Even though there is a newly licensed dump 70 miles away in Adams County, Denver trucks its radium-tainted waste 705 miles to Grand View, Idaho.
The city wants to continue trucking the waste to Idaho – saying there are still legal and regulatory challenges to the Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. facility near Last Chance.
The city has asked the Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact board – which regulates the disposal of low-level radioactive waste in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico – for permission to continue shipping the equivalent of 1.6 million barrels of radium waste a year to Idaho.
“We want to make sure that we’re not transporting waste where it’s not permitted,” said Nancy Severson, Denver’s manager of environmental health.
The radium waste was mixed into material used to pave the roads throughout Denver more than 80 years ago.
The Denver Radium Site, consisting of 65 properties, was classified as a Superfund site and the asphalt is being removed.
In February, the compact board approved the disposal of radium wastes at the Adams County facility and designated it a regional facility, but the only radium waste in the three states is in Denver.
Even before the board made Last Chance a regional facility, Adams County had filed two lawsuits against the state health department for issuing a radioactive-materials license to the facility.
Denver officials said it isn’t clear Clean Harbors has all the permits to accept its waste – pointing to an Adams County court order prohibiting the facility from accepting hazardous materials.
The board is slated to decide today whether Clean Harbors can accept a second type of waste tainted by naturally occurring radioactive materials. That waste can be found in drinking-water sludge and residue from oil and gas drilling.
If the compact board does begin regulating this kind of waste, it could open the doors for other states to begin sending theirs to Clean Harbors, the compact board’s only regional facility.
“We’re currently working with about 70 to 80 systems that anticipate having increased disposal needs by the end of this year when the new rule goes into effect,” said Adam Rankin, a spokesman for the New Mexico Environment Department.
Some Colorado utilities worry that the compact board may force them to send waste to Clean Harbors.
Colorado Springs Utilities pays about $20,000 to dispose of its sludge.
If required to send it to Clean Harbors, the city estimates it would spend about $2 million, said Dan Hodges, the utilities’ government affairs liaison.
Compact officials, however, say that if the board allows Clean Harbors to accept naturally occurring radioactive materials, drinking-water providers still have disposal options.
“Clean Harbors might be an option – it’s not a requirement,” said Leonard Slosky, the compact board’s director.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or at kmcguire@denverpost.com.
