AUSTIN—Call it the Texas radioactive waste rush.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved changes Wednesday to its license with Waste Control Specialists—a private low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Andrews County—that would greatly expand the site’s operations.
State regulators say the changes will not have “any adverse effect on the environment and human health.” Others, including Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, the Legislature’s most vocal critic of the dump, say regulators are putting a company’s interests over the public’s health and safety.
The changes will more than triple the amount of waste the site can accept and reduce the amount of money the company would need to have on hand in the event something goes horribly wrong. They will also allow the company to store depleted uranium, a byproduct of nuclear power plants that scientists say becomes more radioactive over time.
“[Waste Control Specialists] will get all the profits and the state is taking on more and more of the risks,” said Burnam, who was defeated in his primary race this spring.
“People should be outraged,” he said.
WCS began accepting low-level radioactive waste in 2011. The original compact only accepted out-of-state low-level radioactive waste from Vermont. The same year, the Texas Legislature approved a bill that allowed the facility to set disposal fees for and accept waste from 36 U.S. states. Shipments from those states began earlier this year.
Until his death in December, Harold Simmons, a Dallas businessman and prolific Republican donor, owned the Dallas-headquartered Waste Control Specialists. It’s the only commercial radioactive waste facility in the country.
Critics say the increased size and scope of the facility is a direct result of millions in campaign contributions to Gov. Rick Perry and state legislators from Simmons and his cohorts.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, argue that the company’s plans to expand operations endanger the public by putting more trucks transporting radioactive waste on the road. Also, they say a spill could contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the country’s largest underground water sources.
Terry Clawson, a TCEQ spokesman, said the state reduced the company’s financial assurance rate—a bond the company provides to the TCEQ to be used to close the site if something goes wrong—from $136 million to $86 million because the original figure was set at a time when the company planned to build a larger building.
The governor-appointed commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the changes. During Wednesday’s hearing, the TCEQ did not accept oral arguments on the actions to store depleted uranium and expand the site.