Hazardous waste dump in Beatty can lower its fees

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

RENO -- A regulation that could nearly double the amount of toxic waste being shipped into Nevada for burial near Beatty was approved by the state Environmental Commission Thursday.

Commissioners said it was an effort to ensure the dump about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas remains open.

Stephen Romano, president of US Ecology, the company that operates the dump, told the commission that his company has lost $7 million in the last three years at the site.

He said that in two to three years the dump will be filled, and stockholders will not favor spending $4 million to expand the dump if it continues to lose money.

The regulation would allow the state to lower its fee from $17 a ton to $3 a ton.

Romano told the commission there were 78,518 tons of waste buried at Beatty last year and 114,000 tons the year before. He estimated the new regulation would produce 63,000 to 108,000 tons of new waste from other states.

The only protest was lodged by Glenn Miller, director of the graduate program in environmental science and health at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Miller said Beatty was a good site for burial of waste, but he said the change in the regulation would mean a "dramatic increased amount of hazardous materials" coming into Nevada.

Miller said the state should not get into a "price war" to attract more waste and it should continue to strive to maintain best management practices of the waste.

Romano, however, said the volume of hazardous waste is declining nationally. In California, the fee to dump the waste is $5.72 per ton and it is free after the first 5,000 tons a month. Nevada charges $17 a ton and Utah is lower.

Romano estimated that 250,000 tons of waste is being shipped from California through Nevada to Utah for disposal.

"This is no benefit to Nevada," Romano said.

The dumping fees charged to out-of-state customers go to the state Division of Environmental Protection and produced $1.5 million revenue for the agency last year. Romano said even though the fee will be reduced to $3, there will be more tonnage coming into Nevada and should generate an additional $125,000 to $260,000 in new revenue for the state.

While the state has been charging a fee of $17 a ton for out-of-state companies, the charge for firms in Nevada is $1.50 a ton. The fee is in addition to what the company charges for burial. Although some waste considered hazardous in other states is not considered hazardous in Nevada, Allen Biaggi, chief of the state Division of Environmental Protection, said the materials would still be treated as hazardous when it arrives in Nevada.

The regulations on the trucks would remain the same, and "it would still be managed as hazardous waste at Beatty and it doesn't present a risk to the human environment."

Jim Trent of the state Bureau of Waste Management, said the price reduction will allow Beatty to remain competitive. He estimated that about 28,000 tons of hazardous and other contaminated waste produced in Nevada and about 10,000 tons or more is sent to Beatty. Most of the waste from Las Vegas goes to Beatty, but the some of the contaminated materials from Reno are shipped to Utah or California.

Commissioner Terry Crawforth said the Beatty site could not continue operating if it just relied on the Nevada waste. Trent agreed, saying "We need a disposal site."