By: Lance Gaither
Correction: Mary Cromer’s name was misspelled as Mary Kromer.
The Estill County Concerned Citizens met to discuss further action after the decision to leave the radioactive waste that was illegally dumped in 2015 in place. The waste known as technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material or tenorm for short was illegally dumped at the Blue Ridge Landfill throughout 2015 and into 2016. Officials made the decision to leave the waste in place as it wasn’t emitting an unsafe level of radiation into the water supply and that action of removing could result in a spill.
The Concerned Citizens discussed the possibility of having a cores from the landfill sampled to see the actual amounts of radioactive material in the landfill and if possible leaks would emit dangerous levels of radiation. There was also discussion about possible criminal persecution but Concerned Citizens attorney Mary Cromer thought that both cases would be difficult to win in court. Other citizens were concerned about the public knowledge of the radioactive material reducing property values for those living near the landfill.
Kentucky’s state policy on tenorm is that landfills can only receive tenorm from the state itself or Illinois. The tenorm that was illegally dumped came from the states of West Virginia and Ohio and is not emitting radiation above the amount that legally dumped tenorm can emit.
The tenorm in the Blue Ridge Landfill has been sealed off with caps and will be monitored for the next one hundred years to insure that the radioactive material is not leaking into the landfill. There is currently an ongoing case to have the records of communications from government officials and the landfill about the decision to leave the tenorm in place made public.
