Thomas Gardiner
The state of Montana has delayed into 2018 a decision on new rules for management of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste, officials said Monday.
The deadline for public comment on the proposed regulations was originally set for mid-October, but has been pushed back to 5 p.m. Nov. 17. Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality said at least one entity requested a deadline shift to accommodate a more thorough comment submission.
The altered deadline also changed the expected timeline for finalizing the rules, according to the DEQ. The state had expected to reach a decision by mid-December, but that won’t happen until next year.
“We don’t have a definite timeline yet,” Montana DEQ Public Policy Director Kristi Ponozzo told RadWaste Monitor. “We were originally set to announce a decision sometime in December, but this will move us out. It definitely won’t be happening in December now.”
The state agency said after public comments have been considered, the draft rules would be updated. DEQ hopes it can publicize the finalized rule changes in early 2018. Once announced, the finalized rules will initiate another public comment period of at least 30 days. There is no current timeline for implementing the new rules once that process has been completed.
TENORM is not considered nuclear waste, according to DEQ. It is naturally radioactive material that has come into contact with the environment or has been concentrated as a result of human activities.
The state has just one operational disposal facility for the waste, in eastern Montana. Since opening in 2013, the Buckhorn Energy Oaks Disposal Services site has received over 250,000 tons of radioactive waste – largely from oil and gas extraction operations in neighboring North Dakota, according to the nongovernmental Northern Plains Resource Council.
As of September, two more facilities had been licensed but not built, while DEQ was preparing an environmental assessment on another planned site.
According to the DEQ, the proposed rules include provisions for facility design and construction, operations and monitoring, spill reporting, and financial assurance, as well as closure and post-closure care.
Included in the proposed regulations: a TENORM waste management system could not be built, expanded, or operated without a DEQ solid waste management system license; annual average TENORM concentration in a disposal unit could not exceed 50 picocuries per gram of radium-226 plus radium-228; any waste surpassing that level could not be accepted at a landfill; and any TENORM waste management plan must feature specific criteria on which wastes would be housed at a landfill, the on-site sampling and testing to be employed, and procedures for waste rejection, among other measures.
For more information, visit the DEQ’s TENORM website at http://deq.mt.gov/Land/solidwaste. Comments can be submitted to: Sandy Scherer, Legal Secretary, Department of Environmental Quality, 1520 E. Sixth Ave., P.O. Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901; faxed to (406) 444-4386; or e-mailed to [email protected].
