Font ResizeUtah's court fight over who controls the flow of radioactive waste is turning into a national test case, as the state and its allies formally launched their appeal on Thursday and waste agencies representing eight more states prepared to join the fray.
Attorneys for Utah, the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Wastes and the Rocky Mountain Compact filed their initial arguments Thursday at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Representing 11 states, the three want the Denver court to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart's May ruling in favor of the Salt Lake City nuclear waste company EnergySolutions Inc.
Rocky Mountain Compact attorneys said Stewart's decision puts the nation's entire waste oversight system at risk.
"The District Court's ruling unravels the long-standing solution to the problem of low-level radioactive waste disposal -- which was crafted by the compact states and Congress over 20 years ago," attorneys wrote.
Stewart ruled that EnergySolutions is not subject to the authority of the Northwest Compact because it was not created by the compact. The state's appeal says that ruling is an error because it relied heavily on a law that Congress repealed in 1986 and because it undermines Congress' intent in creating compacts to encourage new low-level waste disposal sites.
"To the contrary," the state said in arguing to have Stewart's ruling overturned, "it would encourage non-compact
Utah is a member of the eight-state Northwest Compact, which has an alliance with the three-state Rocky Mountain Compact. The Northwest Compact oversees a disposal site in Hanford, Wash., that guarantees disposal for Utah businesses and universities that generate low-level radioactive waste, which includes material more hazardous than EnergySolutions is allowed to accept.
EnergySolutions operates a landfill in Tooele County that accepts around 99 percent of the nation's low-level waste. The company has 30 days to file its response to the arguments by the state and compact.
"We are pleased that the appeals process is proceeding," said EnergySolutions spokeswoman Jill Sigal. "We continue to be confident in our legal position and we look forward to the ruling of the Appeals Court."
Next week is the deadline for a friend-of-the-court brief that is expected from the Southeast Compact, representing six states.
Bob Wilson, a member of the two-state Texas Compact Commission, said his organization also intends to sign onto that friend-of-the-court brief after some technicalities are resolved.
Texas is home to the first new low-level waste disposal site to be licensed since Congress passed its compact regulations. That site is expected to open next year but only to waste from its home state and fellow compact member Vermont.
Reader's note: This story has been corrected to make number of other states in first graph 8
