The Department of Energy said in a Tuesday Federal Register notice that it is withdrawing its designation of Waste Control Specialists in West Texas as its long-term storage site for elemental mercury.
The DOE and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality previously granted the necessary approvals for the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews County to provide the long-term storage under the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008. But that was before Nevada Gold Mines and other generators of this material filed suit in December 2019 over the fee they would be assessed by DOE for the management and storage of mercury at the private company’s site.
On Aug. 21, Nevada Gold Mines executed a settlement agreement in U.S. District Court to resolve the litigation over the fee. As a result, DOE filed a motion in the same court, asking the judge to vacate the fee rule that accompanied the WCS designation as the storage site the agency under the export ban act.
In its filing, the Department of Energy acknowledged that it made errors in the fee rule and asked the court to remand it back to the agency for further consideration. The court granted the motion Sept. 5.
On remand, DOE will launch a notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider the estimates and assumptions used to calculate the fee and obtain updated information from interested parties.
In December of last year, DOE signed a lease and task order with Waste Control Specialists for storage under the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008. But that lease expires June 4, 2021.
Some elemental mercury is stored at the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration operates.
