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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Tooele County, already host to one of the nation's three major commercial radioactive-waste sites, has said it will not allow another hazardous-waste facility -- Clean Harbors' Grassy Mountain site -- to store low-level radioactive waste.
The decision blocks the Massachusetts-based company from broadening the use of its mile-square site 60 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Nicole L. Cline, director of the county's Division of Planning and Zoning, told the state Radiation Control Board the county will not approve Clean Harbors' request.
Cline cited an ordinance adopted last fall that shrinks the county's hazardous-industries zone and imposes new limits on existing sites.
A radiation board attorney noted that Clean Harbors could go forward with its license request and seek to change the Tooele County ordinance.
Under state law, new facilities require approval by the local government, state regulators, the Legislature and the governor. No new hazardous- or radioactive-waste facilities have been developed since the state adopted this four-step approval system in 1990.
Phil Retallick of Clean Harbors said last week that his facility would not be asking to expand its boundaries.
He also said it was constructed to meet U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards for low-level radioactive waste from nuclear plants and government cleanups, which is currently disposed of at the EnergySolutions site in Clive.
EnergySolutions, formerly known as Envirocare, is one of three commercial operations in the country licensed for low-level radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and medical facilities.
EnergySolutions put in an application to more than double in size before Tooele County's ordinance went into effect.
It has county approval for its expansion, but Gov. Jon Huntsman has said he would not allow it. The legislative session that wound up last Wednesday passed a bill that would have allowed the Legislature to overturn the governor, but he vetoed the bill and the legislators did not override his veto.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
