By John Stang
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday delayed until July 15 a decision on whether to reduce a specific charge for disposal of radioactive waste at a state-owned facility operated by Waste Control Specialists.
The Dallas-based company requested a cut in the state’s curie inventory charge from $0.40 per millicurie (1/1000th of a curie) to $0.05 per millicurie for waste shipped to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact facility in Andrews County.
After hearing some objections to the change from critics, the three TCEQ commissioners decided during the remote meeting to wait two weeks before ruling on the proposition. All three said they were ready to decide, but wanted to ponder individually on the criticisms raised at their Wednesday telephone meeting. No more public comments will be sought on the matter.
While no input was received prior to Wednesday’s meeting , several callers said the comment period was not sufficiently advertised to the public. “Some stakeholders were unaware of the public comment period,” said state Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D).
The eight people questioning the project by phone focused on three issues: Why does WCS need the charge reduced? Would the change to the curie inventory charge impact the TCEQ budget? And is Waste Control Specialists’ corporate relationship with NorthStar Group Services – they share the same CEO, and waste from NorthStar’s decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is shipped to Texas – a factor in its request?
“Reducing fees is absurd because (WCS has) no competition,” said David Rosen of Midland, Texas.
There are three other commercial facilities around the United States licensed for disposal of low-level waste: EnergySolutions’ sites in Clive, Utah, and Barnwell, S.C., and a US Ecology operation at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Nevada National Security Site also accepts low-level waste from the Energy and Defense departments.
The Washington state and South Carolina facilities, like Waste Control Specialists, are licensed for Class A, B, and C low-level waste. Unlike the Texas operation, though, they can only accept shipments from specific regional low-level waste disposal compacts.
Calling in to the meeting, Waste Control Specialists President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson highlighted EnergySolutions’ Clive facility as a competitor. The only low-level waste accepted there is Class A, the least hazardous form, but EnergySolutions takes other waste types and aims to expand its offerings in Utah. The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm hopes this year to receive authorization from the state to take depleted uranium.
EnergySolutions has also proposed a new landfill at its Clive facility to hold slightly radioactive debris from decommissioning nuclear sites, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. RadWaste Monitor made repeated unsuccessful efforts to reach the appropriate EnergySolutions official to discuss that proposal.
Carlson said WCS needs the reduced curie charge in Texas be competitive with EnergySolutions. In 2019, Waste Control Specialists said the Compact Waste Facility was running an annual $10 million loss, collecting $24 million in yearly revenue against $34 million in operating costs. Revenue is derived solely from fees and charges for waste shipments, which the company’s management has said have slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Executives hope the reduced charge will help increase business, particularly after the expiration last September on reductions to other disposal fees.
In a separate virtual meeting Wednesday, Carlson and a consultant for Waste Control Specialists pushed back forcefully against a proposed interpretative rule at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could make it easier to ship so-called very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) to facilities not specifically licensed for low-level waste.
Current federal rules require the NRC to approve any individual request to ship VLLW to a hazardous or municipal waste landfill. The rule interpretation would enable Resource Conservation and Recovery Act landfills to apply for a regulatory exemption to accept that waste type on a continuing basis, without seeking approval for each shipment.
Some critics during the TCEQ meeting noted that Waste Control Specialists CEO Scott State holds the same position for environmental solutions company NorthStar Group Services, which owns and is decommissioning the retired Vermont Yankee reactor in Vernon. Both companies are owned ty private-equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co. Decommissioning waste from Vermont Yankee is shipped to the Texas facility.
Vermont and Texas are the only members of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact, but up to 34 other states can ship waste to the facility for disposal. The set curie charge is the most that can be placed on members of the compact and the least that must be paid by all other states. Reducing the charge would thereby generate savings for NorthStar on waste disposal.
Carlson replied that WCS and NorthStar are distinct corporations and that the surcharge reduction would affect the maximum that the landfill could charge NorthStar.
Texas is both the owner and licensor for the compact facility, with WCS the operator and licensee. From its opening through the end of September 2019, it received 121,744.83 cubic feet of waste from member states and 710,641.06 from nonparty generators.
Waste Control Specialists lost millions of dollars for its former owner, holding company Valhi Inc., before its January 2018 sale to J.F. Lehman. The company’s earnings figures are no longer made public, but it is trying to reduce costs and increase revenue by attracting more customers.
A portion of revenue from the Compact Waste Facility goes to the state. Texas’ share fo the site’s revenue is deposited into the state’s Environmental Radiation Perpetual Care Account. The TCEQ can only access funds appropriated by the state Legislature from this account.
