The operator of a rural South Carolina disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste has not been practicing sufficient safety protocols to prevent contamination from leaking into groundwater, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
South Carolina’s highest court also found that Chem-Nuclear Systems LLC – the EnergySolutions-owned firm that operates the Barnwell Disposal Facility for the state – did not do enough to limit the amount of water flowing onto waste disposal units or limit waste and waste-contaminated water from migrating out of the disposal units.
With the decision, Chem-Nuclear’s license to operate the waste facility has been remanded back to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). The license remains intact, but the state agency is expected to review it. The court urged DHEC to establish stricter guidelines for waste disposal, though it did not specifically mandate action.
The ruling is the latest chapter in the South Carolina Sierra Club’s 2004 challenge to DHEC’s renewal of Chem-Nuclear’s license to operate the facility. The company has held the license since 1971.
The license allows Chem-Nuclear to dispose of low-level radioactive waste at the 235-acre site in Barnwell, about 70 miles southwest of the city of Columbia. The waste is disposed of via land burials using engineered barriers: man-made structures that include disposal trenches, disposal vaults, and enhanced caps to cover the material.
Chem-Nuclear’s license has been renewed several times over the years. Often, these renewals reflect improvements made in waste disposal methods, the state Supreme Court wrote.
“Early disposal practices, although acceptable at the time, were less than ideal, and Chem-Nuclear and DHEC have since been working together to improve disposal practices,” the court added.
Chem-Nuclear and the Barnwell facility have caught flack in the past for various reasons, including the escape of tritium into the Savannah River. The state monitors the leakage and says it is below hazardous levels, but the issue remains a concern to the local community.
In addition, EnergySolutions in 2015 backed a state bill that would have reopened the facility to states other than New Jersey, Connecticut, and South Carolina. That would have overridden a 2008 agreement, known as the Atlantic Compact, that closed the facility’s doors to every state but those three. But the bill never went through.
In 2004, the Sierra Club argued that the current disposal methods “did not adequately prevent the migration of radioactive particles from the site into the groundwater and other waters surrounding the property.” Chem-Nuclear and DHEC disagreed, stating their methods were sufficient.
The South Carolina Administrative Law Court sided with Chem-Nuclear in 2005, but required the company to do more study on the best ways to safely store its waste. From there, the Sierra Club has fought the matter in the state Court of Appeals, hoping judges would require DHEC to tighten its regulations.
Now, the state’s highest court concurred with several points raised by the Sierra Club. These include: concrete disposal vaults not being sealed in a manner that prevents water intrusion; holes in the vault have allowed water to rise into the vaults; and disposal trenches are uncovered, allowed rainwater to collect.
The state agency must “take all admissible evidence into account when addressing the question of compliance,” the court said.
In an emailed comment, EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said the company’s license remains in good standing. “EnergySolutions works closely with DHEC and all of our activities are reviewed frequently, without issue,” he stated. “We will continue to work with DHEC and implement any additional actions, if any, prescribed by them.”
In a press release on Wednesday, Sierra Club attorney Bob Guild said the environmental organization and the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) applauded the court’s decision. “For almost 20 years Sierra Club has teamed up with SCELP to fight unsafe nuclear waste dumping in South Carolina,” Guild said. “We call on Chem-Nuclear and SCDHEC to finally end disposal practices which continue to contaminate our State’s ground and surface waters.”
