The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking public comments on a draft rules package that would set specific radioactivity limits and other restrictions on disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste in the state.
This is the state’s second effort to establish regulations on TENORM disposal: A package issued in August 2017 was withdrawn the following January for revisions “to address public concern and stakeholder input,” DEQ said at the time.
The new proposed regulations generally address areas including designing and building waste sites, operations, financial resources, reporting a spill, and site closure and post-closure.
Among the specific planned provisions: A TENORM waste management system license will be required for building, expanding, or operating such a system; the license application must feature a design, operations and management plan, and closure and post-closure plan that comply with state environmental quality regulations; material entering a TENORM waste management site could not exceed 200 microroentgen per hour of X-ray or gamma radiation, as determined by gate screening; a TENORM waste unit, on average, could not exceed 50 picocuries per gram of combined radium-226 and radium-228; financial assurances will be required, based on federal rules for financial assurances for municipal solid waste landfills.
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. Montana is among the top 20 states for both production of crude oil and natural gas, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Administration.
The draft rules were prepared with assistance from a working group of nongovernmental organizations, members of industry, local government representatives, scientists, and Montana residents.
Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. Mountain time on Oct. 21 to Sandy Scherer, Legal Secretary, Department of Environmental Quality, at: 1520 E. Sixth Ave., P.O. Box 200901, Helena, MO 59620-0901l by fax to 406-444-4386; or by email to [email protected].
Public hearings on the rules plan are scheduled for Sept. 25 in Glendive and Oct. 10 in Helena.
