Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

A RFini 7I TT iLJlJl Miami routs Nebraska in battle for No. 1D1 Desks for saleBl FOUNDED IN 1891 WYOMING'S STATEWIDE NEWSPAPER 13. Harford nuke waste may move by Wyo rail -'if-' Sr. II v4 Proposed BNSF route Vs 1 1 Wyoming I -JNorthport I I CYNTHIA LUMMIS State treasurer calls contradictory document a mistake. Lummis: Conflict lasted 9 months '---Jl Carlsbad Proposed Union Pacific route Union Pacific, BNSF bid to haul through state By BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune staff writer Shipments of transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste through Wyoming and Montana may dramatically increase if railroads start shipping waste from the Hanford nuclear reservation in southeast Washington, to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.

Large, bulky and heavy items from Hanford and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) near Idaho Falls could generate more than 49,000 cubic meters of material that would have to be shipped via railroad through Wyoming. The WIPP site, located 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, should mark its 500th truck shipment early this month, according to Department of Energy (DOE) spokesman Dennis Hurtt. Of those shipments, 10 came through Wyoming from the Hanford site in southeast Washington, as well as 170 truck shipments from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) west of Idaho Falls. These truck shipments run west to east along Interstate 80 in Wyoming, then south on 1-25 from Cheyenne. DOE's Hurtt emphasized that most of the TRU truck shipments to New Mexico have been from Rocky Flats near Denver, or INEEL, with only a few shipments from Hanford.

For years, INEEL was treated as a nuclear dumping ground by the rest of the country, until Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus insisted that the nuclear waste ultimately be moved out of Idaho to WIPP. The DOE is interested in seeing whether rail shipments are viable," Hurtt said, particularly as the future Hanford cleanup will involve big and heavy items such as plutonium-con-Please see HANFORD, A 12 I cateflo Wyoming I til 'I I cr i I I i I By BILL LUCKETT Star-Tribune staff writer CHEYENNE State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis declared a conflict of interest In April 2001 that she said dated back to December 2000, but a document she signed on file with the secretary of state's office indicates that her conflict dated back to April 2000. Lummis said the April 2000 document is in error, and she does not know why she signed it as the treasurer of Arp and Hammond Hardware Co. a family company.

"It sounds like Cynthia trying to do too much too fast. I made a mistake," she said. "I sign hundreds, maybe even more than hundreds, of documents every year, and I wonder if I was just in a hurry and made a mistake. But it truly is a mistake. It's not an intent to fail to disclose anything or to disclose the wrong thing.

It was simply a mistake." was a hardware store on the current site of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle building, Lummis said, but now it Please see LUMMIS, A4 Reynolds leaves Business Council Resigns as director of Minerals, Energy and Transportation By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter CHEYENNE Steve Reynolds, director of the Minerals, Energy and Transportation Division of the Wyoming Business Council, resigned Thursday and offered no explanation publicly. The resignation was effective immediately, according to a Thursday evening press release by the WBC. Kim Swanson, WBC spokeswoman, said she was instructed to tell reporters that Reynolds was out of town and could not comment. Reynolds did not return a phone call to his home Thursday evening. Tucker Fagan, CEO of the council, said he didn't know exactly why Reynolds resigned, but said he suspects Reynolds had time over the holiday season to re-evaluate his job and what he wants to do.

"It's the first of the year and I think that's what he did, he just re-assessed and said OK," Fagan said in a phone interview Thursday. Fagan said he was sorry to see Reynolds leave the council. "(Reynolds) is the kind of guy who is strong, moral, decent, good to be around and has a good sense of humor. I'm going to miss him," Fagan said. Reynolds became division director in January 2001.

In that role he was also charged with providing support and staff for the Wyoming Energy Commission formed by the Legislature in the spring. As director of Minerals, Energy and Transportation, Reynolds was responsible for working with council strategic partners to expand markets and help develop infrastructure in the state. Prior to his position with the council, Reynolds served as director of the Wyoming Office of State Lands Piease see REYNOLDS, A4 Pigs may supply transplant organs Cloning creates hope for ailing humans By PAUL RECER Associated Press WASHINGTON In what experts say is a major step toward an unlimited supply of human transplant organs, scientists have cloned piglets lacking one of the two genes that prompt the human immune system to reject swine tissue. Researchers said the achievement, announced by two competing labs, advances the day when herds of special swine could be used to grow lifesaving replacement organs for humans with ailing hearts, kidneys, livers and lungs. "For the field of xenotransplantation (transferring an organ from one species to another) it is a very important advance," Dr.

Jeffrey L. Piatt, head of transplantation biology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said Wednesday. "It is not the final hurdle, but it is Please see PIGS, A12 fv I 1 A lir 1 COURTESYBNSF Two routes from Hanford, to Carlsbad, N.M., have been proposed. The proposal under consideration by the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad, top, would take a more northerly route through Wyoming than the one by Union Pacific Railroad, bottom. U.S.

leaflets 'take liberties' State Department ads don't tell the whole truth not to be identified. Separately, the Pentagon released copies of the leaflets but could not immediately say who was in the picture, whether it was bin Laden or whether it was intended to deceive people into thinking bin Laden had abandoned his religious beliefs and had shaved his beard. The government acknowledged the leaflets are being dropped by U.S. planes. Defense Secretary Donald Please see LEAFLETS, A12 purporting to be Osama bin Laden in Western clothing without a beard.

State Department officials acknowledged the reward money ad running across the United States gives apparent details about Atta that actually were borrowed from other terrorism suspects, or were inaccurate. The ad's creators "took some liberties with some of the content," said a State Department official, who asked By DAVID PACE Associated Press WASHINGTON The gov-ernment is taking liberties with the facts In two high profile documents appealing for help in locating terrorists. A State Department ad offering millions in rewards contains inaccurate information about hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta, while a Pentagon leaflet dropped in Afghanistan includes a photo Si 4 DEQ offers late response to water audit discharging water from coalbeds onto the surface. The industry has drilled about 12,000 wells in recent years and has worked with DEQ to hone ijs water discharge permitting program. Melanie Pallman, a member of the EPA audit team, said because of DEQ's delayed response it is not known exactly when the EPA will decide whether to take authoritative action over discharge permitting.

"We're in a holding pattern Please see DEQ, A12 the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 8 office in Denver examined DEQ's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program "for corrective action or withdrawal" of Wyoming's authority to administer the program. That means the EPA could relinquish Wyoming's control of water discharge permitting if it isn't satisfied with how DEQ addresses concerns in the audit. Such an action could significantly impact Wyoming's coalbed methane gas Industry, which relies on the practice of By DUST1N BLLTZLTFER Star-Tribune energy reporter GILLETTE The Department of Environmental Quality missed a Dec. 12 deadline to submit its response to a federal audit of its water discharge permitting program. DEQ intends to file the response Monday, said Gary Beach, director of DEQ's Water Quality Division.

Beach on Thursday cited a heavy workload and the holiday season for the delay. In July, an audit team from GENE DALTONAP David Ayares, vice president of research for PPL Therapeutics of Edinburgh, Scotland, pets five cloned piglets in Blacksburg, on Wednesday. Today The grouch ii it! Open Spaces: Boy Scout overcomes illnesses to accomplish rare feat earn every merit badgeCl World: Federal detainees may lack legal help especially if they aren't well known, lawyers sayA2 Letters, A9 Markets, B4 Movies. C3 Obituaries, B3 Opinion, A8 Sports, Dl Weather, B6 Wyoming, Bl Inside: Calendar, B6 Casper Area, A3 Classified, C4 Comics. C5.

D6 Crossword. C5 Open Spaces, CI Landers, So the statement that bin Laden Is composed "entirely of pig organs" may be Inaccurate. I 3 Wina with futty outhwtftrriy winds 30 14 Wyoming's statewide newspaper. Subscribe today. (800) 442-6916 or (307) 2664550.

-4- i.