The state attorney general’s office is investigating how Adams County paid more than $1 million in legal fees to fight the disposal of low-level radioactive radium in the county.
The county and the state health department have been at odds for more than two years over whether the Deer Trail waste facility near Last Chance is properly permitted to accept shipments.
Adams County, the state and Deer Trail owner Clean Harbors have four issues either in the courts or on appeal. But the latest wrinkle is whether the county paid attorney fees legally.
State laws governing solid and hazardous waste facilities allow counties to collect money from the sites to reimburse for extra costs the waste facilities cause – such as hiring inspectors or repairing roads damaged by trucks going in and out of the facility.
Documents show Adams County has used those funds to pay attorney fees in its legal action against the state and Deer Trail – essentially suing Deer Trail with its own revenue.
Attorney General John Suthers’ office has sent three open- records requests to Adams County as part of an ongoing investigation, a spokesman said.
“We are close to a decision on whether or not to pursue enforcement action,” said Nate Strauch, spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
Clean Harbors executive vice president William Geary said the county has effectively set up a “slush fund.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Geary said. “It has cost the state of Colorado probably (millions) to defend. And I can say it certainly has cost us that much and more.”
Adams County’s outside attorney, Stuart Bennett, said the legal fees are in line with the law.
“The statutory authority for the county to create the fund also authorizes them to expend the money in the way they have been expending it,” Bennett said.
Denver had been caught in the middle of the dispute, delaying its program to remove radium-tainted asphalt from several streets for a year. But with a deadline looming, Denver has been shipping more than 15,000 tons to Deer Trail this summer.
Meanwhile, some water utilities in the state are waiting for the outcome of the fight. Radium naturally occurs in water; utilities must filter it out – and then they are left with their own radium disposal problem.
Englewood Water is temporarily storing its material while Adams County fights accepting low-level radium.
“It is hard for a municipality to say, ‘Gee, the county says they don’t want this stuff, the state says it’s OK, and the landfill says they’ll take it,”‘ Englewood Water attorney Norman Higley said. “We’re left literally holding this stuff in retention while they find other options.”
Gary Baughman, director of the state health department’s Division of Hazardous Materials and Waste, said shipping the residue out of state is too costly for the utilities.
