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SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate panel advanced a resolution Friday to allow EnergySolutions to apply to create a landfill for nonradioactive waste at its nuclear waste facility in remote Tooele County.
SJR11 would grant EnergySolutions legislative approval to pursue an application to create an on-site landfill for nonhazardous waste. The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee voted unanimously to give it preliminary approval. It now goes to the Senate floor for consideration.
The application process would also need approval from Tooele County and the governor.
The resolution's sponsor, Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, said EnergySolutions' nonhazardous, nonradioactive waste currently is taking up space in the waste facility's "class A" disposal storage, where hazardous materials are stored.
"Unfortunately right now, without giving them the authority to open up a nonhazardous radioactive waste landfill, they're putting everything with the radioactive waste, which is extremely inefficient and expensive," Thatcher said.
EnergySolutions' Tooele County disposal facility is located near the unincorporated area Clive, about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Thatcher noted the Legislature is not voting on whether to approve the landfill application, but rather to allow EnergySolutions to pursue an application — which would then have to go through its own approval process.
Lawmakers on the Senate committee raised no concerns before giving the resolution preliminary approval.
— Katie McKellar
