some time now, but now the waste could start showing up in a little over a month.

According to NewsWest 9, Kerry Pack is precinct one commissioner for Andrews County and is looking for community opinion on high level nuclear waste that will soon be stored in Andrews County.

He asks for more calls, emails, and text messages from constituents in his precinct on how they feel about nuclear waste being stored in the county.

"WCS has done a lot for our community," said Pack. "We have built baseball fields, we've added on to our rodeo arena, several projects have happened. We've bought buses and ambulances."

There are positives and negatives to the waste storage though.

"The storing and all will be a lot like the storing that they do now, which is very high tech and a lot of engineers involved, and a lot of thought process goes into that," said Pack.

There is a financial benefit to it too, but how much is unknown at this time since it is the first time.

"There's been concerns on the storage of it because this is high level," Pack said. "There's been concerns that I've had come to me about our aquifer out there. Engineers say that there is no water underneath the facility."

Citizens of Andrews also fear a target would be put on the county if war broke out or there was an international threat.

The best resources for more information would be the Waste Control and Storage Services website, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website, and the Protect the Basin website.