Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/20/2015
After public outcry caused a suspension in importation of radioactive fracking waste in Michigan last year, the state panel charged with looking at the state’s Technologically-Enhanced Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) regulations found that the current 50 picocurie per gram disposal limit is protective of public health, according to a report released late last week. U.S. Ecology’s Wayne Disposal landfill outside Detroit had been at the center of local opposition against the importation the waste from outside the state, resulting in the pause in acceptance of fracking waste at the facility last year. Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder created a panel of experts to look at the issue of fracking waste disposal in greater depth to ensure the current regulations protected public health and the environment.
The panel determined the design of the state’s hazardous landfills was adequate to protect the public and workers over the waste’s decay period, and it even suggested that the landfills could accept higher levels of radiation. While the landfill design meets safety standards, the report included recommendations for new regulations aimed at reducing radiation exposure, including the capping of waste a landfill could accept in a year and restricting its placement in the landfill, to ensure a higher level of safety at the sites. “Restricting placement such that the TENORM remains at least 10 feet below the bottom of the landfill cap, in keeping with the [as low as reasonably achievable] principle, reduces the radon exposure to negligible levels,” the report said. “The primary factor affecting worker dose is the amount of waste being handled annually. Restricting the total volume of TENORM waste helps to limit worker exposure.”
US Ecology Lifts Fracking Waste Consideration Pause, Company Says
For U.S. Ecology, the findings open the possibility for its Wayne disposal site to begin accepting fracking waste from outside the state. “The voluntary restriction only applied to fracking waste and did not impact other TENORM receipts,” U.S. Ecology Executive Vice President of Operations Simon Bell said in an email this week. “Now that the panel has completed its review and confirmed that the state of Michigan’s program is protective of human health and the environment we will once again consider taking fracking waste as long as it meets the facility’s established waste acceptance criteria.” Following the Panel’s findings, the company does not expect any other matters to impede future shipments into Michigan as long as the material in question meets the waste acceptance criteria, Bell said. At this time, U.S. Ecology does not have any specific shipments of fracking TENORM lined up.
In the past decade, increased activity in oil and gas exploration, especially in the Marcellus Shale and Bakken Shale formations, has increased volumes of TENORM waste in states where that type of waste did not regularly occur. This increase has resulted in states shipping the waste out-of-state for disposal in landfills with higher thresholds for volumes and concentrations like Michigan, which in some cases, drew the ire of local citizens.
