Remarks on Signing the West Valley Demonstration Project Act and the Love Canal Agreement in Niagara Falls, New York

THE PRESIDENT. This is a good day for me.

AUDIENCE MEMBER. Happy birthday.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, that's part of it.

[At this point, the audience sang "Happy Birthday."]

Well, it has been a very good birthday for me. I've had a chance to go to Detroit and to Flint to look at an exciting development in the automobile industry of our Nation, which affects you here as well. And I think this occasion, the signing of these two extremely important documents, will be another historic event not only for this particular locality and the entire State of New York but for our Nation. I'm grateful that Senator Moynihan and Senator Javits are here, Governor Hugh Carey, Congressman Lundine, Congressman LaFalce; also, of course, our candidate for United States Senator, Liz Holtzman. When I say "our," I'm talking about we Democrats. And also Mayor O'Laughlin and Mayor Griffin is here. This is a very fine day for us all.

I'm honored to be in Niagara Falls-back in Niagara Falls, I've been here several times before—to sign these two documents. Both of them represent a significant step forward. Each of them in its own way addresses a problem that Americans are only beginning to recognize, one recognized because of a potential tragedy, the other one recognized because it's becoming a worldwide threat. But the people of this area understand too well what the problems of dangerous waste can be.

The first document that I will sign is an act of Congress, the West Valley Demonstration Project Act, which is Senate act number 2443, and the second .one that we will sign, myself and Governor Carey, an agreement between the United States Government and the government of the State of New York that will permit the State to purchase the homes of residents of the Love Canal area.

The West Valley Demonstration Project Act, which has kind of a complicated name, but a very simple meaning, was sponsored by Congressman Lundine and Senator Moynihan and supported by Congressman Nowak and others here on this stage with me. Governor Carey was a constant proponent of the passage of this important legislation. It's an example of the forward-looking responses that we are now developing to the question of nuclear waste disposal.

I was in the nuclear program early in the 1950's, living in New York, as a matter of fact, in Schenectady. And at that time we studied the future of nuclear power production and also thought at that time that the problems of waste disposal would be handled in a routine manner because of established, understood, routine government policies. That hope and expectation did not materialize. I supported this bill enthusiastically, as a former nuclear engineer and as President and as the Governor of a State on whose borders is the Savannah River Project. It's a vital part of the nuclear waste management policy so important to us all.

We've been pursuing modern techniques of dealing with the large backlog of high-level nuclear waste all around the country. These techniques involved locking the liquid waste, highly radioactive, into virtually indestructible solid masses to cool the waste, solidify them into these masses which can almost withstand any destructive force.

This new act provides a production scale demonstration of high-level waste solidification technology. In addition, it provides for environmental and safety reviews and creates a mechanism for independent assessment and monitoring by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of how the Department of Energy plans to carry out the project.

On the way out here, Governor Hugh Carey and I were discussing how close a cooperative relationship existed between the State of New York, the communities involved, and the Department of Energy. Our hope is that this project will help to resolve the problem of high-level waste disposal in a way that protects the environment and safeguards the health and the safety of the public.

I want to remind everyone that this West Valley legislation would never have been enacted without the strong and unwavering support of Congressman Lundine and Senator Moynihan, Senator Javits, and the others on the stage with me. These men and women are responsible and determined legislators. They deserve great credit for their dedication to what has often been written off as a controversial and politically thankless cause. They believe, as I do, that the safe disposal of nuclear waste is both a national problem and also a State problem. Governor Carey agrees, and he's worked in close cooperation with us in developing the formula for Federal-State costsharing on the West Valley Project.

The second document that I will sign, following the West Valley project act, involves another kind of hazardous waste. Maybe some of you in Niagara Falls area have heard about it, the toxic chemicals that have caused so much suffering and so much anxiety to families in the area of the Love Canal. This agreement which Governor Carey and I will sign provides a Federal loans and grant program that will permit the State of New York to purchase the homes of Love Canal residents.

There have been arguments and a lot of confusion over scientific studies of the Love Canal area, but there can be no argument about the human reality of the problem. People have suffered and are suffering still. The financial and physical suffering has been bad enough, but perhaps worst of all has been the mental anguish and the terrible uncertainty to which those families have been subjected. There's really no way to make adequate restitution for that kind of suffering, but this agreement will at least give the families of the area, some 750 of them, the financial freedom to pack up and leave if they choose to do so.

I want to recognize four people in particular who have championed the cause of the Love Canal residents. First, Congressman John LaFalce, who has been at the forefront of this battle from the very beginning. Second, Mayor Michael O'Laughlin of Niagara Falls, who's made many trips to Washington to argue the case of the people of this city. Third, Governor Hugh Carey, who I don't believe has ever overlooked an opportunity to remind me about the problem in Love Canal. [Laughter] And fourth and most important, the grassroots leader of the Love Canal residents, Lois Gibbs. Without her empassioned advocacy and dedication there might have never been a Love Canal emergency declaration, and this agreement might never have come to pass.

The whole question of the disposal of hazardous waste, especially toxic chemicals, is going to be one of the great environmental challenges of the 1980's. As a nation we must look ahead, just as we are doing in dealing with nuclear wastes. As a nation we must make this resolution for our own sake and, more importantly, for the entire Nation: There must never be in our country another Love Canal. Thank you very much.

Just to recapitulate briefly, this bill that I will sign now will provide a joint Federal-State partnership which will be innovative in nature, set a standard for the rest of the country in the disposal of nuclear waste materials.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

And the second document which will now be signed, both by myself and Governor Carey, will provide the loan guarantees and the grants for the people of the Love Canal area, about 750 families, to provide for their opportunity to move from the area which has been contaminated if they so choose and to have some financial guarantee that they won't lose the equity in their own homes.

[At this point, the President and the Governor signed the agreement.]