TCEQ Moves Ahead
With Radioactive Waste Dump:
Rules Adopted, But
With Changes
On Wednesday, December 17th, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) voted to adopt the rules that will implement HB 1567, the bill allowing a private radioactive waste facility to be licensed and operated in Texas. Before they did so, however, they made a couple of small, but positive changes.
As you might remember from this spring, HB 1567 made it possible for a private company, rather than the state, to open a dump for so-called low-level radioactive waste generated in the “compact” states (currently Texas, Vermont, and Maine, though Maine is withdrawing). When Texas first entered into the compact agreement, the idea was to have a place to store and manage (disposal is a misnomer) this material, mostly generated at nuclear power plants, and to limit the amounts coming to the dump. Thanks to a loophole written into the law, the yet-to-be created Compact Commission can make an exception to the requirement that only waste from compact partner states is allowed at the compact dump. Much worse, however, is the fact that HB 1567 (passed in the regular session) will also allow the creation of a second dump for waste from nuclear weapons facilities all over the country. And, worst of all, this two-dump facility will be licensed and operated by a private company whose motivation will NOT be limiting volumes of radioactive waste and protection of public safety, but rather profit from bringing in as much of this dangerous material as it can find.
Texans should know that this law will make a site in west Texas the largest radioactive waste “disposal” facility in the nation. Using the word “disposal” when referring to storage of materials that will remain highly dangerous for tens and even hundreds of thousands of year is absolutely deceptive. Likewise, the term “low-level radioactive waste” (LLRW) should not be misunderstood as reassuring – low-level simply means everything that is not high-level, as in spent nuclear reactor fuel. LLRW includes materials that are extremely dangerous and even deadly.
Writing the rules to implement this particularly bad legislation was the responsibility of the TCEQ – the put the draft rules out for comment in September. The Texas Radioactive Waste Defense Fund (TRWDF), an alliance of several environmental and public interest organizations with concerned citizens, submitted a set of comments drawn up by several experts on the issue. TRWDF had numerous concerns about the proposed rules, some of which were basic problems with the legislation itself but others with the interpretation of the intent. One of the top issues of concern was the need for complete public access to information about the process – the license applicants, the applications themselves, and everything to do with the operation of such a facility. Because the dump was originally conceived of as a state-owned and operated facility, we wanted to be sure that a private company would have to have the same standards of freedom of information. In addition, TRWDF suggested that there be a citizen oversight committee to increase public scrutiny of the facility and for sharing information with the general public.
Although the revised version of the rules did not contain a provision for such an oversight entity, at the meeting for the vote on the rules adoption, all three commissioners said that they were interested in the concept and wanted to pursue it further. Commissioner Larry Soward, newly appointed to the TCEQ, stated that the commission had the authority to create such a committee and Chairman Kathleen White agreed. Indeed, Commissioner Soward clearly was in agreement that oversight and monitoring of the dump, by both the public and the TCEQ, is highly important. He proposed two changes to the revised rules reflecting that – the first was concerning the public notice requirements in the rules. The rules on required notice if there was a contested case hearing about the license applications, and then only in a general circulation newspaper in the county where the facility was to be placed. Soward expressed his opinion (shared by many of us) that newspaper notice is entirely insufficient to actually keep the public informed; his proposed change was a requirement that when a company applied for a license, they must put the entire application on a website and inform the TCEQ of its URL, which the commission will post on its website. The other change he proposed was that the annual review of the financial assurance for the facility should not, as stated in the rules, be the responsibility of the Executive Director of TCEQ, but of the commissioners themselves, in an open meeting.
Both of these changes were approved by the commissioners and the rules adopted. The final encouragement to be had from Commissioner Soward’s remarks was his statement about “these rules are not set in stone” – and he was not referring to the possibility of a weakening of public protection that might be sought by the waste companies. Clearly, the gravity of the issue was not lost on the commissioners – and members of TRWDF had met with each of them to emphasize that point. We will continue to follow this process closely, and work with the commissioners to try to get the best out of a bad situation. In the meantime, please spread the word about the radioactive waste legislation and what it could mean for the future of Texas for hundreds and thousands of years.