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RE: INS Laundry
Group and David Lee,
David you wrote:
In the INS case, the judge also ruled that the City of SF did not
have legal jurisdiction over the determination of what the legal
radionuclide discharge limits should be into the local sewer system. This
is because the federal NRC has such jurisdiction and the State of New
Mexico is an NRC Agreement State; hence, the state Department of
Environment has such jurisdiction within the state boundaries--local city
councils simply don't have legal jurisdiction on this issue.
In getting set up to discharge here. I got a legal opinion from our
Regional Counsel to the effect that NRC jurisdiction overlapped with EPA in
the area of radioactive discharges. EPA delegates it's authority through
the state to the local POWT [Publicly owned water treatment] facility.
Basically counsel said the only way to resolve the jurisdictional overlap
was in court. "And by the way make sure Dept. of Justice is willing to
defend you if you choose to test the issue." Yeah right I REALLY WANT TO GO
TO COURT on such an issue where despite the ruling the press would find us
GUILTY. They suggested we make a public spirited notification rather than
request permission. The POWT wrote back and granted conditional permission.
i.e. follow their requirements, analyze it, log it, etc.
Once we bit the bullet and agreed to follow their conditions they were quite
[surprisingly to me] cooperative. So as a federal facility we have a waste
water discharge permit from the local water reclamation district. If the
city of Santa Fe owned or had control of a POWT facility, conceivably they
could regulate the discharges. But of course it was patently unfair to say
a laundry could not discharge any radioactive materials and other entities
could.
All I am speaking to here is that a city can have jurisdiction over
radioactive waste discharges. What little I've read about it, it seems like
Santa Fe was trying to put the laundry out of business for little reason
except that they laundered clothing form LASL.
Regards all.
Any opinions expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily represent those
of the Denver VA Medical Center, The Department of Veterans Affairs, or the
U.S. Government.
Peter G. Vernig
Radiation Safety Officer, VA Medical Center, 1055 Clermont St. Denver, CO
80220, ATTN; RSO MS 115
303-399-8020 ext. 2447, peter.vernig@med.va.gov [alternate
vernig.peter@forum.va.gov] Fax 303-393-5026 [8 - 4:30 MT service] Alternate
Fax 303-377-5686
"...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is found to be
excellent or praiseworthy, let your mind dwell on these things." Paul
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