Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
8/28/2015
A South Carolina state court earlier this month reaffirmed its 2014 ruling that asserted the Barnwell low-level waste disposal facility’s disposal practices were not in compliance with safety regulations, but in a change of opinion, the court remanded the remedy to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control without a set time frame to bring the site into compliance.
The South Carolina Court of Appeals’ original 2014 decision enacted a 90-day timetable for Chem-Nuclear Systems (CNS) to submit a plan to remedy its safety problems. However, after rehearing the case, the court authorized DHEC to enforce the safety improvements.
“In the new opinion, the Court retains its prior position on license issues. However, the Court has recognized, as DHEC submitted in its Petition for Rehearing, that the proper remedy is to remand the license back to DHEC for further proceedings,” DHEC spokesman Jim Beasley said by email this week. “The Court has remanded the matter to DHEC, which will allow DHEC to consider all available information to determine whether CNS has complied with the applicable regulations. DHEC’s Office of General Counsel and program staff have this matter under review and will ensure full compliance with the Court’s opinion and the regulations we are authorized to enforce.”
The case was brought by the local Sierra Club branch, which argued the site failed to prevent the spread of tritium by rain and groundwater exposed to waste, and DHEC failed to enforce its regulations. The court still found fault with Barnwell’s disposal practices in its latest decision.
“In conclusion, we find the record in this case conclusively demonstrates ChemNuclear has taken no action whatsoever to prevent even one raindrop from migrating onto one active vault or trench,” Chief Judge John Few said in his opinion. “Additionally, while initial clay caps and enhanced caps reduce the migration of water onto inactive disposal units, there is no evidence and no finding by the [administrative law court] that DHEC has required, or that ChemNuclear has taken, any action that would reduce this migration to the smallest possible amount.”
EnergySolutions, the parent company to Chem-Nuclear, said this week that the court’s decision to allow information left out of the administrative law court hearing, the original location of the Sierra Club’s appeal, will help show the site’s other mitigative measures to reach compliance with rules for protecting public health and safety.
“Chem-Nuclear will carefully review the Court of Appeal’s decision and, as instructed by the Court, prepare a proposal for DHEC to review,” EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said in an email this week. “We appreciate the Court’s acknowledgement that previous limits on facts allowed to be considered ‘hampered’ Chem-Nuclear’s ability to demonstrate compliance, and we appreciate the Court’s instruction to conduct follow-up proceedings ‘with no limitations … on evidence [DHEC and the Administrative Law Court] may consider.’” Walker added, “Chem-Nuclear is dedicated to safe and compliant operations.”
DHEC did not provide a time frame for addressing the problem areas.
