A hazardous waste landfill near Belleville that has gained the attention of Michigan lawmakers for accepting low-activity radioactive oil and gas fracking waste from other states is seeking approval for a tenfold increase in allowable radiation levels in the materials it receives.

The owners of the Wayne Disposal landfill, between I-94 and Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, filed an application with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality last October, seeking a hike in the radiation limit of materials it accepts and stores from the current 50 picocuries per gram up to 500 picocuries per gram.

The application is still under consideration by the DEQ.

Van Buren Township resident Mary Billings lives about a mile from the site. “I didn’t even know about the fracking waste until last week, and I’m concerned enough about that. I think this is crazy,” she said.

Dave Crumrine,spokesman for USEcology, the waste management firm that operates the landfill, said the higher levels are still considered low-activity technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM.

TENORM is the low-activity radiation that is always present in nature, concentrated to higher levels through man-made processes such as oil and gas drilling. That includes the process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, in which fluids are injected into an underground shale layer to allow the extraction of oil and gas that can’t be obtained through traditional drilling methods.

“It’s consistent with our 30 years of operation that we only dispose of waste where we demonstrate there will not be any adverse impacts to the community or the environment,” Crumrine said, adding the landfill has the engineering, containment and monitoring to safely accept the higher radiation levels.

The request is not being made with a particular waste stream from a particular client in mind, Crumrine said. But such a change would significantly broaden USEcology’s customer base at its hazardous waste landfill.

Halt to fracking sludge

The revelation of the requested radiation limit increase comes amid discussion of Michigan’s role as a dumping ground for other states’ radioactive fracking wastes. A Pennsylvania fracking company’s plan to ship up to 36 tons of low-activity, radioactive fracking sludge to Wayne Disposal was put on hold last month after lawmakers raised concerns.

Gov. Rick Snyder called for a panel of experts to review Michigan’s regulations and practices for accepting such waste, while both Democratic and Republican lawmakers said they will introduce legislation to stop the imports. USEcology announced it’s suspending receipt of oil and gas drilling-related wastes while it awaits the outcome of Snyder’s panel.

Michigan Sierra Club Chapter Chairman David Holtz was incredulous at the news of USEcology’s requested radiation limit hike.

“The fact that someone is asking Michigan to weaken its standards tenfold is extremely disturbing,” he said. “The DEQ should not weaken Michigan’s standards to accommodate greater importation of more radioactive waste.”

Ken Yale, chief of the DEQ’s radiological protection section, said there is no timetable for a decision on USEcology’s request.

“Before we approve anything, we use a couple of different models to make sure we’re looking at all of the different aspects of it,” he said. “We won’t make a determination one way or another until all of our model runs are back and this has been thoroughly evaluated.”

A particular area of review, Yale said, is for USEcology workers, who could have more “direct exposure impacts” from the largely radium-226 related radioactivity, including potential exposure to radon. Radon gas is the second-leading cause of lung cancer behind tobacco use, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal government does not regulate TENORM waste, leaving it to a mishmash of state standards. Michigan was one of the first states to assert authority over regulating TENORM, setting a standard in 1996 that called for all landfills to not accept such waste at greater than 50 picocuries per gram of radiation. The U.S. Department of Energy, in a 1999 review, expressed support for Michigan’s standard, and several states adopted it.

State doing analysis

Though the waste ultimately stored in the Wayne Disposal landfill is at 50 picocuries or lower, it doesn’t come to the site that way. Waste of varying — and sometimes much higher — radioactivity is treated on-site, downblended with inert materials to reduce the radioactivity to an acceptable level.

Yale said before Wayne Disposal is even authorized to bid on a radioactive waste load, his DEQ division requires the company to send a laboratory analysis of what’s in the load, along with its downblending plan. It’s then evaluated to ensure public, environmental and worker safety, he said.

Crumrine said the landfill began accepting TENORM waste in 2006 and since then “none of our employees have been exposed to radiation above normal background levels.”

Of the 17 hazardous waste landfills nationwide capable of accepting TENORM as Wayne Disposal does, Crumrine said, accepting waste up to 500 picocuries “is not a new practice.” But he couldn’t name other sites taking TENORM waste at such levels.

Yale said his department, once it has completed its modeling and analysis, will make a recommendation on USEcology’s request and it will be submitted to DEQ Director Dan Wyant for consideration.

Source: http://www.freep.com/