On April 14, the Dakota Resource Council (DRC) and allies filed a lawsuit against the North Dakota Department of Health in an effort to void the state’s new radioactive waste dumping limits for the oil and gas industry. In 2016, North Dakota approved the rules allowing companies to dump waste from the oil and gas industry with radioactivity of up to 50 picocuries per gram.
Background
DRC has been fighting the state’s new radioactivity limits since they were approved last summer by the North Dakota Health Council. However, the public was not properly notified of the Health Council’s meeting, according to DRC and the North Dakota Attorney General. The Health Council is a citizen’s advisory group within the North Dakota Department of Health.
State open meeting law requires notification of the public at the same time as the notification of the governing body’s members.
In October 2015, DRC requested an Attorney General’s opinion regarding whether or not the Health Council violated the state’s open meetings rules. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem responded on March 15, 2016, and he determined that the Health Council did violate the open meetings rules. Despite his finding, Stenehjem ruled that the Health Council need only to send meeting minutes to DRC and all would be forgiven.
The lawsuit and ND’s radioactivity rules
The lawsuit says that Stenehjem failed to provide any penalty when he issued his opinion last month.
“Without a penalty, there is no law,” said Darrell Dorgan in a Bismarck Tribune article regarding the lawsuit.
DRC and its allies filed the suit in South Central District Court in Bismarck and are asking a judge to void the radioactive waste rules. If the rules are voided, North Dakota regulators would have to go back to the drawing board to craft rule regarding the dumping of radioactive waste from the oil and gas industry. Stay tuned for more as this lawsuit progresses.