The Tooele County Commission on Tuesday struck a 2006 ordinance that required an annual audit of what EnergySolutions, federal agencies and others pay in "mitigation fees," saying the rule was too onerous to enforce even though such fees equal up to half of the county's annual budget.

Calling the audit mandate "redundant," the three-member commission agreed the county auditor can still check the accounts any time he wants, and so can taxpayers.

"Now that EnergySolutions has gone public, the books are open to the public anyway," said Commissioner Jerry Hurst.

The company formerly known as Envirocare, which operates a hazardous and radioactive waste landfill on one square mile about 80 miles from Salt Lake City, is the biggest single mitigation-fee contributor in the county. A contract dating from the 1980s obligates the company to pay the county up to 5 percent of its annual revenue from the landfill as a way to offset negative effects of its operations.

The county has taken in about $40 million from EnergySolutions since a cursory 2003 audit, according to former Commissioner Matt Lawrence, who helped enact the audit requirement in 2006. The ordinance included other entities that pay mitigation fees, but only EnergyÂSolutions actually has been audited under the former ordinance.

The $20,000 report found that Tooele County owed the company $13.

Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan, whose mother is an EnergySolutions lobbyist, told the commission Tuesday that the cost of the audit "doesn't seem to be an expense the county ought to incur."

The county has long resisted releasing information to the public about its examinations of Envirocare's and EnergySolutions' finances, arguing that the information is proprietary. Officials have dodged open-records requirements by not keeping notes in county offices.