Maine To Say "Adios" to Texas Radioactive Waste Compact

"This is one more example of why Texas doesn't need a nuclear waste dump," said Erin Rogers of the Lone Star Chapter. "For years the nuclear waste dump promoters have told us that Texas needs a dump in order to fulfill its obligation to the compact. But the compact is system is a failure and regional dumps are no longer viable."

The Maine legislation, LD 2171, states that "Maine’s withdrawal from the compact is made necessary by the likelihood that the decommissioning of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company nuclear power plant will be completed prior to the opening of any disposal facility in Texas and the fact that the remaining low level waste generators in this State produce an exceedingly small volume of waste that currently is accepted for disposal at facilities in South Carolina and Utah."

The compact which was passed by all three states and ratified by Congress in 1998, attempted to establish a joint disposal site for the three states’ waste in Texas. It also required Maine and Vermont to each pay Texas $50 million for the establishment of the dump. But neither state has paid Texas, and Texas has not opened a disposal site. There are no real penalties or enforcement hammers in the compact.

The Sierra Club urged Gov. Rick Perry and Texas legislators to respond by making their own changes to the compact to protect Texas from any additional imported nuclear waste. No new states should be added to the compact.

Texas legislators should close a loophole in the Compact that virtually guarantees that a Texas disposal facility will become a national dump. The loophole can be forever closed by simply removing Section 3.05(6) of the Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 403 —the section that allows Governor-appointed Commissioners to contract with other states or companies to import unlimited amounts of waste for disposal in Texas. In the last session of the Texas legislature, Sen. Teel Bivins carried a bill for Waste Control Specialists that would have opened up Texas to 93 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste from contaminated U.S. Department of Energy facilities.

Texas legislators have expressed concern about the loophole, but argued against closing it for years by claiming that changes in the compact would require re-ratification by the U.S. Congress. The 2003 legislative session provides an excellent opportunity to send any changes in the compact to Congress, which is obligated to review the compact every five years after its effective date. The compact was ratified in 1998, making it subject to Congressional review in 2003.

"Texas can manage its own waste—the last thing we need is more states being added to the compact to dump on Texas," said Rogers.

The telephone number for the office of Gov. King is (207) 287-3531.