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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Texas Refused Hearings on Radioactive Waste Dump Next to State Line, Sierra Club Says

AUSTIN (CN) - The State of Texas illegally refused to hold a hearing on permits it issued allowing a company to dispose of 1.2 million cubic yards of radioactive material on 16 acres in Andrews County, 250 feet from the New Mexico state line, The Sierra Club says.

The Sierra Club claims the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality refused to hold the hearing though neighbors of the uranium dump requested it, and though Texas admits that groundwater problems have not been adequately addressed.

The state granted Waste Control Specialists' request for a permit to dump tailings from uranium and thorium ore processing. Neighbors, including residents, businesses and farmers, fear radioactive poisoning of the groundwater and air, the complaint states, and expressed their fears to the commission. But the commission refused the Sierra Club's request for a contested hearing.

"The TCEQ Executive Director, in his response to comments received, acknowledged that numerous potentially significant aspects of the subsurface hydrogeology regime have yet to be characterized," yet he illegitimately claimed there was "zero" chance of groundwater pollution, the complaint states.

Plaintiffs are represented in Travis County Court by Marisa Perales with Lowerre, Frederick & Perales.

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