Estill residents want say in waste agreement

• Public input would be welcome after draft agreement reached, state officials said.
• Estill County citizen group expresses distrust in potential state action on cleanup, remediation.

Estill County residents don't want to wait to comment on a possible radioactive waste dumping enforcement action until after it's already been reached with their local landfill operator, and they are telling Kentucky's top environmental regulator they want two seats at the negotiating table now.

The Aug. 16 letter to Energy and Environment Secretary Charles Snavely made public Thursday said that Concerned Citizens of Estill County Inc. are likely to distrust any agreement reached without citizen participation.

“The opportunity to comment on a settlement after it has been negotiated between EEC and the company is insufficient to ensure that the affected citizens are adequately protected in the remediation plan," Appalachian Citizens' Law Center attorney Mary Cromer wrote.

Cabinet spokesman John Mura did not immediately have an answer to why the citizen group was being shut out of the talks with Advanced Disposal, the company state officials say accepted radioactive drilling waste in the Estill landfill last year.

But Mura said that the cabinet is "vigorously pursuing a consent agreement with Advance Disposal."

He notes a July press release from the cabinet that said interested parties will have an opportunity to review and comment on any draft agreement reached between the cabinet and the company. The agreement would be designed to provide a long-term solution to the waste disposal, officials have said.

Public comments and recommendations will be evaluated for inclusion into the order prior to any regulatory action the cabinet takes with Advanced Disposal, state officials said at the time.

Still, some Estill residents were asking for more on Thursday.

Tom Hart, vice-chair of the CCEC board of directors, described a distrust between local residents and state officials based on the state's early involvement in the matter. "Without the inclusion of local representation in negotiations, any resolution will be met with skepticism and a perception of collusion," Hart said in a written statement.

Craig Williams, a CCEC member and spokesperson for the Kentucky Environmental Foundation of Berea, said: "This process of reaching tentative agreements between agencies and polluters while relegating impacted citizens to providing comments is a procedure long used to marginalize community input."

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has said it's investing the matter, too. But the Kentucky attorney general's office in July declined to pursue any criminal charges related to the dumping citing a lack of evidence.

From July through November 2015, state officials claim, more than 1,000 cubic yards of the waste from fracking operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia had made its way to the Estill dump against a state law that prohibits the importation of such waste from any state other than Illinois. State officials say tests indicate no immediate threat to public health.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com.

​