Nearly 100 people gathered at the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Center Thursday night in Fort Pierre to find out more information about the proposed 36 million dollar deep borehole field test in Haakon County near Milesville.
Rapid City-based engineering and consulting firm RESPEC hosted the meeting. This was the fourth public meeting that the firm has held in the last month on the proposal. RESPEC President and CEO Todd Kenner led the meeting, and assured the crowd that nuclear waste will never be involved in this project…
However, the concerns of area residents are that if this field test is successful, would it open the door to nuclear waste being disposed of in Haakon County?
Spink County and one in North Dakota already turned away similar proposals to conduct the test there, and Kenner says the approach taken to sell the project was completely different than this proposal
Kenner adds that as part of the contract, they have to show “public support” before the project gets the green light.
The plan is, according to Kenner, that a third independent party will survey every registered voter in Haakon County to see if they support the proposal.
Three other locations in the nation are being proposed for the project, including two in New Mexico and one in Texas. After the initial 5 month public scoping phase, the Department of Energy will down select three of the four proposed locations.
(KCCR)