Apul Kirit Patel, Daily Californian, March 5, 1996

Council May Urge Lab to Reduce Use of Hazardous Materials

The City Council is scheduled to consider tonight urging the UC - operated Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to minimize, reduce and eventually eliminate operations that make use of hazardous materials.

Lab neighbors and other Berkeley residents are concerned because the current contract between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California calls for an 8.5 percent increase in the 1ab's total inventory of hazardous and radioactive materials and waste.

Councilmember Maudelie Shirek is proposing the resolution that has received support from some council members.

Councilmember Mary Wainwright said she was optimistic that the lab, which is located in the Berkeley Hills, would take the council's request into consideration.

"When we're concerned about issues they sometimes don't get resolved like we'd like them to, but hopefully (the lab) will take the necessary precautions," Wainwright said. "This makes sense because it affects them as well as us."

Shirek was not available for comment yesterday.

Lab spokesperson Ron Kolb said yesterday that the lab has been a good neighbor with a clean track record and questioned why it was being singled out.

"The lab continues to minimize and reduce our generated waste. That's our goal," Kolb said. (The resolution's request) is unrealistic in terms of the lab and what it was designed to do."

The resolution also cites the lab's "complicated geological area" as additional cause for concern, making references to "critical fire zones" in the Berkeley Hills, soil instability, the lab's proximity to the Hayward Fault and its location in a densely inhabited urban area.

Community and environmental activist L A Wood said yesterday that he hoped the resolution would be the beginning of a pattern of interaction between the community and the lab.

"They haven't been accountable to the past," Wood said. "They've had many, many violations. I'd have a lot of questions."

The resolution, if passed, would follow a pattern that has brought the lab consistent criticism from city officials in past months.

City officials from Berkeley, Oakland and Orinda sent a letter last year asking lab Director Charles Shank to reconsider the cancellation of a fire response pact among the cities.

Officials also asked Shank in that letter to reconsider layoffs in the lab's firefighting force.

The council in December urged the lab to conduct an environmental impact report on its plans to increase its storage of radioactive and hazardous waste. But lab officials announced last week that they would not pursue such a report.