Karl Herchenroeder
RW Monitor
12/11/2015
An environmentalist in North Dakota says legal action against the state is likely over recent rule changes that allow for higher radioactivity levels in oil-field waste.
The rule changes, set to take effect Jan. 1, will boost annual radiation-level allowances for state landfills from 5 picocuries per gram of material to 50 picocuries, which will make in-state disposal more affordable. Also included in the rule change is the requirement that producers of the material, officially known as Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM), register with the North Dakota Department of Health, which will allow the agency to track the waste from production to disposal. A Health Department official said Wednesday that the increase in waste material tracking will help curtail illegal waste disposal and mismanagement of TENORM, meaning a safer, healthier North Dakota.
North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition Chairman Darrell Dorgan on Tuesday said the state is less concerned with matters of public health than it is with bending to the will of the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas exploration, particularly in the Marcellus Shale and Bakkan Shale formations, has increased volumes of TENORM in North Dakota and other states.
“If they have been unable and unwilling to control radioactive waste at 5 picocuries, why would anyone in their wildest imagination believe that they would have any interest or any ability to control, track, or follow 50 picocuries, a tenfold increase,” Dorgan said. “This was decided the day the oil industry asked for this change. However, the job of the state Health Department in North Dakota is to protect the health and welfare of the people who live in North Dakota, not profit for people who live in Oklahoma City and Dallas.”
Scott Radig, director of the Health Department’s Division of Waste Management, acknowledged that illegal waste disposal and TENORM mismanagement has been a recurring problem. But that is what prompted the state to hire the Argonne National Laboratory to conduct a risk assessment study. Radig said the independent study concluded that the 50-picocurie limit is a conservative number that protects both landfill workers and North Dakota residents.
Michigan and Wyoming both have 50-picocurie limits, Radig said, and Montana, which is at 30, is considering matching North Dakota’s new limit. He said that 51.6 picocuries per gram equates to exposure of 100 milligrams per year. Average exposure for a person ranges from 300 to 600 milligrams annually, and federal and international organizations accept 100-milligram exposure as a safe limit, Radig said. Workers subject to more than 100 milligrams of radioactive material per year need to be classified as radiation workers, which Radig said the state wanted to avoid.
Regarding the claim that the Health Department is more concerned with the oil industry than with the health of North Dakotans, Radig said, “That’s simply not true. We look at the general public as well, and these rules are very protective of the health of the general public and the protection of the environment. The opponents of the rules have really presented no scientific evidence at all showing that the Argonne study is incorrect, that the conclusions are incorrect.”
Once the rules go into effect, the reporting requirements kick in, and the department will begin accumulating waste-material tracking data. Radig said the state soon will have a much better idea of how much TENORM material is produced annually. At this point, it is estimated that North Dakota produces about 75 tons of TENORM a day through oil and gas production.
Dorgan said the legal basis for the challenge will be that the public was not given proper notice for an August public hearing tied to the approval process. Vonette Richter, assistant code revisor for North Dakota’s Legislative Council, said Tuesday the Health Department has adhered to all requirements for public notice, hearing, comment, and attorney general review. The state legislature’s Administrative Rules Committee adopted the rules on Monday.
Dorgan’s organization and the Dakota Resource Council requested a state attorney general’s opinion on the matter in October. The group has been told the opinion could take six months, which Dorgan said he regarded as a “stall tactic.”
