Waste Control Specialists (WCS) this month received approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to provide long-term storage of elemental mercury at its Andrews County waste facility for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Energy Department said in a Dec. 27 press release that the Texas regulators approved a modification to the Dallas-based company’s existing hazardous waste permit.
The final Energy Department rule on the fee for the long-term storage of elemental mercury was published in the Dec. 23 Federal Register. Earlier in the month, DOE issued a record of decision that approved plans for a long-term lease of storage space for up to 6,800 metric tons (7,480 tons) of mercury at existing WCS buildings.
The Energy Department is in charge of domestic management and storage of elemental or metallic mercury from industries such as gold and silver mining under the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008. Over the years, DOE considered both its own sites and commercial facilities for mercury storage, including possibly building a facility on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant property near Carlsbad, N.M.
Mercury generators will pay DOE $37,000 per metric ton for long-term storage at WCS, which is less than the more than $55,100 per metric ton envisioned in an earlier version of the federal rule.
Waste Control Specialists has received a task order from DOE to handle the long-term storage.
The Energy Department based the fee on the net present value of elementary mercury storage for 15 years, the prorated cost of material needed for storage, and the cost of moving the mercury to a treatment facility in year 16, according to the final rule.
The agency assumes treatment and disposal capacity for high-concentration elemental mercury waste will be available in the future, according to the Federal Register notice.
Entities wishing to deliver elemental mercury to WCS for long-term management and storage should contact Matt LaBarge, vice president for federal programs, Waste Control Specialists LLC, at [email protected].