Danny Quintana
Former Tribal Counsel/Skull Valley Band

Salt Lake City attorney Danny Quintana served as legal counsel to the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indian tribe throughout the time when the tribe was studying the feasibility of hosting a nuclear waste storage site, and through the period when a contract was signed by the tribe with Private Fuel Storage.

Quintana, now largely retired from the practice of law, was interviewed in his Salt Lake City office by program Producer Ken Verdoia.

Ken Verdoia: Give us an overview. How did you get involved with the Skull Valley Band and what did you view as your role in relationship with them?

Danny Quintana: Well, about 11 years ago I won a case out at the Utah State Prison involving some inmates that wanted to practice their religion and there was a Sweat Lodge Case, oh it was Roy Bob v. Deland and I had a couple of tribes call me that wanted me to represent them after that. And I chose Skull Valley because of their leadership, they don't drink at all. With them, alcohol isn't even a subject of polite conversation and I thought they had the integrity that we'd be able to get a lot of things done. It was a really good working relationship and I really appreciated working for them.

The way the whole spent nuclear fuel project got started is really rather strange because I had drafted the Senate resolution for Francis Farley to stop the MX Missile System from being sited in the Utah/Nevada area, because I knew a lot about nuclear power and I knew a hell of a lot more then I should have about nuclear weapons. I remember telling my friends at the time that I had drafted that Senate resolution, that eventually stopped the MX from coming here, that I was against the use of nuclear power for war but I wholeheartedly supported the use of nuclear power for peace, including nuclear energy and nuclear medicine and all of the benefits that come from that. Ninety-five percent of the pharmaceutical drugs that we have come about as a result of radioactive testing, the use of isotopes. Without CAT scans and MRIs, we wouldn't have modern medicine. And of course nuclear power is a very clean and efficient way to generate electricity, despite all the criticism that is occurred.

But what I had said to my friends was that the problem with nuclear power is what to do with the spent fuel. And of course that was in 1979. In 1989, David LeRoy, then the Nuclear Waste Negotiator [in the U.S. Department of Energy], had suggested to numerous communities to have a federal program that they would be the host site to store this spent nuclear fuel for the nation. And when I saw the proposal and it was going out to the Indian community, I suggested to the Skull Valley Band that we get the proposal because my intent was to gather the data and put together a report and kill the proposal. Because I had thought initially what was occurring was the Department of Energy and the utility companies were in a conspiracy to dump high level nuclear waste on reservations. Well, if we're intellectually honest after we do an investigation, we can either continue to hold our views if they're supported by the facts or if the facts, as a result of the investigation, clearly do not support our views then, as reasonable people, we're obligated to change our mind.

In phase one what we did was we went to Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant over in Sacramento. We met with Green Peace in San Francisco. We went up to the Columbia River, and met with the Indigenous People's Network. We went to Virginia. We went to West Palm Beach, Florida to meet with Florida Power. And we went with the Edison Electric Institute and with the Department of Energy. And when we toured the West Palm Beach facility with Florida Power, it was really rather interesting because in talking with their officials, they were really concerned about what they were going to do with their spent fuel because their pool was just about full and the federal program was at least a decade behind schedule.

Utility company executives don't have the luxury of government bureaucrats where they can postpone decisions. They have shareholders and they have decisions they need to make that are long term decisions. In talking with them, they were really disappointed with the federal government and it started to become very, very clear that there was no conspiracy between the utility companies and the Department of Energy to dump anything on reservations. It was more of the Department of Energy trying to create a program that a volunteer community would host the nation's spent nuclear fuel and they would be paid handsomely for that. Numerous communities applied, white communities, Indian communities, etc. Even though there was no conspiracy, it was still incumbent to fully study this issue so the tribe applied for a phase two grant.

And in phase two, what the tribe did, the Tribal Council did is they went and visited the nuclear power plants and storage facilities in Japan and in Europe. And in looking at the storage facilities abroad, it became crystal clear that this could be safely done. The only danger in this project is the politics and the money. With regards to the politics, the danger that comes there is the labels that are going to occur and the stereotyping and the hysteria that will be created by politicians because this project is a no-brainer for a politician. It involves high-level radioactive waste. It involves a Native American community and it involves an opportunity to appear green even if they're not. So for a politician to oppose this is a slam dunk.

Well, the advantage that the Indian communities have is they're immune to a lot of politics from state and federal politicians. The only politics they have to deal with are the internal fights that are going to occur within those communities which are substantial and brutal. Well, the danger from the money comes from if you throw money at poor communities instead of having problems with alcohol, then what you will do is you will have problems with a decreased willingness on the part of the members of a poor community to find long term gainful employment and your social indicators, your suicide rates will go up, and then instead of alcohol problems, you'll have drug problems because now they can afford drugs like the white community. So if the money's managed carefully then those problems can be avoided and if you take a holistic approach in terms of how you're going to govern, which Skull Valley has done a very nice job of pursuing.

After the trip to Europe and to Japan, and as a result of that trip the tribe produced not only a full and comprehensive report for the Department of Energy but also a film so that they could educate their members. And the members overwhelmingly voted in favor of pursuing the facility - Leon Bear, who was Economic Director at the time, and is now Chairman, did something that I thought was really, really smart. He took the entire tribe by bus up to Idaho to the National Engineering Laboratory and they saw for themselves, firsthand, this is exactly what the storage of spent nuclear fuel is all about. He calmed their fears and did a really nice job of educating his members.

But that's in the nature of how the Chairman behaves. He's has extraordinary judgment. He's a very, very bright guy and he has tremendous courage and without him this project never would have gone forward, and of course Lawrence Bear and Leon's father, who is now deceased, Richard Bear. Because what they do is they look at projects long term. They look at what is going to be the long term effect on their community and on the environment, and of course, the Native American community and the nation. The state doesn't figure into those equations because in the Goshutes, in my conversations with them, that's their territory and they had a much larger territory at one time, which included the whole Wasatch Front all the way to a little bit past Elko. So they're very, very protective of their territory and they know exactly who they are and exactly what they're doing.

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