ON THE HILL:
SANDSTROM IMMIGRATION BILL ASSIGNED TO COMMITTEE
The long awaited event has been cued up for House members; Rep. Sandstrom’s highly publicized immigration bill, HB-70,has made the agenda of the House Law Enforcement standing committee. This is first of a host of immigration bills to be considered, most originating in the House. Speaker Lockhart told UMA last week that all the house immigration bills will be reported to a committee to be considered and the house will decide what they support and send them to the Senate. The Senate is not likely to approve the Sandstrom approach, which is enforcement focused. UMA has not taken a position on this or other immigration bills, rather is waiting to see how the issue will be addressed and ensure appropriate approaches for employers.
HOUSE APPROVES BAN ON COUNTY POLICE FEE
HB-226, a measure to reverse a decision a few years ago allowing counties to access fees for police and fire protection was debated in the House of Representatives and subsequently passed 54-17. Sponsor, Wayne Harper, West Jordan, argued that Salt Lake County has misused the authority to circumvent truth in taxation by accessing a fee throughout the unincorporated areas of the county. Harper’s bill would disallow such fees in the future. UMA supports HB-226.
DEQ/DNR CONSOLIDATION BILL OPPOSED IN COMMITTEE
Not a single committee member in the House Natural Resources and Environment Standing Committee spoke in favor of Rep. Wayne Harper’s consolidation bill, HB-97. In fact, there was not a single member of the public assembled to hear the bill supported the bill. Harper suggests he wants to reorganize the two departments and by consolidating them in one department fashioned after what he saw in North Carolina. With a packed committee room, the committee chairman asked for a show of hands from the audience who supported the bill. Not a single hand was raised. With time running out, he asked who opposed the bill and every hand was raised. Harper stood alone in his support for the measure. In the end, a motion to adjourn passed unanimously leaving the bill in the committee where it could be requested by the sponsor to be placed on a future agenda.
UMA, the Mining Association and Petroleum Association reviewed the proposal amassing a list of nearly two dozen serious questions about how DEQ and DNR processes would be achieved if Harper’s bill were to pass. Both department heads appeared before the committee and expressed strong opposition to the proposal to consolidate the two departments. UMA strongly opposes HB-97. Not having the opportunity to testify in committee today, UMA will be on hand to oppose it if it should be placed on a future agenda.
UMA MEMBER COMPANIES IN THE NEWS:
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY COMPANY CELEBRATES ITS 95TH ANNIVERSARY
Utah Business
Industrial Supply, a family-owned business based in Utah, is celebrating 95 years as a supplier and distributor of maintenance, repair, operations and production (MROP) supplies. Since its inception in 1916, Industrial Supply has never had a year in which they were not profitable. To emphasize what an achievement that is, consider the myriad of obstacles the construction industry has seen over the years.
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RIO TINTO TO INVEST IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA
Quick Manufacturing News
Commits $1 billion Click to continue
ENERGYSOLUTIONS, COMPETITOR JOIN TOGETHER ON BLENDED WASTE VENTURE
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — A venture that has EnergySolutions teaming with a former corporate foe means blended waste will be disposed in Tooele County in a solid, homogeneous form in contrast to a mix of powdery, radioactive resins.
Officially announced Tuesday by EnergySolutions officials, the partnership involves the Salt Lake-based company and Studsvik Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Stockholm, Sweden's Studsvik Holding.
The venture, called Semprasafe, taps a process Studsvik developed called THOR.
Essentially, it superheats ion exchange resins produced by nuclear power plants, thermally baking them into a solid, non-organic mold. Although the resins range in radioactive concentrations, the final "reformed" residue is a blend that does not exceed Class A limits, which EnergySolutions' Clive, Tooele County, facility is licensed to accept.
Once that process is complete at Studsvik's Erwin, Tenn., facility, the material can then be disposed of at Clive in containers long-term.
Company spokesman Mark Walker said the arrangement, officially inked in December, opens up new paths for the safe disposal of radioactive resins that have for years sat in storage.
The long-term storage of so-called blended waste has been a controversial issue in Utah, with critics claiming there are no guarantees that hotter radioactive material mixed with lower level concentrations won't exceed state-imposed limits.
A lot of different analogies have been tossed about to describe blending waste. EnergySolutions said the mix of such resins results in a sugar cookie of sorts with a blend of isotopes that have reached the proper concentrations that do not exceed Class A levels. Critics, such as HEAL Utah, say such blending of resins doesn't come without hot spots — sort of like a chocolate chip cookie — and those hot spots violate the company's licensing agreement with the state.
Members of the state Radiation Control Board have issued a policy statement asserting their opposition to blending for the purpose of dilution, while at the same time conceding that if the end product doesn't exceed Class A levels of radioactivity, there is no enhanced risk to public health and the environment.
The state, too, is in the process of formalizing a new rule on "unique" waste streams and the conditions under which they are disposed, but Walker said the company does not consider blended waste "unique." That rule was approved Tuesday afternoon at meeting of the Radiation Control Board.
The board has grappled with the issue for months as it has been confronted with radioactive waste not necessarily contemplated under federal regulations.
In addition to converting the sandy radioactive resins into a solid form, the THOR process also results in substantial reduction in the amount of waste, with up to a 30 to 1 reduction in volume and up to 50 to 1 in weight, according to Studsvik.
The process has been used since 1999, when the company opened its low-level radioactive waste processing facility in Tennessee.
Last year, Studsvik argued before Utah regulators that EnergySolutions was not suited to process the higher-concentrated waste at its Bear Creek facility in Tennessee, asserting the blending was being done to "dilute" the materials.
It sought to land the contracts itself for processing and eventual disposal at the Waste Control Facility in Texas when it opens later this year.
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