The North Dakota Health Council violated state public meeting law in approving rule changes that allow for higher radioactivity levels in oil-field waste, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem concluded in an opinion Tuesday.
According to Stenehjem, the council failed to provide proper public notice for an August 2015 meeting in which the body, which advises and governs the Department of Health, approved increasing annual radiation-level allowances for state landfills from 5 picocuries per gram of material to 50 picocuries.
North Dakota law requires public notice at the same time that the governing body is notified. Stenehjem’s opinion said the council knew it would hold the August meeting about three months in advance but only provided 13 days of notice. As a result of the violation, Stenehjem said the council must provide a copy of the meeting’s minutes to the individuals who raised the issue: environmentalists Don Morrison of the Dakota Resource Council and Darrell Dorgan of the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition.
Health Department officials have said the heightened picocurie levels, which went into effect Jan. 1, will help curtail illegal waste disposal and mismanagement of TENORM, or Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. Included in the rule change is the requirement that TENORM producers register with the department, allowing the agency to track the waste from production to disposal. The increase in waste levels at local landfills is said to make in-state disposal more affordable.
Dorgan and other environmentalists have argued that the Health Department bent to the will of the oil and gas industry. TENORM levels have risen in North Dakota, particularly in the Marcellus Shale and Bakkan Shale formations, with increase of oil and gas exploration. TENORM is typically found in pipe scale, tank sludge, or filter socks. North Dakota in recent years has seen instances of illegal dumping of filter socks.
