A citizens group involved with talks that led to a new draft operating permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plans to keep an eye on how the New Mexico Environment Department enforces the deal.
Announced in August, the new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the deep geologic repository for defense-related transuranic waste will be the subject of a two-hour virtual public meeting by the state this Friday evening.
“Although the non-governmental organizations and the individual [involved in the negotiations] did not get everything they desired, they obtained a good number of positive changes in the renewal permit,” for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP),” the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety said in a Sept. 14 update on its website.
The group and fellow advocates such as Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Southwest Research and Information Center, received many things they wanted, according to the notice.
“Yes, we want to ensure the governor and NMED [New Mexico Environment Department] to enforce the new and existing permit requirements,” Joni Arends, the Concerned Citizens director said in a Wednesday email reply to Exchange Monitor.
“Most importantly are the new requirements for DOE to report annually on its progress for establishing another transuranic waste repository in a state other than New Mexico,” Arends wrote. “New Mexico has done its part. It’s time to go back to the original plan for regional waste sites to reduce transportation risks.”
The new permit stipulates that legacy transuranic waste will get priority at WIPP and, for now at least, limits new disposal to two waste disposal panels, numbered 11 and 12.
“Any proposed future expansion by DOE can only occur through a vigorous public process in an administrative permit renewal,” the Concerned Citizens said.
Separate from the permit, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety is pushing the New Mexico legislature to provide enough funding for the state Environment Department and its Hazardous Waste Bureau “to ensure it is adequately staffed to regulate the DOE, military and industrial sites” in the state, Arends said in the email.
There are enough staff openings at the New Mexico Environment Department; it has scheduled a “rapid hire” event Saturday Sept. 23 in an effort to fill 40 jobs, Arends said.
