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Re: California Legislation



In a message dated 12/23/2002 5:19:23 PM Pacific Standard Time, tmikell@excite.com writes:

What legislation is in the planning stages for us in CA? I know that Sen. Romero was going to try and revisit the issue of LLRW in municipal landfills. Will any of this proposed legislation affect decommissioning?

My company has several licensed facilities in CA and it would be interesting to know how this might affect our business.


SB 13 was introduced on December 4, by Senator Romero.  It is word for word (with the exception of 2003 substituted for 2002) a copy of SB 1970, which the Governor vetoed October 1, 2002.

The bill basically prohibits transfer of anything (including real and non-real property) that has contamination above background, as measured with the best available technology, to anyone that is not specifically licensed to possess the material.  The bill contains numerous ill-crafted exemptions.

The bill is available for your perrusal at www.senate.ca.gov, click on "Legislation," then search for keyword "radioactive."

Currently, there is an Executive Order in California, ordering the State Water Resources Control Board to prohibit any "decommissioned materials" from being disposed at Class III (normal trash) landfills, or unclassified landfills.  The SWRCB issued a boilerplate for their regional boards to use to order their landfills to prohibit this waste.

Neither the governor's order, nor the SWRCB's boilerplate defines "decommissioned materials," though it seems to me the most commonsense definition might include only those materials released from a site after the radioactive materials license has been duly terminated.  In that case, the SWRCB's order would prohibit those entities no longer under regulatory control (i.e., whose licenses had been terminated) from disposing of anything not demonstrated to be "at background" at Class III or unclassified landfills, but would allow licensed facilities (i.e., those still under regulatory control) to dispose of anything at a Class III or unclassified landfill if it met the licensed release limits for unrestricted areas.  I find that rather funny.

That's my personal interpretation, not the official interpretation of the agency for whom I work.  In fact, if anyone can get an official, written interpretation out of them, I'll personally give you five dollars.

Sincerely,
Barbara