Utah: Compromise reached on waste site

Utah: Compromise reached on waste site

	Published : Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:51 By : Agencies Print this Story

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Gov. Jon Huntsman and EnergySolutions announced a compromise in the expansion of a radioactive-waste dump in Utah's west desert.

EnergySolutions is withdrawing its application to the state's Radiation Control Board to nearly double the amount of waste it can store at the site in Tooele County.

In return, Huntsman said Thursday that he won't oppose the expansion in a letter to the Northwest Interstate Low-Level Waste Compact.

The agreement will cap waste storage capacity at the landfill to amounts already approved under existing permits, keeping an additional 117 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste from coming to Utah.

'I have stated consistently from the beginning of my term in office that Utah should not be a dumping ground for radioactive waste,' Huntsman said at a news conference. 'This tower of radioactive waste is not created by Utahns and not wanted by Utahns.'

EnergySolutions, which got its start as Envirocare of Utah in 1988, can still fill the space that is not being used at the facility. But the company is withdrawing its application to get the site designated a 'super-cell' storage facility.

EnergySolutions chief executive officer Steve Creamer released a brief statement after Huntsman announced the compromise.

'The agreement we have reached preserves the respective rights and interests of Governor Huntsman and EnergySolutions,' Creamer said.

Huntsman said EnergySolutions officials approached him to discuss his threat to block the super-cell application. Signing the agreement avoids a costly, lengthy legal battles for both parties, he said.

Also under the agreement, the state won't block a request from the company to convert a portion of the landfill from uranium mill tailings storage to storing other types of low-level waste. The volume of the waste allowed under the original permit -- 3.6 million cubic yards -- won't change.

'There is no net gain there,' said Dianne R. Nielson, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. 'In fact there will be a slight net loss because they'll have to put some sort of barrier' between the two types of waste.

Huntsman said the agreement is only linked to the recently passed Senate Bill 155 in that it stirred his concern about waste volumes at the landfill. The bill, which Huntsman allowed into law without his signature, lets EnergySolutions manage its waste piles without getting state approval for every change at its mile-square facility in Clive, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Although she had yet to scrutinize the details of the agreement, Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah said it appeared to be a victory for Utahns.

EnergySolutions has no capacity limit under the original permits.

'We did not anticipate this would happen,' Pierce said. 'The fact that Huntsman is really trying to nail down a cap is significant.'