Permit approved

AUSTIN State environmental regulators say a Dallas-based company can dispose of Cold War-era radioactive waste at a site in West Texas where it is now being stored.

Waste Control Specialists has worked for four years to secure the license that was approved Wednesday by a 2-1 vote by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in Austin.

The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club opposed the license.

The company still has about nine months of construction before it can begin burying about 3,700 canisters of the uranium byproduct waste.

Rod Baltzer, Waste Control president, said the company plans to have the waste disposed of by Oct. 31, 2009.

Around 50 people from Andrews attended the hearing, Waste Control spokesman Chuck McDonald said, about 20 of whom were Waste Control employees.

Baltzer said the company appreciated the support.

"It was really fantastic to be there today," he said. "To be able to share in this was really kind of special."

Baltzer said the community has been supportive from the beginning.

"We've been very open and transparent," he said. "We make sure we don't surprise them."

Commissioners Buddy Garcia and Bryan Shaw voted to grant the license. Larry Soward voted against.

In a statement, the Sierra Club said it was disappointed the environmental board didn't grant its request for a contested case on behalf of several Eunice, N.M. residents.

It claimed Waste Control failed to adequately characterize the underground geology and hydrology of the site, as well as not properly looking at potential weather events, traffic accidents and surface water run-off.

In the news release, Sierra Club conservation director Cyrus Reed said the organization is considering making a motion for the environmental commission to reconsider and appealing to state district court.

"As it stands right now the public may never know why former members of the TCEQ science team looking at the application considered it one of the worst in the agency's history and if the geology is as they believe, residents of Eunice, New Mexico, will face the consequences," Reed said.

Efforts to reach Reed were unsuccessful Wednesday.

A second license Waste Control is seeking would allow the site, located 30 miles west of Andrews on Highway 176, to become a storage facility for low-level radioactive waste from 1,600 facilities across Texas, including hospitals and power plants.

Baltzer expects a decision allowing that license to go out for public comment to come by mid-June.

With both licenses, Baltzer said 100 new jobs could be created.

Wesley Burnett, Andrews economic development director, said he looks forward to the new jobs coming in.

"It's been a long process for the company and Andrews County," he said. "It's going to bring in jobs and have a continued positive effect on the economy."

OA staff writer Geoff Folsom and the Associated Press contributed to this story.