The decision we had been waiting on for nearly two years came in January: Unfortunately, the State Engineer decided to award the Green River nuclear power plant the massive amount of water they need [1].

That decision ignored the reams of evidence that nuclear power is a terrible use for Utah's precious water. [2]

And then, just a couple days later, we really learned what a bad decision it was when news broke about Blue Castle’s fraudulent investors [3]. Federal officials charged a New York hedge fund, LeadDog Capital Markets, which had pledged Blue Castle Holdings $30 million, with scamming investors. LeadDog, according to the feds, are preyed on old people [4]. They lied to investors, telling them they were putting their money into relatively safe investments, when in fact they were buying risky “penny-stocks,” which the LeadDog principals in fact secretly owned. And these criminals are the money behind Utah’s nuclear reactors.

Now utterly convinced the State Engineer must take a second look [5] at whether Blue Castle Holdings should get all this water for their nuclear nightmare, HEAL Utah officially appealed the decision [6]. We did so because many of you answered our plea. [7]

Given the recent revelation, we’re hopeful the State Engineer will re-open his investigation. We should hear back from him by the end of February.

---

Utah Allows Blended Nuclear Waste: Tell Them What You Think Now!

The public comment period has begun on the state's blended waste decision, use our online form to submit comments! [8]

‪ [9]State regulators want to make it sound like they're protecting our health by ordering a study on whether blended waste should be dumped in Utah [10] -- while they go ahead and let EnergySolutions start dumping blended waste in Utah [9].

We won't be fooled by this clear deception [11]. It's time for Gov. Herbert to stand up and use his authority to keep blended waste out of Utah, or we will see a dramatic increase in the radioactivity brought to Utah each year. We will lose our state's ban on hotter wastes and Utah will become THE dumping ground for the nation's low-level nuclear wastes.

Mad yet? Us too. Please take a moment and fill out our online comment form [8] to let regulators know what you think. We’re also using a postcard (see image to the left) to collect comments. If you’re interested in taking 5, 10, 20 or more of those, and asking your friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to fill those out, that would be great! Email our Outreach Director Arthur Morris at arthur@healutah.org [12] for more info.
[9]

 

---

E-UTAH IN THE NEWS

[13]

Everyone is talking about our renewable energy roadmap for Utah, the eUtah Project! This includes the New York Times [14], Huffington Post [15], and Business Week [16] just to name a few! Visit our sister site, www.eUtahProject.org [17] for more renewable energy news and learn more about our initiatives in the coming year to create a cleaner and healthier energy future for Utah!  Download the Blueprint and full study here [18]. 

[13]

---

The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) works to engage citizens in efforts to protect public health from nuclear and toxic waste and promote clean energy policies for our state.  With the help of our members, we are working to create a world in which people, not polluters, determine Utah’s environmental and energy policies.

 

[19]