For More Information:
Tom "Smitty" Smith – 512-797-8468
Trevor Lovell – 512-477-1155

Statement of Tom "Smitty" Smith, Director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, on Today’s State District Court Ruling Remanding the License for the WCS Radioactive Waste Facility in West Texas to TCEQ for a Contested Case Hearing

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This case has national significance because it involves Harold Simmons, one of the largest contributors to Republican political campaigns and attack ads. The amount and types of waste could be vastly expanded by Congress thus increasing the amount of money Simmons can make off of the dump, increasing the funds he has available to donate to future political campaigns

(Austin) Travis County State District Court Judge Livingston, overturned a decision made by the TCEQ three years ago that denied Sierra Club its right to a contested case hearing on the license given to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) for its radioactive waste site. Sierra Club subsequently filed a lawsuit in District Court, and the hearing has been delayed for three years. The Judge ruled today that the nearby residents should have been granted a contested case to prove how they were impacted and why the site might be flawed.

When Waste Control Specialists applied for a license, the staff at TCEQ reviewed the application and recommended its rejection because of their concerns about the possibility of the water intrusion and contamination. The TCEQ’s executive director overruled the recommendation of the staff and recommended issuing the license. Sierra Club and its members requested a hearing on the application. That request was denied and the license was issued by two of the three TCEQ commissioners -appointed by Governor Perry – whose second largest donor is Harold Simmons, the chief financial investor of WCS. Six months later TCEQ’s executive director went to work for WCS.

New information has recently come to light about the WCS site pertaining to the potential for water to come into contact with radioactive materials. According to data provided by TCEQ, water has been detected in monitoring wells at the facility for the last several months. An expert report authored by geologist George Rice and entitled, Occurrence of Groundwater at the Compact Waste Facility Waste Control Specialists Facility Andrews County, Texas, points out that infiltration of rainwater and movement of groundwater was already occurring within the buffer zone of the "Compact Waste Site" as recently as this March.

"This is a big victory for the citizens of Texas and New Mexico. The TCEQ knew this case was likely to be decided today but rushed to sign off on the dump site late last month, allowing radioactive waste to start coming into Texas, showing just how much political pressure Simmons can exert on Texas politics and agencies. The first shipments of radioactive waste arrived just 10 days ago. We call on TCEQ to act responsibly and reverse their decision granting that permit," said Karen Hadden of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition.

Rose Gardner lives within four miles of the WCS radioactive waste facility and was represented in this case by Sierra Club. "I’m very glad about the judge’s decision today, since we’ll now have a hearing where we can fully examine radioactive risks to our land and water. We now have more livestock than ever before and having the WCS radioactive waste dump nearby threatens our health and safety. TCEQ blocked this hearing before and needs to be more open with information and opportunities for citizens to participate," said Gardner.

"This case is of national significance because the dump’s biggest investor is Harold Simmons, one of the largest contributors to Republican political campaigns and attack ads. He helped to fund the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" and the "Obama is a Muslim" attack ads. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Simmons has spent $18 million so far this election cycle and plans to spend a total of $36 million before the end of this cycle. Why would he spend that kind of money? The amount and types of waste could be vastly expanded by a Republican President or Congress thus increasing the amount of money Simmons can make off of the dump and increasing the funds he has available to donate to future political campaigns. And if anyone doubts that his political spending will pay off in favorable treatment, all they have to do is look at how successful he’s been in Texas" said Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen’s Texas Office.

Tom "Smitty" Smith
Director, Texas Office
Public Citizen
1303 San Antonio St.
Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-477-1155
Cell: 512-797-8468

LUBBOCK, TEXAS

State regulators have given final approval for a Dallas-based company to begin burying low-level radioactive waste at a West Texas site near the New Mexico border, according to a letter posted online Thursday.

In the letter, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told Waste Control Specialists LLC that the dump site conformed to design and construction specifications. The letter was posted on the agency’s website.

The dump site will be the final resting place for low-level radioactive waste from 38 states. A separate site nearby will handle radioactive waste from federal sites around the country.

The approval ends a yearslong effort by the company, whose majority owner is big-time Republican contributor Harold Simmons, to accept the waste at 1,340-acre tract of scrub brush terrain about 360 miles west of Dallas. State lawmakers cleared the way for the site with a law passed during the last legislative session, but the commission still had to sign off on it.

The agency said in its letter that its staff is "closely monitoring" four wells nearby the burial facility because of water that has been found in them.

"It is important to ensure that saturated conditions do not exist within 100 feet of the disposed waste," states the letter, which is signed by Brent Wade, deputy director of waste at the environmental agency.

Company spokesman Chuck McDonald said the state now has a safe solution for disposing of low-level radioactive waste. The company said Thursday evening that it hadn’t yet started burying waste.

"The state of Texas has been diligent and thorough in its oversight of this facility, which is the most robust disposal facility ever constructed in the United States," he said. "In addition, the state has been zealous in its geologic review of the site and with more than 600 geologic core samples and monitoring wells that state oversight is continuing."

Environmental groups have voiced concerns about the geology of the site and its potential to contaminate underground water sources they say are too close.

Earlier this month, state Rep. Lon Burnam, a Democrat from Fort Worth, wrote Attorney General Greg Abbott asking him to waive a confidentiality agreement so that Burnam could publicly release documents detailing possible groundwater contamination at the dump.

Burnam said he obtained the documents under a 2009 open records request. Burnam said he couldn’t release what’s in them but that they contain officials’ concerns about the location of groundwater tables near the dump site; the margin of safety in the event of groundwater contamination; and the possible risk of public exposure to radiation.

Karen Hadden, long an opponent of the site, said she was disappointed the company got the go-ahead to bury the waste.

"There aren’t enough assurances in place to protect against water contamination and over time we’ll probably learn the hard way about this serious problem," she said.

Waste Control, which also stores, processes and manages hazardous wastes at the site, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to open the dump. In 2009, the state issued two licenses to the company to bury low-level radioactive waste, making it the nation’s only dump for all classes — A, B and C — of nuclear debris and the first low-level site to open in 30 years.

One license pertains to a compact between Texas and Vermont that allows for disposal of radioactive materials such as uranium, plutonium and thorium from commercial power plants, academic institutions and medical schools. Last year, though, lawmakers approved allowing low-level radioactive waste from 36 other states to be buried in West Texas.

Petitions to bury waste from the compact states and the three dozen other states must be approved by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Disposal Compact Commission on a case-by-case basis.

The other license deals with similar materials from sites run by the U.S. Department of Energy, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Hanford Site in Washington state and other federal facilities.

The Que Bue blog
San Antonio Current

State Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, would love to spill the contents of a top-secret pile of documents he got from the state. But he can’t. Stemming from a state open records request he filed in 2009, Burnam now says he has documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that prove serious public health and safety risks associated with the West Texas Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste dump built and owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. After a two-year court battle, Burnam says a court ordered the documents released to his office as a "legislative privilege," but that he was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement with the TCEQ not to reveal the contents. Burnam’s short on details, saying only that the documents show the presence of groundwater inside the facility’s 100-foot buffer zone, and that they discuss the margin of safety in the event of groundwater contamination along with discussions of possible risk to the public of radiation exposure.

"Until we know the source of this water, the likelihood of groundwater contamination, and the risk to the public, it’s simply irresponsible to open this site," Burnam said in a statement.

WCS is waiting for the final word from TCEQ to open up its Andrews County radwaste site to much of the nation, a decision Burnam says could come as soon as this week. Burnam insists the public should know what he knows before WCS gets the green light. On Monday Burnam sent off two letters, one to AG Greg Abbott asking he clarify whether the "top secret" information is really confidential under state law, and another to TCEQ Executive Director Mark Vickery, urging him not to give the dump final approval. "I don’t think the statutory criteria for keeping these documents secret have been met, especially when you consider the very serious public health and safety implications involved," Burnam said.

WCS has been clear on its intent to make its Andrews County facility a burial site for radioactive waste from across the county. As detailed in a Bloomberg piece early this month, Simmons has even been greasing the political gears hoping to score a rule change from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand the definition of ""low-level radioactive waste" so his site can bury waste like depleted uranium.

Critics of WCS’ plan have insisted the dump sits dangerously close to the Ogallala Aquifer (some contend on top of the aquifer, though the company disputes it), the nation’s largest aquifer stretching all the way to South Dakota. If this is starting to ring a bell, it should. Former TCEQ geologists and engineers told their bosses in 2007 that WCS’ radwaste license shouldn’t be approved partly because of concerns over contaminating the nearby water table. They resigned in protest when the TCEQ forged ahead, ignoring their concerns — then the former TCEQ director who issued WCS’ licenses, Glenn Shankle, left to lobby for the company. "Staff professionals at TCEQ have resigned over the licensing of this site — experts quit their jobs because they do not agree that the site is safe enough for radioactive waste," said Karen Hadden with the SEED Coalition in a statement Monday.

Burnam also released a non-confidential report from WCS to TCEQ showing that between November 2011 and March 2012 the company pumped more than 23,000 gallons from a monitor well inside the so-called "buffer zone."

BY ANNA M. TINSLEY
atinsley(at)star-telegram.com
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Huge numbers of trucks carrying low-level radioactive waste from dozens of states will soon travel highways nationwide — including those in the Metroplex — on their way to a remote disposal site in West Texas.

Shipments from up to 36 states will head to a dump in Andrews County near the New Mexico border, owned by Dallas billionaire and generous Republican political donor Harold Simmons, despite concerns from environmentalists and others worried about potential accidents or contamination once the loads are left at the Waste Control Specialists facility.

"Texas is going to become a nuclear waste dump if everything happens under their plans," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, an opponent of the facility. "We will be the major route for nuclear waste.

"I am absolutely concerned about the transportation of the materials, about the high volume of nuclear waste traveling on our interstates through areas such as Fort Worth and Dallas," he said. "I think it’s a really bad idea to have that much nuclear waste rolling down our interstates unguarded."

The first shipments, possibly this month, will likely come from the state’s two nuclear plants, Comanche Peak near Glen Rose and the South Texas project in Matagorda County. Truckloads of contaminated waste from other states, which require a formal application process and approval, could start by summer.

Officials aren’t publicly outlining the shipment routes, although many say loads are likely to cross major highways in North Texas as dangerous materials already do.

In the past eight years, 72 incidents nationwide involving trucks carrying radioactive material on highways have caused $2.4 million in damage and one death, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says.

Workers at the Andrews County site say various shipments, including contaminated sludge from New York’s Hudson River in 2009, have arrived without incident.

"We have been successfully and without any incidents at all transporting this material for quite some time," said Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists. "Transportation of low-level radioactive waste is highly, highly regulated, requiring specified types of containers and vehicles.

"It’s going to be addressed and is addressed by appropriate government entities."

A ‘win’ for Texas?

In the early 1980s, the federal government encouraged states to build low-level nuclear waste landfills either by forming compacts with other states or on their own. Texas and Vermont teamed up to create a compact to dispose of waste from the two states and federal sources. Last year, state lawmakers approved the Andrews County site; the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission recently agreed to let as many as 36 states ship waste there.

The Texas Compact Disposal Facility, the nation’s only commercial facility licensed to dispose of certain types of low-level waste, formally opened last year in a sparsely populated area about 350 miles west of Fort Worth. Waste Control Specialists spent millions to build and open it.

Shipments of Class A, B and C waste sent there will include medical materials and hospital equipment such as beakers, test tubes and X-ray machines, as well as items that have come in contact with radioactive material such as gloves, shoe covers, trash, rags and dirt.

Those items will be placed in steel and concrete containers that will then be placed in other steel and concrete containers built into red bed clay. When the main container is filled, the entire area will be sealed, McDonald said.

Texas shipments will be first.

"We’re going to take radioactive materials out of Texas urban centers and dispose of them in an arid, isolated location that we believe is a good location," McDonald said. "We believe it’s a win for the state of Texas."

Nebraska may be among the first of the other states. Officials with a public power district are close to a $3.1 million agreement to dispose of long-stored low-level waste such as radioactive filters.

The company has a 15-year license to collect and dispose of the material, with options to renew for two 10-year terms. State lawmakers have banned materials from foreign countries at the site.

Environmental concerns

Environmentalists have complained about the site for years, worried that the waste might contaminate groundwater.

Opponents say they believe that Simmons’ political clout prompted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to give favorable treatment to the project, despite environmental questions, and later led the 2011 Legislature to permit limited amounts of waste from other states that were not part of the original Texas-Vermont compact.

Three staff members of the environmental agency quit in protest in 2007, saying that higher-ups ignored their concerns about possible groundwater contamination.

"We continue to have concerns about the site itself and whether or not there is enough protection … and whether there will be contamination of the water," said Karen Hadden, executive director of the statewide SEED Coalition environmental group. "Once radioactivity gets into groundwater, it’s a difficult thing to clean up and it can get into the millions and billions of dollars."

Waste Control officials have said they have responded to concerns through the licensing process and have conducted tests that show the site to be safe.

"We have taken core samples around the site so we know exactly what the geology looks like," McDonald said. "It’s not going to impact any drinking water supply in any way.

"It’s an ideal site."

SEED has asked state officials for an independent audit system to do spot-checks and random audits to make sure that safety procedures are followed, shipping procedures are accurate, and limits on volume and types of radioactive waste are met.

"We want to make sure shipments are right when they arrive — that they are the correct material, packaged properly, don’t have water in the disposal pit," Hadden said. "We want to make sure it’s put in the right place and marked properly."

Accidents happen

In February, an Arlington train derailment blocked traffic for hours. Only corn syrup was spilled, but it could have been much worse: More than a dozen train cars that did not derail were filled with dangerous chemicals including flammable crude oil, sodium hydroxide, liquid chlorine and sulfuric acid, reports said.

While the Arlington accident involved a train, and low-level radioactive shipments will be moved by truck, local emergency management officials say they are prepared for an emergency, partly because of training received for special events such as the Super Bowl.

"I-20 has been a designated radioactive shipment corridor for some time," Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said. "We’ve had training over the years … and this is not a foreign idea to us.

"The Arlington Fire Department is prepared for any kind of radioactive-related emergency," Self said.

Local officials say they don’t know when these shipments will pass through the Metroplex.

"We will make sure our first responders are aware of the different types of materials out there," said Juan Ortiz, Fort Worth’s emergency management coordinator. "The response, planning and training is not completely new to us.

"We have a lot of the capabilities in place," he said. "But this is a challenge that most communities will have to figure out how to overcome."

In case of an accident, standard procedure is to contain spilled materials, make sure they don’t get into waterways and prevent people from coming into contact with them, officials have said.

But many communities may not be as prepared, especially small Texas towns that might lack emergency management teams or personnel trained to respond to hazardous-material emergencies, Hadden said.

"Shipments can go through any major city, any major highway, and you have no way of knowing when you see an accident if there are radioactive materials involved," Hadden said. "There has really been no analysis of the best transportation routes or of emergency preparedness."

Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610

Twitter: @annatinsley

Contact: Craig Adair
(512) 463-0740

TCEQ preparing to allow site to open despite massive water presence underground at site in violation of license terms

(Austin, Texas) ­ Today, Rep. Burnam called on the Executive Director of the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to protect public health and safety by not allowing the low-level radioactive waste disposal site in West Texas to open until key questions are answered about the presence of groundwater inside the 100 feet buffer zone around the facility.

The private company licensed to operate the facility, Waste Control Specialists (WCS), which stands to reap millions in profits in disposal fees once the site is operational, is pressing for the agency to allow the site to open even though documents show significant groundwater present at the site, confirming the worst fears of TCEQ scientists that objected to issuance of the license five years ago due to the likelihood of groundwater intrusion at the site in future years.

“It appears that serious public health and safety risks are being ignored in the interest of getting this site up and running,” Burnam said in a press conference at the State Capitol today.

“Until we know the source of this water, the likelihood of groundwater contamination, and the risk to the public, it’s simply irresponsible to open this site,” Burnam added.

If the site opens before monitoring wells inside the buffer zone are dry, WCS could violate license condition 65 which states, “In the event that saturated conditions are detected inside the buffer zone, the Licensee shall cease all waste disposal operations and notify the executive director immediately.”

“How can TCEQ let the site open if WCS would be in violation of its license on its first day of operation?” Burnam asked.

Burnam called on TCEQ to not issue the final certification letter until:

1. water is no longer present within the buffer zone,
2. the agency knows the source and extent of groundwater currently present inside the buffer zone and can demonstrate that the Ogallala Aquifer is not at risk of contamination, and
3. the Attorney General has ruled on the confidentiality of the secret internal documents.

Also today, Rep. Burnam requested a ruling by Attorney General Greg Abbott whether secret TCEQ documents about the site that he obtained through a 2009 open records request may be disclosed in the interest of public health and safety. The agency initially withheld the documents but last year was ordered to release them due to a court ruling.

“As my letter to the AG today explains, I don’t think the statutory criteria for keeping these documents secret have been met,” Burnam said, “especially when you consider the very serious public health and safety implications involved.”

The documents discuss the agency’s concerns with WCS’ license application and the risks of possible radioactive contamination of nearby groundwater tables, but Rep. Burnam is prohibited from sharing the documents with the public under a confidentiality agreement signed in September 2009 at the insistence of TCEQ.

“The public has a right to know what the scientists — whose salaries are paid by their tax dollars — thought about the adequacy of the site, the possibility of groundwater contamination, and the risks to their safety,” Burnam added. “I hope the AG will allow me to respect that right by removing the gag order.”

Related Documents:

• Representative Lon Burnam’s Press Release
  April 16, 2012
• Representative Lon Burnam’s Letter to State Attorney General
  April 16, 2012
• Representative Lon Burnam’s Letter to TCEQ
  April 16, 2012
• Compact Facility Map
• Waste Control Specialist Observations at OW-1 and OW-2 Progress at OAG-21
  March 28, 2012