From Deseret News archives:
Envirocare halts its expansion plans
Firm won't try to double its Tooele operations this year
Operators of state's only radioactive waste disposal facility had hoped to double its operations by expanding onto what was called Section 29, adjacent to its present facility near the railroad siding called Clive, Tooele County. The proposal met with a firestorm of public complaints last year.
For the expansion to happen, Envirocare had to jump through four hoops: zoning approval; approval by state regulators; approval by the Legislature, and the governor's authorization.
The facility is in a hazardous industry zone set up by Tooele County, clearing the first obstacle. The plan had received regulatory approval. But then the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah appealed, and a hearing on that was held on Thursday. HEAL lost, with the Radiation Control Board voting 8-0 to stick with the earlier OK.
But Envirocare has decided not to go forward with its plans at this time.
"We're stopping," and not submitting the measure to the Legislature at this time, company spokesman Mark Walker told the Deseret Morning News Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in November, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had announced that he would not approve Envirocare's expansion.
After the Legislature opened its 2006 session, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, introduced a bill to do away the governor's unilateral veto on changes at low-level radioactive waste landfills like the Envirocare facility. (Also covered are other landfills, but the governor would retain an absolute veto over high-level nuclear waste like that proposed for Skull Valley.)
Asked whether Envirocare's decision not to pursue expansion onto Section 29 would affect his bill, Stephenson said it will not.
"My effort at reinstating the constitutional prerogative of the Legislature to override the governor's veto by a two-thirds majority" was not aimed at helping Envirocare, he said.
When he heard Huntsman's statement, Stephenson added, he wondered "how is it possible for the governor to have that much power?"
He learned that the Legislature had abandoned what he called its constitutional prerogative and its constitutional mandate to override a veto. "And," he added, "I think that's wrong."
E-mail: bau@desnews.com
