The state of Montana is considering a new set of regulations for management of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste.
Buckhorn Energy’s Oaks Disposal Services site in eastern Montana is the state’s first and only operating TENORM disposal site. The facility opened in 2013 and in the last four years has received over 250,000 tons of radioactive waste – primarily from oil and gas extraction operations in neighboring North Dakota, according to the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Montana-based nongovernmental conservation organization.
Another two sites are licensed but not yet built, while the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is conducting an environmental assessment on another proposed facility, Ed Thamke, DEQ waste and underground tank management bureau chief, told RadWaste Monitor.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines TENORM as “Naturally occurring radioactive materials that have been concentrated or exposed to the accessible environment as a result of human activities such as manufacturing, mineral extraction, or water processing.”
According to the draft released by Montana DEQ, the new regulations are designed to protect residents from radiation exposure. The draft reads, “The proper landfilling of TENORM waste, such as requiring daily cover, dust monitoring, and dust control minimizes the potential radiation dose associated with radionuclides.”
A rancher living near the Buckhorn Energy facility said his entire livelihood depends on proper stewardship of the radioactive material.
“I live and ranch downstream from Montana’s first radioactive oil waste disposal facility, and my operation relies on water. If we lose that, we’re finished,” said Seth Newton, a rancher and spokesperson for Northern Plains.
The oil and gas industry is exempt from federal hazardous waste standards, including TENORM that comes from oil and gas extraction. That puts the waste management burden from those operations on state regulators. While Montana already has rules for management of solid waste, and has included measures laid out officially in its draft rules in the licenses for TENORM disposal sites, “we wanted to have a transparent set of rules that were specific for TENORM,” Thamke said.
“This is DEQ’s opportunity to do it right. There are still concerns that need to be addressed to protect our water and our livelihoods,” Newton said. “Northern Plains members and ranchers like myself have been pushing the DEQ to do this for years. We should be able to expect these facilities to withstand a 100-year flood event, and I think it’s fair to want confidence in that. These are wastes that are both radioactive and full of hydrocarbons.”
Among the proposed regulations: a TENORM waste management system could not be built, expanded, or operated without a DEQ solid waste management system license; annual average TENORM concentration in a disposal unit could not exceed 50 picocuries per gram of radium-226 plus radium-228; any waste surpassing that level could not be accepted at a landfill; and any TENORM waste management plan must feature specific criteria on which wastes would be housed at a landfill, the on-site sampling and testing to be employed, and procedures for waste rejection, among other measures.
“I’m hoping that the Department of Environmental Quality will take my concerns, and those of my neighbors, into effect when they work on updating and finalizing these rules. The draft is only a starting point, so I have some level of hope for improvement,” Newton said.
The state has scheduled public meetings on the rules for Sept. 7 in Helena and Sept. 20 in Sidney. It expects to complete the new rules in November.