A Michigan Senate committee next week will again consider legislation that would set specific radioactivity limits for disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) in state landfills.
The bill from Sen. Tom Casperson (R) would add a number of amendments to the 1994 state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, including citing a specific definition for TENORM – “naturally occurring radioactive material whose radionuclide concentrations have been increased as a result of human practices.”
The Casperson measure would also add a new section to the 1994 legislation, prohibiting landfill disposal of TENORM above: a radium-226 concentration exceeding 50 picocuries per gram; a radium-228 concentration exceeding 50 picocuries per gram; or a lead-210 concentration exceeding 260 picocuries per gram.
Michigan currently does not regulate disposal of those materials at concentrations under 5 picocuries per gram. Upon notifying the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), generators can use a municipal landfill for disposal of radium-226 up to 50 picocuries per gram and lead-210 up to 260 picocuries per gram. More-concentrated waste must be shipped for disposal out of state.
One picocurie generally matches background environmental levels of radiation, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Casperson proposal would also allow a landfill operator or owner to request that the Department of Environmental Quality amend the facility’s operating license to allow for disposal of TENORM up to 500 picocuries per gram of each radionuclide. However, approval would be dependent on the landfill having a radiation safety program that addresses personnel training, radiation surveys, emergency protocols, and other measures. Other requirements include preparation of a report on radiation exposure risks and details of measures needed to prevent the public from receiving radiation doses over 25 millirem.
Casperson did not respond by deadline to requests for comment regarding his bill.
TENORM can be produced by hydraulic fracturing – fracking – to extract oil and gas from the ground. Per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) are found in geologic deposits that also hold those energy resources. Upon exposure to the surface and human contact through oil and gas extraction, the materials are redefined as TENORM and must go into a disposal site.
Over 12,000 wells have been hydraulically fractured in Michigan in more than 50 years, according to the Michigan DEQ.
The state agency has not received any notification regarding in-state disposal of TENORM from out-of-state generators, spokeswoman Chelsea Lewis said Thursday. At least three facilities currently receive the material: two landfills and a disposal site operated by US Ecology. As of November, they together had received in excess of 50,000 cubic yards of the TENORM in 2018.
Other sites are allowed to receive the material, but they are not required to register with the state.
Casperson introduced his bill on Nov. 8. It was referred to the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs. The legislation was one of 11 bills on the agenda for the panel’s meeting Tuesday, but it did not get a vote. It is scheduled to be raised again at a Dec. 4 committee meeting.
A separate bill, from state Sen. Rebekah Warren (D), would establish a $5 per ton fee on landfill operators for disposal of TENORM. The money would be used to pay for state regulation and oversight of TENORM disposal, monitoring equipment for local municipalities and landfills, and refunds to generators. The bill was also referred to the Senate Natural Resources Committee and would take effect only if Casperson’s bill is enacted into law. It is also back on the Natural Resource Committee’s schedule next week.
The Michigan Legislature’s current session closes at the end of this year.
In an analysis issued this week, the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency said the two pieces of legislation would produce an “indeterminate fiscal impact” on the Department of Environmental Quality. “It is unknown how much of this waste would be disposed of, so any shortfall in revenue relative to regulatory costs would be borne by existing DEQ resources, most likely the Solid Waste Management Fund,” according to analysts Abbey Frazier and Josh Sefton.
The Department of Environmental Quality presently has about one-half of a full-time equivalent (FTE) staffer working on TENORM disposal and associated issues, Lewis said by email. Up to two FTEs would be needed of the agency established a broad regulation program for disposal, she added.
Lewis said DEQ provided technical responses on the legislation but has no stance on the Casperson and Warren bills.
