The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional office in Dallas this week took a public stance against New Mexico’s planned permit overhaul for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
The set of changes proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) for WIPP’s hazardous waste permit “raises significant concerns if finalized in its current form,” EPA Region 6 Administrator Scott Mason IV said in public comments filed June 22 with the state.
The comments were distributed Thursday by the Energy Communities Alliance, which has also voiced concerns about the New Mexico proposal.
In about five pages of comments, Mason said the proposed modified permit would “unreasonably restrict and impede” out-of-state shipments of defense-related transuranic waste to WIPP.
That is of particular concern to DOE Office of Environmental Management properties that are also EPA Superfund sites, Mason said. DOE sites falling into this category that have or will ship transuranic waste to WIPP include the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., the Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
This could “stymie” cleanup of transuranic waste sites across the country, Mason said. The EPA official went on to question if the revisions NMED would make to the permit, last revised only two years ago, are constitutional.
While the changes are meant to maximize shipments from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mason questioned if the lab is even prepared to make shipments at the levels called for in the permit revisions – without forcing out-of-state cleanup sites to reduce their shipment rates.
Should NMED enact the proposed changes, as currently drafted, it might prompt a “presidential waver” whereby the president considers a state law to unnecessarily interfere with a federal hazardous waste facility, Mason said.
The public comment period on the revised permit proposal closed this week. EPA Region 6 covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas along with 66 tribal nations.