It's More Than Contaminated Sand

The Idaho Statesman reports today that the contaminated Kuwaiti sand destined for the American Ecology hazardous waste facility in Grandview is just a fraction of the radioactive waste the site has accepted.  In the last several years, the company has made millions of dollars storing more than one million tons of radioactive waste in Idaho through federal government contracts.

Since 2001 American Ecology has been awarded $101.8 million in federal contracts to store contaminated waste, mostly radioactive, with the vast majority ending up at the company's Grandview facility.  The Statesman reports that after purchasing the site in 2001, the company was granted a permit from the state of Idaho to store radioactive waste here, although the story didn't mention that in order to obtain that permit, it was necessary to pass legislation allowing it.

In 2001, with Reps. Julie Elsworth, Cameron Wheeler and Frances Field as sponsors and Roy Eiguren as company lobbyist, House Bill 192 was passed by the Idaho Legislature with only one dissenting vote.  The bill changed how radioactive waste is managed in Idaho, set disposal fees for the waste and assigned regulatory authority to the Idaho Board of Environmental Quality, a seven member board appointed by the governor.

Inserted in the bill was language excluding radiologically contaminated waste materials from "Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP)" sites from the definition of restricted hazardous waste and setting fees for commercial sites accepting this waste at $5 per gate-ton.  This language allowed FUSRAP material to be stored at commercial hazardous waste facilities in Idaho.

FUSRAP is "a program initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate and clean up or control sites that were part of the Nation's early atomic energy and weapons program."  The Army Corps of Engineers has been charged with clean up and disposal of radioactive material at these sites.

The waste from these sites contains radioactive contamination above current federal guidelines but is not regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Atomic Energy Act.  The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, which through passage of this legislation now regulates such material, classifies it as non-hazardous.

In 2001, with passage of this legislation allowing radioactive FUSRAP waste to be stored in Idaho (including contracts in existence on July 1), American Ecology was awarded $4.4 million in federal contracts.

The dollar amount of the contracts grew in 2002 by over 200 percent to $13.8 million, with American Ecology having been awarded an average of $16.6 million in federal contracts per year from 2002 through 2007.  The majority of these are radioactive FUSRAP waste storage contracts for the company's Grandview facility.

American Ecology, with Roy Eiguren as lobbyist, went back to the Idaho Legislature in 2002 asking the state to reduce the hazardous waste disposal fees in order to allow the company to remain competitive.  This legislation passed with eight dissenting votes.  The company did the same again in 2004, this time the legislation passing with just two dissenting votes.

The state of Idaho collected $1.3 million in fees from the Grandview site in 2001, $1.4 million in 2002 and $2 million in 2003.  These numbers include fees paid by the company for all types of waste stored at the Grandview facility.  [Although not obtained for this report, the company predicted that amounts for successive years would be consistent.]   

Despite the $9.4 million increase in federal contracts awarded between 2001 and 2002 the fees collected by the state of Idaho only increased $100,000.  In 2003 despite an $11.3 million increase from the 2001 amount, Idaho received only $600,000 in additional fees.

According to the Statesman, "company officials say the more money American Ecology makes, the more the state of Idaho benefits."  With these numbers it seems the more money American Ecology makes, the more money American Ecology makes.

It doesn't appear that the citizens of Idaho are being fairly compensated for the increased risk of transporting and storing this contaminated, radioactive material within the state and it appears that the company's generous contributions to Idaho politicians have been rewarded generously.

Also, calling this radioactive material non-hazardous seems a little misleading even if technically accurate.  How many Idahoans realize that our state government has allowed over one million tons of radioactive material to be shipped and stored within our borders?  And are we comfortable with accepting the risks of this long-term storage while others reap the rewards?

Comments

[Alan]

Nice work, MG.

[MountainGoat]

Thanks Alan