Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
8/22/2014
The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality unanimously approved this week the license amendment requests proposed by Waste Control Specialists that would expand the types of waste and size of the facility. The license amendments approximately triple the size of the facility by upping the amount of waste the facility can store from 2.31 million to 9 million cubic feet while also allowing the disposal of depleted uranium, a controversial waste stream that does not currently have a disposal pathway. TCEQ also approved the request to reduce the funds needed to cover the costs of closing the site in the future. According to some of the commissioners, the total was initially determined with an overly-conservative approach, but annual adjustments are performed every year to make sure there will be enough funding available for the cleanup.
For WCS, the license amendments enable the company to dispose of more waste. “The passage of this amendment – coming a little more than two years after full-scale disposal operations began in earnest at the WCS site – does an excellent job of syncing up the WCS license with the reality of the disposal operations now underway in Andrews County,” WCS spokesman Chuck McDonald said. “This amendment provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with a disposal option for the more than 700,000 metric tons of converted depleted uranium oxide that came from the production of nuclear fuels and weapons. We believe it will also provide the Department of Defense (DOD) a disposal option for its entire stockpiled DU related backlog. WCS is pleased to be in a position to provide a solution for this orphaned waste. We have been working closely with state and federal regulators to ensure that this disposal is done in the safest and most secure way possible.”
Sierra Club Opposes Expansion
Meanwhile, the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club voiced its opposition to TCEQ’s vote this week, mainly for TCEQ’s failure to host a public meeting on the amendments. Cyrus Reed, the chapter’s conservation director, voiced his opposition at the TCEQ vote. “We are disappointed the TCEQ approved expansion of the site, expanded the types of waste it could accept, cut out future public input, and lowered WCS’s financial assurance while not even authorizing a public meeting,” Reed said. The Sierra Club brought a suit against WCS and TCEQ in the Texas courts earlier this year alleging their failure to seek public comment on the amendment requests. TCEQ argued that there was not enough public interest to warrant a public comment period.
