County wants no part of radioactive waste facility
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
McKenzie County residents and the county’s top zoning and planning administrator made it very clear to North Dakota Dept. of Health officials that their health and safety concerns far outweigh any benefits of a radioactive waste facility that is being proposed to be built in the northern part of the county.
Waste Management of North Dakota also has a application before the North Dakota Industrial Commission to build the new injection well facility on a former All Clear Environmental Treating Plant which now has contaminated soils.
“We need to take care of our own oilfield waste. We don’t want to ship it out of state,” stated Jim Talbert, McKenzie County Planning & Zoning director during last Tuesday’s North Dakota Dept. of Health public hearing in Watford City on Waste Management’s TENORM application. “But the location of this facility is too close to a major aquifer in the area. We want the facility to be in a safe location.”
According to Talbert, the proposed disposal wells are within 1,800 feet from the Tobacco Garden aquifer and only 380 feet from a drainage ditch that eventually goes into the Tobacco Garden Creek and into Lake Sakakawea.
For the full story, subscribe to the McKenzie County Farmer