My last blog post involved dealing with old liquid nuclear waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. I mentioned that there were a lot of other sites in the U.S. where old nuclear waste was not being taken care of properly. Today I am going to talk about a leaking nuclear waste dump in Barnwell County, South Carolina near the Savannah River. The landfill has been in existence for over forty years and is currently managed by Chem-Nuclear.
Radioactive tritium leaks were first discovered at the landfill back in the 1970s. A plume of tritium runs downhill from the site and for years it has been trickling into a creek that flows towards the Savannah River. Chem-Nuclear has maintained that the leaks are in an isolated area and that tritium is not as dangerous as other radioactive materials at the dump.
Critics disagree, saying that tritium is more toxic than Chem-Nuclear claims and that other radioactive materials at the landfill will also leak into the environment. They have demanded that the open burial trenches containing the waste be covered in some fashion to prevent rain from washing the radioactive materials out of the landfill and into the ground water. They claim that Chem-Nuclear has done absolutely nothing to prevent rainwater from falling on the trenches of waste.
Ten years ago, the Sierra Club filed a law suit to try to force tougher disposal practices at the unlined landfill. The suit said that the DHEC had failed to make Chem-Nuclear follow state regulations for many years.
The court ultimately ruled last year that the DHEC " failed to enforce the law of South Carolina" with respect to the two hundred and thirty five acre landfill. The court said that the DHEC did not enforce a set of specific environmental protection regulations. The court also said that Chem-Nuclear failed to follow some state regulations with respect to the handling of nuclear waste. The court ruling stated that "It is important that DHEC enforce its own regulations and require Chem-Nuclear to take action to comply with the technical requirements.The court decision gave the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and Chem-Nuclear 90 days to come up with a written plan for correcting problems at the dump. The court said that the DHEC " failed to enforce the laws of South Carolina" with respect to the two hundred and thirty five acre landfill. The court ruling stated that "It is important that DHEC enforce its own regulations and require Chem-Nuclear to take action to comply with the technical requirements.’’
The DHEC and Chem-Nuclear immediately appealed for a rehearing which delayed the 90 day requirement. In an August 12th ruling, the court reaffirmed its earlier analysis of the situation but gave up on the requirement of a specific timetable to improve conditions at the dump. The DHEC can now respond to the court ruling at its own convenience. A spokesperson for the DHEC said that the agency will " ensure full compliance with the court’s opinion and the regulations we are authorized to enforce.’’
A Sierra Club lawyers said " We have an agency that has been lawless for years in not enforcing its own regulations, and now, the court is giving it another open-ended opportunity to review itself. That is unfortunate. We are going to monitor this very carefully."
Chem-Nuclear Barnwell County landfill:
