Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/9/2015
The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission has pushed back the date it plans to propose most of the rule changes it is currently revising, Commission Rules Committee Chair Linda Morris said at a public meeting this week. The Commission had hoped to have the rule changes ready for this week meeting, but Morris said that more information is needed. “We feel like §675.20 through §675.23 are in very good shape right now, and the plan is to propose them at the March meeting to the Commission,” Morris said. “We feel they are ready to go with a few minor tweaks between now and then.” Should the Compact move forward with the proposed changes at its March meeting, the proposed rules would then appear in the Texas Register the following month with a 30-day public comment period, Morris said. If all goes smoothly, the proposed rules would go into effect in July.
The Compact is currently undergoing a general rules update with a focus on better tightening its regulations on importation and exportation of waste. Also included in the update is a re-working of the Compact’s policy under rule §675.23, which adds language stating that the Compact’s policy is to “promote the health, safety, and welfare” of its citizens as well as to “distribute costs, benefits, and obligations among the party states.”
Morris also indicated that §675.24, the section regarding with the importation of exempt waste to Waste Control Specialists’ RCRA hazardous waste landfill, still needed more work and would not be included with the other proposed rules in March. “Regarding §675.24, which we are tentatively calling ‘The Management Rule,’ that needs more work,” Morris said. She went on to say, “Adding my personal comment, I don’t really feel like ‘management’ captures the rule. With §675.24, what we are trying to do is really more of a notification process, a tracking process, that we want to accomplish with this rule. We are going to do a little more study and some more meetings with other agencies to make sure we are doing what we want to accomplish.”
Last September, EnergySolutions used the new rule draft language to raise questions about the legitimacy of Waste Control Specialists’ ability to accept exempt waste in its RCRA hazardous waste landfill. EnergySolutions has argued the new language in the updated policy statement proved the WCS exempt waste cell was antithetical to Compact policy, bringing the exempt waste issue into a larger spotlight within the Compact’s rule update. WCS, for its part, has argued that the exempt waste does not affect the financials of Class A waste disposal, and may actually improve them. WCS also argued that the public safety issue was well-covered by TCEQ’s stringent regulatory requirements. The Texas Compact agreed to add the issue to its update along with other waste that falls under the ‘management’ umbrella— waste that is low-level, but is not being disposed of in the Compact facility.
