Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment hopes to persuade lawmakers to change state law to increase its ability to regulate disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste in landfills.
The state’s Radiation Control Act prohibits the state from developing regulations for management of TENORM until the Environmental Protection Agency does the same. The EPA, though, has yet to do so.
The issue was not a major concern until recently, as officials grappled with the realization that solid waste landfills could unintentionally be violating state law through disposal of significant amounts of waste from oil and gas exploration and production operations in Colorado, said Joe Schieffelin, manager of the department’s Solid Waste and Materials Management Program.
In May, Schieffelin sent a letter to solid waste landfill operators highlighting state law on disposal of radioactively contaminated materials and providing the outline of a program under which the department would work with landfills to address any illegal storage of TENORM waste. However, Schieffelin rescinded the May letter in a follow-up message to landfill operators in July.
“As we rethought that, and got input from stakeholders, we realized that a better solution would be to try to change one little part in the Radiation Control Act that would allow us to develop regulations under the Radiation Control Act specifically for TENORM,” Schieffelin told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Monday.
A new letter to landfill operators addressing the department’s revised approach could be sent by mid-November, though no schedule has been set, he said.
The Public Health and Environment will work with state lawmakers during their 2018 legislative session to amend the Radiation Control Act. If that succeeds, the agency will work with stakeholders over a period of up to two years to establish regulations for disposal of TENORM waste in the state.
