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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?

May 08, 2008 at 06:10 PM in Environment |

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Comments

Alan

Nice work, MG.

Posted by: Alan | May 09, 2008 at 07:55 AM

MountainGoat

Thanks Alan

Posted by: MountainGoat | May 10, 2008 at 09:35 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

MountainGoat
MountainGoat

Quotes For 2010

  • "The main thing is to keep everybody going down that road as we try to find the answers and solutions to all these problems. It'll be fun! We'll get it done." — Majority Leader Mike Moyle (R-Star) when asked in an Idaho Reports broadcast how the State House will handle making tough budget decisions this year, 1.29.10.

Quotes For 2009

  • "[Some politicians] wouldn't recognize the Constitution if it fell in their laps and called them Daddy." — Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett (R-Challis) at a tea party tax protest.
  • "Just, you know, putting beans on the table." — former Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) when asked by Nate Shelman (670 KBOI) what he's doing these days.
  • "I said yesterday we hope and pray things will get better before they get worse. It's obvious to me some of you need to do a better job of praying." — Sen. Dean Cameron (R-Rupert), Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee co-chair on the grim economic forecast facing the committee.
  • “We’ve been called a lot of things but we’ve never been called sneaks before.” — Rep. Maxine Bell (R-Jerome) in a budget dispute with the governor's staff over legislators' computer funding.
  • "I’m not wearing rose-tinted glasses. But I am a glass-half-full kind of guy." — Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter attempting to remain optimistic while delivering tough economic news in his State of the State/Budget message.

Quotes For 2008

  • "I am not ashamed that we use a lot of energy in this country. It has made us the most prosperous Nation on the face of the planet. ... Using energy makes us prosperous." — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) during debate on an energy bill that, among other things, invested in alternative and renewable energy sources and repealed tax subsidies for large oil companies. (H.R.6899)
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  • "There are people out there without health care, and we need to address that, but it's not as big of a problem as some people would make it out to be" — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) in a Lewiston, ID debate
  • "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power." — President Bill Clinton in a speech at the 2008 DNC
  • "To my supporters, to my champions, to my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits, from the bottom of my heart, thank you." — Senator Hillary Clinton in a speech at the 2008 DNC
  • "The America that we know, that the founding fathers envisioned, will cease to exist." — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) speaking at the state GOP convention about the possibility of a Democratically controlled White House and Congress.
  • "Sometimes the problems have to get larger before you can solve them. We can still drive around the potholes, so they must not be big enough." — House Speaker Lawerence Denney (R-Midvale), explaining that lawmakers still need to be convinced about the extent of road maintenance problems before they'll agree to tax or fee increases.
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Quotes For 2007

  • "Divorce is just terrible. It's one of Satan's best tools to kill America." — Rep. Dick Harwood (R-St. Maries) describing the work of the Idaho Legislature's Family Task Force.
  • "I am not gay; I never have been gay." Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) in a statement responding to news of his arrest and subsequent guilty plea to disorderly conduct after an incident in an airport men's room.
  • “Most of the hospitals in this country have Christian names. If you think Hindu prayer is great, where are the Hindu hospitals in this country? Go down the list. Where are the atheist hospitals in this country? They’re not equal.” — Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID-01) to the Idaho Press-Tribune editorial board in response to criticism of his views regarding Hindu prayer in the Senate.
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  • "One of the hardest things we've had to do here is taking off our party hats." — Rep. Marv Hagedorn (R-Meridian) on a proposal to restrict Idaho's primary elections.
  • "This is outrageous. The people of Idaho are entitled to have their representatives base their votes on the merits of a bill, not on who backed the loser in a speaker's contest." — Former GOP Gov. Phil Batt responding to accusations of political retribution taken by House Speaker Denney (R-Midvale) on other members.
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  • "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself." — Gov. Butch Otter, speaking to a hunters' rally at the Statehouse.
  • "To get a kick out of smoking industrial hemp, it would take a cigar the size of a telephone pole." — Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow), downplaying the relation between hemp and its cousin marijuana
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  • "I don't think we should let the threat of a lawsuit force us to implement something that's not well thought out." — Abbie Mace, Fremont County Clerk, testifying against a "modified-closed primary" bill being pushed by GOP leaders.
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  • "I say let's have a hearing and take our clothes off and go after it." — Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, trying to get lawmakers to print his bill.
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