Today marks the first step in discovery for the case in which Texas and Vermont generators are challenging disposal rates at Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas facility, with all parties to the case submitting requests for information to the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings. “It allows each side, the generators and the operator, to send RFIs to each other about what’s going on,” Eddie Selig, with the Advocates for Responsible Disposal in Texas, a lobbying group on behalf of Texas and Vermont generators, told RW Monitor. “Then we’ll see what kind of information comes out of the RFI. Until then we don’t really know what’s going on. This is all part of the process.” The contested rate case’s discovery process—which will open up WCS’ expenses and projected earnings to further scrutiny—will end in February, when SOAH will hold a hearing from Feb. 20 to March 6. By statute, the contested rate case hearing process may last no longer than one year, so it must be complete by June 18, 2013. Several major generators in the Texas and Vermont Compact have indicated they do not plan to ship waste to WCS until the contested rate case hearing has been completed.