The North Dakota Health Council will reconsider rules it illegally adopted in 2015 that boosted radiation-level allowances at state landfills, according to documents released Tuesday.
The decision follows Monday’s court hearing in which a state attorney defended approval of the rules, which went into effect Jan. 1. The Health Council will consider the rules for re-ratification at its Aug. 9 meeting, according to the announcement.
North Dakota Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Petrie told state District Court Judge Thomas Schneider on Monday that the public had “every opportunity in the world” to participate in the approval process for the new rules, despite the state attorney general’s finding that the council violated public meeting law.
“The Health Council allowed public comment at that meeting, which they were not statutorily required to do, but they wanted to be as transparent as possible, and then they passed the (new) rules,” Petrie said. “Plaintiffs had all the opportunity in the world to participate in the rule hearings, and they did.”
The approved rules boosted radiation level allowances at state landfills from 5 picocuries per gram of material to 50 picocuries. State officials say the new rules help combat illegal dumping of Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM), by allowing agencies to track the material from production to disposal. The nongovernmental Dakota Resource Council and North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition argued that the Health Council did not provide the proper amount of public notice before approving the new rules in August.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem in March concurred, issuing an opinion that said the Health Council violated state open meeting law. The group, which advises the state Department of Health, should have allowed three months’ public notice, instead of 13 days. As a remedy he told the Health Council to deliver the meetings’ minutes to the interested groups.
The groups had requested that the new rules be vacated and the proposal be revisited, while the Health Council asked the court to dismiss the case. Schneider is expected to deliver an opinion on whether to proceed to trial at a later date.