A legislative task force on hazardous waste voted Tuesday to recommend the state not accept hotter radioactive waste. But the company seeking a permit to do just that isn't giving up yet.
The vote by the Hazardous Waste Regulation and Tax Policy Task Force came at the end of a four-hour meeting that included a public hearing on Envirocare of Utah's battle to win approval to accept so-called "Class B and C" waste.
Such waste comes primarily from decommissioned power plants and is thousands of times hotter in radioactivity than the waste Envirocare is now licensed to accept at its Tooele County landfill.
Members of the task force stopped short of telling lawmakers to reject Envirocare's pending permit application, raising questions about how much impact their recommendation not to take the hotter waste may have.
The company needs approval from the governor and the Legislature before its permit application expires in 2006. The application already has been approved by the county and by state regulators.
"We're a little disappointed, but I still think there's an opportunity for the Legislature to take expert testimony," Tim Barney, Envirocare's senior vice president, said after the meeting. "The more they pursue that, the better it is for us."
About a dozen people spoke at Tuesday's meeting about Envirocare, including Claire Geddes of Utah Legislative Watch. Geddes warned that Envirocare has "plenty of money" to lobby lawmakers for the needed approval.
"This is just too important to the state to leave to the company to drive the issue," she said.
Several members of the task force said they weren't ready to make a decision yet because they needed more information about the hotter waste.
"What really is it? I can't see it. I can't smell it. I can't taste it," said Rep. Eli Anderson, D-Tremonton.
He and others on the task force said they wanted to study the issue further by traveling to South Carolina, where one of only two facilities in the country that accepts the hotter waste is located, and by hiring an independent expert.
Others, however, said it was time to take a stand.
"We know what we know. We know enough. Let's vote," said Sen. Greg Bell, R-Farmington, who unsuccessfully pushed for the task force to oppose Envirocare's application.
Envirocare officials told the task force the waste they are seeking permission to bring into their Tooele County facility amounts to less than 0.05 percent of their business but would boost state tax revenues by an estimated $10 million to $20 million.
Several task force members suggested that wasn't enough money to outweigh the safety concerns raised by their constituents, as well as the negative impact permitting the waste would have on the state's image.
The task force devoted only a short time to a performance audit of the Department of Environmental Quality's oversight of commercial waste facilities like Envirocare, promising to take a closer look at its next meeting.
The Legislative Auditor General's Office found the department isn't collecting all of the waste disposal fees it could, costing the state more than $270,000 over a two-year period in the case of one facility that was not identified in the 53-page report.
The audit cited a number of other problems, including with the Division of Radiation Control's monitoring of groundwater testing done by the waste facilities. The state chose the cheapest sites to double-check, the auditors said, rather than those most at risk.
The head of the department, Dianne Nielsen, said she doesn't agree with everything in the report. But she told the committee in brief remarks that she looks forward to the opportunity "to build on what I see as already a strong and effective program."
No comments were made on the audit by members of the task force, who interrupted their debate on the waste issue for about 15 minutes to hear from the auditors and from Nielsen. Public comment will be accepted on the audit at the next task force meeting, in June.
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