By John Stang
The Montana Legislature’s Environmental Quality Council voted 12-2 on Wednesday to remove an informal objection to setting a state radionuclide-concentration limit of 50 picocuries per gram for its landfills to accept technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste.
In April, the Environmental Council made that informal objection, which delayed the rulemaking process to set the 50-picocurie limit. The panel withdrew that informal objection Wednesday.
Consequently, the Montana Department Environmental Quality (DEQ) will continue with the rulemaking, anticipating a formal notice of adoption will be filed with the Secretary of State’s Office in June or July, according to Rebecca Harbage, DEQ public policy director.
The state agency still must respond to public comments and finalize the notice ahead of submission, Harbage said by email.
Replacing the prior, less-formal guidance with a rule makes it easier for Montana to enforce the 50-picocurie limit evenly across the state because of the elimination of some wiggle room that could allow some shipments with higher radionuclide levels, DEQ Director Shaun McGrath said during the legislative meeting that was conducted remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
TENORM is naturally radioactive material that has come into contact with the environment or has been concentrated as a result of human activities, such as oil and natural gas production. It comes in forms including sludge, contaminated equipment, and mineral scales within pipes. Disposal is not regulated at the federal level.
Montana has one landfill with a licensed facility for disposal of TENORM waste, near the city of Glendive close to the border with North Dakota. Two other facilities have been licensed but have not yet built their management system for that waste type.
McGrath also said the 50-picocurie limit reduces the risk of other states shipping their TENORM wastes to Montana, compared to a higher cap. That limit is standard in several other states, he said.
McGrath also said the 50-picocurie limit reduces the risk of other states shipping their TENORM wastes to Montana, compared to a higher cap. That limit is standard in several other states, he said. Right now, North Dakota and Michigan have rules setting 50-picocurie limits. Wyoming has a policy, but not a rule setting the same limit. Colorado has a proposed rule to set a 50-picocurie limit.
The Department of Environmental Quality proposed the new rules in August 2019 and amended its proposal in January 2020. While the initial version set the 200-picocurie limit, the state agency’s draft final version this year dropped that to 50 picocuries for intake into a TENORM waste management system.
The Environmental Quality Council — consisting of 12 state senators and representatives, four members of the public, and a non-voting representative from the governor — had been seriously looking at increasing the acceptable TENORM limit to 200 picocuries per gram. But public feedback, along with analysis by the DEQ earlier this year, convinced the majority of the council to support the 50-picocurie limit. A review by the council is a step in the Montana DEQ’s rulemaking process,
There was no debate on the matter Wednesday between the 12-person majority and the two-person minority. State Sen. Mike Lang (R), the council vice chair, made the motion to keep the 50-picocurie limit, saying the Department of Environmental Quality had done its due diligence on the matter.
The 2020 draft final rule would also reduce the gate screening exposure level from the 2019 version, from 200 to 100 microroentgen per hour, for incoming waste into the system. It includes no directive for determining the “rolling average” for radionuclide concentrations of TENORM waste in storage. And a disposal operator would also have to immediately halt waste acceptance and alert the state agency within a day following any breach of the 100 millirem per year dose equivalent limit at a site boundary.
The annual average of disposal in Montana for the past five years has been 58,600 tons. While the state is an oil and gas producer, much of its TENORM waste comes from neighboring North Dakota.
Seven people spoke to the lawmakers during Wednesday’s meeting — all supporting the vote in support of the 50-picocurie limit. Five were northeast Montanans living near North Dakota.
“It keeps Montana in line with the other states and it prevents Montana from being a dumping ground,’ said John Ahlquist, a resident of Glendive. Patty Whitford of Sidney added: “This means a lot to our (Richland) county.”
Representatives from the Missoula City-County Health Department and the Montana Petroleum Association also voiced support for the 50-picocurie limit, without elaborating on their reasoning.
One of the two landfills with TENORM licenses but are still working on their management system is located near Missoula. The other is near Great Falls. Two additional landfills that are eventually to be able to accept TENORM wastes are proposed for northeastern Montana.
