The Texas Legislature has approved a bill that would delay by two years certain charges and fees for Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) radioactive waste disposal operations.
Two amendments from Rep. Alfonso Nevárez (D) were attached to a state bill on domestic violence, which was passed in April in the Texas Senate and last week in the House and forwarded Sunday to Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
The amendments would postpone, from Sept. 1 of this year to Sept. 1, 2021, the effective date of two updates to the Texas Health and Safety Code that were included in legislation passed in 2017.
One amendment to the Health and Safety Code required the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to assess a surcharge for waste from non-party states to the compact facility, operated by Waste Control Specialists. The other placed a fee on compact waste at the facility, along with federal waste sent to a federal waste facility.
The state of Texas is the owner and license holder for the Compact Waste Facility, operated by WCS on its Andrews County property. It is one of two members, with Vermont, to the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact. However, other states can ship their waste to the site for disposal.
Waste Control Specialists also operates a separate facility on its property for low-level and mixed-low-level radioactive waste from the federal government.
The Dallas-based company has long struggled to compete in the domestic market for disposal of radioactive waste, losing millions of dollars for former owner Valhi Inc. before being sold in January 2018 to private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co. Two state bills specifically aimed at aiding Waste Control Specialists did not get floor votes in this regular session of the Legislature, which ended Monday.
