ONE-YEAR CONTESTED RATE CASE FOR TEXAS AND VERMONT DISPOSAL AT WCS BEGINS

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has referred six requests for a contested rate case hearings for in-compact low-level radioactive waste disposal at Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas facility to the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings. The six requests for a hearing came from Texas and Vermont radioactive waste generators, who have called for more transparency in rates to be set for in-compact disposal. A Texas law passed in June 2011 mandates that the contested rate case hearing take no more than one year, beginning at the transfer of the case to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which occurred May 21, and was made public yesterday. Should the case take longer than one year, WCS would be forced to cease operations until it was resolved. Until the contested rate case hearing is concluded, Texas Compact generators will continue to use the interim disposal rates previously set by TCEQ.