Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, has called on colleagues across the state to help fight federal plans to "dump" tons of liquid mercury in Nevada.
The Department of Defense wants to move strategic stockpiles of mercury, totaling 4,400 metric tons from three different sites as far away as New Jersey, to the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot.
State environmental officials have been fighting the proposal for three years, but federal officials recently announced they intend to go forward with the plan.
"This is another ill-conceived plan by the federal government to dump toxic waste in the Silver State," Titus said.
"Nevada officials have worked together to fight Yucca Mountain," she said. "We need to join together to fight this new threat as well."
She offered whatever assistance she can provide to the Governor's Office in efforts to block the plan.
Mercury is toxic and has been linked to birth defects as well as brain damage. Since there is a ready supply of the substance, federal officials have concluded they don't really need the stockpiles created in the 1950s.
State environmental officials have expressed concern that the government's intention is not so much to store the mercury for future use at Hawthorne as it is to dump it there permanently.