"If elected governor, I shall use the full force of my office to oppose all efforts to bring into our state any radioactive waste other than what is currently permitted. This includes those levels classified as B and C waste," he said.
Now, he's hedging.
Once sworn in, Huntsman could kill Envirocare of Utah's conditional permit to accept the waste by sending the state Department of Environmental Quality a letter expressing official disapproval. But he won't.
"He doesn't believe there's any need for action," Neil Ashdown, Huntsman's deputy chief of staff, said Tuesday.
Ashdown said Huntsman believes B and C wastes already are illegal under state law, and sending a letter or issuing an executive order "could create legal challenges that could be unproductive."
State regulators in 2001 signed off on Envirocare's technical plan for taking class B and C wastes. The material is hundreds to thousands of times more radioactive than class A waste, which is mostly tainted soil. The wastes all are considered low-level, but can be dangerous for centuries.
A clause in the state permit says if either the Legislature or governor does not approve the facility to receive class B or C waste, "this license is immediately terminated."
Envirocare and state officials have generally interpreted the permit's clause to mean the governor and Legislature would have to actively approve the waste before it could come here. But Bill Sinclair, DEQ deputy director, and legislative counsel Robert Rees said it could also be construed to mean the governor could kill the permit via written disapproval.
"Something official with his signature," Sinclair said. "There's no reason he couldn't."
In October, after meeting over two years, a legislative task force on hazardous waste regulation recommended Envirocare not be allowed to accept hotter radioactive waste, but by a single vote decided not to advance a bill that would ban such waste in Utah.
Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Murray, crafted the proposed ban. But Sen. Curt Bramble, the Provo Republican whose legislation established the task force and placed a moratorium on accepting B and C waste, said an overt ban wasn't necessary and could be unconstitutional. The moratorium expires in February.
Rees has said a ban wouldn't be unconstitutional. And critics claimed that without a ban, there is still a possibility hotter waste could be approved.
A former Envirocare official already is trying to push through that door. Charles Judd, once the company's president, said Tuesday that he will pursue a permit to accept B and C waste and highly radioactive material from a Fernald, Ohio, Superfund site at his proposed Cedar Mountain waste site in Tooele County.
"This is exactly why we need to ban B and C waste. Utah is going to be continued to be pestered by these applications," said Jason Groenewold, spokesman for the nonprofit Healthy Environment Alliance and anti-Envirocare activist.
Such applications could draw strength from a GAO study this summer that concluded 36 states would have no place to send B and C waste when a facility in South Carolina closes in 2008.
Judd's Cedar Mountain facility has gotten siting approval from DEQ. But Tooele County commissioners in April rejected Judd's proposal for his 500-acre site adjacent to Envirocare's mile-square facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, saying there was not enough demand for another facility to take class A waste.
Judd said he revised his plans after Envirocare officials said they wouldn't pursue B and C waste. He said the GAO's findings strengthen his argument that his facility would be necessary. "There is clearly a need in Utah and the nation," he said.
Envirocare officials have said they have no current plans to pursue their permit to accept the hotter waste, but neither would they relinquish it.
"It took a lot of time and effort and money to get that draft license," said company attorney Craig Thorley. "Maybe there will be a change in the future."
