The UA is planning to send nuclear waste it has stored at its campus radiation control facility to a proposed California site, despite three groups' claims that it will pose a significant health hazard.

Representatives from Greenpeace, the Student Environmental Action Coalition and the Colorado River American Indian Tribes announced at a press conference yesterday that the waste could possibly be shipped to a proposed site in Ward Valley, Calif., 18 miles from the upper Colorado River.

Charles Geoffrion, associate vice president for research, said the University of Arizona supports the Ward Valley site and said the "minimal" amount of nuclear waste, produced mostly by University Medical Center's Nuclear Medicine Department, would be dumped safely.

Some of the research done at the UA and UMC involves the use of radioactive isotopes, Geoffrion said. Once used for research and medical treatments, the radiation leaves behind a waste by-product.

Opponents of the Ward Valley site said the threat of contamination is real and that it could affect 20 million people, not centuries from now, but in just a few years.

Steve Lopez, former council member of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and the Ward Valley delegate, said they are trying to halt the transference of reservation land to be used as a dumping ground for the states of California, Arizona and Nevada.

"The way they are planning it and setting it up is unsafe," said Claudette White, council member of the Colorado River Quechan Indian tribe. "There is no guarantee."

Geoffrion said studies have shown that possible contamination would take "centuries to migrate." He also said that the storage containers the UA would use would be triple-walled and concrete lined with no danger of leakage.

But he said, "You can never say the risk is zero."

Lopez said the company that could build the storage facility at the proposed site, U.S. Ecology, has had "problems with leakage" at their other sites.

He also said most of the waste that would be dumped at Ward Valley will be coming from dismantled nuclear reactors from outside the tri-state area.

An aquifer located beneath Ward Valley could be contaminated, which would spread to the Colorado River, Lopez said. Central Arizona Project water supplied to Arizona is drawn from the Colorado River and makes its way via aqueducts throughout the state.

"We know the threat is there," he said. "We're not asking for more studies. We're asking that this be stopped."

Lopez said his reasons for trying to stop the construction of the dump extend beyond contamination. Ward Valley, he said, is sacred to the Colorado River tribes and is a critical habitat for the Desert Tortoise, an endangered species.

In a statement released to the media, Molly McKasson, Tucson city councilmember, said she is "firmly opposed" to permitting a nuclear waste site near the Colorado River.

"I am very disappointed in the silence of our local leaders who have been pushing for years the CAP and the direct delivery of Colorado River water into our potable drinking water system," McKasson wrote.

McKasson said she challenges proponents of CAP direct delivery to "vehemently" oppose the Ward Valley project for the health and safety of Tucson citizens.

Wendy Young, a SEAC member, said that once contamination occurs, there is no way to reverse it.

"From a young person's perspective," Young said, "we're going to have to live with this."