Archive for the ‘WCS’ Category

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Dallas Morning News Editorial

Cracked asphalt provides a stark reminder of the nonexistent margin for error at a controversial radioactive waste dump in West Texas.

When state inspectors visited the site in Andrews County, they found cracks up to an inch wide in asphalt near canisters of radioactive material. While cracked asphalt is fairly inconsequential – and pretty much par for the course – when it comes to our city streets, it can be a dangerous proposition at a radioactive waste dump.

A spokesman for Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists, which operates the low-level radioactive waste site, dismissed the cracks as superficial and said they have been repaired. But as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has noted, that asphalt pad is an important safeguard against ground contamination.

The TCEQ is rightly seeking more information about the condition and history of the 10-acre asphalt pad. And that’s not the only cause for concern at the site. The TCEQ also plans to issue a notice of violation for storing a concrete canister filled with the hottest low-level radioactive material longer than allowed.

The Andrews County site has received six violation notices during the last six years, as significant questions about its proximity to an aquifer have swirled. The latest problems emerged amid a disconcerting push to significantly expand operations in Andrews County, potentially allowing 36 states to ship low-level waste to Texas.

Fortunately, members of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission have tapped the brakes and are revamping the plan, which had appeared to be on the fast track for approval. It’s not clear, though, how soon the compact commission might act.

The cracked asphalt and the questionable canister point to crucial safety questions that must be answered before any expansion gets consideration. The rules that could open up the current Texas-Vermont disposal agreement and permit dozens of states to dump waste in Andrews County don’t merely need to be tweaked; they should be tabled until officials are sure that every precaution has been taken to protect Texas and its residents.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

The argument for extreme caution in Andrews County should not be mistaken for a not-in-my-back-yard reflex or a broader opposition to nuclear energy. It’s simply recognition of the high stakes associated with radioactive waste disposal.

Last month, 15 Texas legislators wrote to the compact commission, urging members not to adopt the rules allowing expansion at the site right now. They underscored significant liability issues, concerns about health and safety, as well as the potential fiscal impact a leak could have.

As the lawmakers note, key questions about preparedness, precautions and due diligence have not yet been answered. At least for now, Texas is not sufficiently equipped to become much of the nation’s radioactive dumping ground.

June 29, 2010

By ANNA M. TINSLEY
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A plan to potentially let 36 states ship radioactive waste to West Texas — loads that likely would pass through North Texas on major highways and railroads — is being revamped by state officials.

This month, members of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission took down proposed rules that could have allowed dozens of states to send low-level waste to a site in Andrews County. Environmentalists and state lawmakers were among those expressing concerns about leakage, contamination and the safety of communities along shipping routes.

"The rules were withdrawn," said Margaret Henderson, interim executive director of the commission. "There had been a number of public comments. [Commissioners] will be going through them and considering" what to include in a new version of proposed rules, she said.

As commissioners consider new rules, the disposal site — run by Waste Control Specialists and owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, a major Republican donor — faces a violation notice for storing a concrete canister filled with low-level radioactive material for longer than allowed.

The commission is working to determine how the company should deal with the violation. It is also setting new rules on what materials are accepted at the West Texas site and whether other states can apply to send their low-level radioactive waste there.

No date has been set for the commission’s next meeting, and no timetable set for when the reworked rules will be released to the public, Henderson said.

Waste disposal

The Andrews County site is on top of layers of red bed clay in a sparsely populated area north of Odessa. It has had a hazardous-waste disposal permit since 1997.

State environmental officials have already agreed to let the site accept low-level waste from Texas — including from two nuclear plants, Comanche Peak near Glen Rose and the South Texas project in Matagorda County — as well as from Vermont and federal sources.

Now the question is how many other states can apply to send their waste there. The commission has twice delayed voting on a proposal that could open the site to at least 36 other states.

After new rules are written, they must be republished in the Texas Register for at least 30 days, and the public must have at least 30 days to comment before a vote occurs.

State Rep. Lon Burnam, who has expressed concerns about contamination in the North Texas communities the waste would pass through, is skeptical about what happens next.

"I think it’s natural for the activists who had a lot of concerns to feel like we have had a temporary reprieve, but that’s a too-narrow focus," said Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "They got bombarded with critical commentary that they are supposed to process and take into consideration.

"It’s clearly our responsibility to manage our waste and our sister’s waste from Vermont. It is not our responsibility to become the nation’s nuclear waste dump."

Burnam said he thinks politics will delay the new rules for several months.

"I don’t think anyone is going to know what the new rules include until after the [November] election," he said.

Shipments would include items such as beakers, soil, gloves, test tubes and hospital equipment that have come in contact with radioactive material. They would be shipped on trucks or trains, many passing through the Metroplex on a regular basis.

Violation notice

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality officials have said the site will receive a violation notice for storing the canister of radioactive material for more than a year, as allowed under a license granted to Waste Control Specialists.

State inspectors recently found cracks on an asphalt pad near where the canisters sit. Waste Control Specialists officials say the cracks were repaired last month and were "superficial." But inspectors want the company to turn over information about the status of the pad’s condition and how it was built.

Meanwhile, preparation continues at the site to break ground on the disposal facility. Officials have said it will take nearly a year to prepare the collection area.

Its size will depend on licensing requirements, financing and what rule the commission passes, company spokesman Rickey Dailey said. Company officials have said they didn’t mind the commission’s delay.

This report includes material from The Associated Press.

ANNA M. TINSLEY, 817-390-7610

Expired waste, cracks in containment pad found at West Texas site

Sunday, June 27, 2010

By Betsy Blaney
Associated Press /Austin American Statesman

LUBBOCK — A site in West Texas for disposing of some of the nation’s low-level radioactive waste has two more problems to deal with.

Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the agency will issue a notice of violation within two weeks because the company that operates the site, near the town of Andrews, has stored a concrete canister filled with the hottest low-level radioactive material beyond the 365 days allowed under a waste processing license.

The commission is drafting requirements for Waste Control Specialists to deal with the violation, but because of "potential issues related to repackaging and transportation, the TCEQ will allow the waste to remain on site as long as WCS complies with TCEQ’s corrective action requirements," agency spokeswoman Andrea Morrow wrote in an e-mail.

No fines will be issued, she said.

Last month, the environmental agency denied the company’s request for an extension until June 8, 2011, for the canisters, which came from a Tennessee radioactive processing plant.

In a routine check at the Andrews site, state inspectors also found cracks up to an inch wide on a 10-acre asphalt pad near where the canisters of radioactive material sit.

Morrow said the pad is important because it is a safeguard against ground contamination.

A company spokesman said he was not aware of any pending action from the commission. Rickey Dailey said the company thinks the nine canisters should be classified under its storage license, which has no time limit for interim use.

"We have a difference of opinion, and we’re continuing discussions to resolve the issue," he said.

The cracks were repaired and sealed last month, Dailey said. He said they were "superficial" and did not jeopardize the integrity of the pad.

Inspectors now want the company to submit engineering assessments on the pad’s condition and its long-term viability and to provide details of past and future repairs, according to a May 25 commission letter to the company.

They will also look at how the pad was constructed years ago, said Susan Jablonski, the agency’s radioactive materials division director.

"We want to do further investigation," she said. "We’re interested in the condition of the pad for any storage of radioactive material as well as the ongoing maintenance of that in the future."

The pad once held hundreds of 20,000-pound canisters of uranium byproduct from a shuttered weapons plant in Ohio, where the ore was processed for use in reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons from the 1950s until 1989. These canisters are buried at the site.

The state’s pending action against Waste Control Specialists comes as a commission overseeing a low-level radioactive disposal compact involving Texas and Vermont is considering allowing 36 other states to dispose of their material, which includes workers’ clothing, glass, metal and other materials used at nuclear power plants, hospitals, universities and research labs.

The commission has not set a date to vote on proposed rules for importing the waste, which are opposed by some lawmakers and environmental groups.

News of the cracks and the pending violation notice didn’t surprise environmental groups.

"I think that, so far, Waste Control Specialists’ performance doesn’t inspire confidence," said Trevor Lovell of Public Citizen Texas . "This is poor performance from a company that boasts of being the nation’s solution for low-level radioactive waste."

Since 2004, the site has gotten six violation notices, none of which were classified as major. The commission has given the site a high compliance rating.

Two years ago, environmental commissioners signed off on an agreement for two violations and fined the company about $151,000.

The site had mismanaged hazardous waste near a rail car unloading area, and personnel failed to get authorization before letting radioactive material — including plutonium 239 and radium 226 — be released into the septic system inside a laboratory.

Should the commission adopt the rules on procedures for importing the waste from the other states, Morrow said the company would need to apply for an amendment to its disposal license to allow for burial of that type of waste.

June 12, 2010

Shelley Childers
CBS 7 News

Andrews, TX – Two sides clash at a Waste Control Specialist meeting held in Andrews today, drawing crowds of supporters and protesters for the future dumpsite of low-level radioactive materials, just 30 miles west of the city.

Today the Compact Commissioners were meeting to discuss the wording of the import rule, as it stands now 36 states and possibly other countries will be allowed to dispose of their low-level radioactive materials at the Waste Control Specialists site, but protesters argue health and safety is an issue.

"We’re not technically against the people personally, but we’re against the company and what they’re trying to do, and what they want to bring," said protester and vice president of the group Promote Andrews, Elizabeth Wheeler.

In a project that is more than 15 years in the making, WCS and the City of Andrews is hoping to soon be importing low-level radio active waste from around the country, but not every resident supports the idea.

"That’s very scary that they’re wanting to bring this hazardous material into my county, via trucks and trains and bury it here, when there’s potentially aquifers and other hazards at risk," said Timothy Gannaway, the secretary of Promote Andrews.

"Water is money in West Texas, and if there were water on that site, somebody would be irrigating with it or using it for drinking water and it’s just not potable water," said Russell Shannon, a resident who supports the radio-active waste site.

Officials say they have been studying the geography of the land for over a decade, in preparation for this, and Andrews Mayor Robert Zap points out, much of our medical research produces nuclear waste.

"For instance, Alzheimer’s disease, one of our most accurate diagnostic tools is nuclear, without it where are we going to go to?"

That waste has to be disposed of somewhere, but wheeler says she fears human error. "History does repeat itself, there has been spills and accidents and I’m not saying it’s their fault, it’s just how it is."

"We’ve got to look at it from a big picture perspective, we need to find a solution to disposing of this in a proper way and we believe Andrews has the answer for that," said Andrews City Manager Glen Hackler.

By Cierra Putman
NewsWest 9

ANDREWS – A heated debated in Andrews County continues as once again as supporters and protestors of storing radioactive waste locally face-off.

"At the beginning, I was for it because I thought hey new jobs and everything," Promote Andrews Protestor, Francisco Salciao, said.

For Salciao and his fellow protestors say hundreds of temporary jobs and 75 permanent ones just isn’t enough.

At least, not if it means Waste Control Specialists can bring radioactive waste into Andrews County.

"This waste is going to be trucked and trained from all across the United States into our home town and that’s very scary," Timothy Gannaway with Promote Andrews, said.

The protestors fear water contamination, even though Waste Control Specialists said that won’t happen. Most of Andrews sided with the company.

"I think it’s a sad thing for them to come and I think they just want to stir up trouble," WCS Supporter and Employee, Quincy Cronenworth, said. "The government watches over it, they have lots of licenses they have to get, so I know it’s environmentally safe."

A sea of green WCS supporters packed a disposal Compact Commission Meeting to support the company’s plan.

Around town, more signs of support as could be seen as WCS supporters who couldn’t make it to the meeting showed their support with actual signs. They put them on the back of cars, in front of houses and even outside of businesses.

Still, protestors didn’t care they were outnumbered.

"Waste Control Specialists spent a lot of time and money to make this town look like it’s in favor of them," Gannaway said. "We feel that’s very misleading. If you look at our signs, we made our own signs, we made our own shirts, this is definitely a grassroots movement. Waste Control Specialists is a corporate movement from a billionaire in Dallas who owns the facility."

WCS supporters say the benefits outweigh the risks.

"It’s an industry that has to be monitored, but with proper oversight, with proper safety precautions and regulatory issues, we think those things have been mitigated," Another WCS supporter, said.

But until the plan is finalized, Andrew’s minority will keep fighting against the majority.