By Andy Marso

When Rep. Annie Kuether saw the environmental issues combined into Senate Bill 124, she balked. It included changes to regulations on spreading oil and natural gas drilling waste on land, storing low-level radioactive material below ground and allowing the executive branch more authority to change water quality standards.

“I am not particularly fond of Senate Bill 124,” Kuether, a Topeka Democrat, told her colleagues at the beginning of a House debate Monday. “It is a huge piece of legislation with a lot of moving parts.” The bill still moved through the House 100-25, continuing a relatively smooth path toward passage.

Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club’s Kansas chapter, called the bill an “interesting package” of measures related to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s supervision of land and water contamination.

Pistora said his group examined each of the provisions separately before choosing not to weigh in on them in legislative hearings. The Sierra Club is relying on KDHE to act according to scientific research on acceptable exposure levels, he said, but will continue to monitor how the bill is implemented if it becomes law.

“With all these things, there’s a level of concern here and some skepticism,” Pistora said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to trust our agency is doing the best they can and keeping us safe.”

Radioactive material

Perhaps the most eye-catching part of the bill is the section on radioactive waste, which originally was part of Senate Bill 125.

It allows for underground burial of naturally occurring radioactive materials, known as NORM, and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials, known as TENORM.

Proponents included KDHE and state agencies that deal with waste management and conservation, as well as trash and recycling associations.

Bill Bider, director of KDHE’s Bureau of Waste Management, told legislators that while studying oil and natural gas drilling waste, the bureau found radioactivity similar to levels found naturally in rocks and soil. Bider and other proponents said the bill will permit continued disposal of that drilling waste in pits and allow KDHE to form rules so the radioactive material can be disposed of in high-grade landfills.

When it comes to radioactive material, Kansas has a politically fraught history that dates to the 1970s when the federal Atomic Energy Commission examined a salt mine in Lyons as a possible site for storing nuclear energy byproducts. A public outcry ensued and the federal agency ultimately scuttled the plan.

The state currently prohibits underground storage of all radioactive material, even though radioactivity occurs naturally in some substances and below certain levels is not dangerous to humans.

William Dunn, head of the mechanical and nuclear engineering department at Kansas State University, said he couldn’t speak directly to the bill Kansas lawmakers are considering. But he said the words “radioactive material” alone should not be scary.

“Low levels of radioactive materials are all around us,” Dunn said. “They’re part of nature.”

Naturally occurring radiation from substances like radon still can be dangerous depending on the exposure, he said, so it’s necessary to test and monitor levels.

Pistora said KDHE had assured the Sierra Club that radioactivity in the materials the bill addresses is at very low levels.

“If you’re getting more radiation (from X-rays) at your dentist’s office, it’s hard to argue with that,” Pistora said.

Land spreading

Starting in 2012, the state allowed oil and natural gas companies to dispose of “cuttings” produced in the drilling process by spreading them on unused land. The law allowing that will sunset July 1, though, unless the Legislature approves Senate Bill 124, which would keep it in place indefinitely.

The Bureau of Waste Management and the Kansas Corporation Commission’s Conservation Division spoke in favor of continuing to allow land-spreading. The National Waste and Recycling Association, which represents landfills, recycling plants and others in the waste management industry, opposed it.

The “drill cuttings” produced when oil and natural gas exploration companies bore holes in the earth are bits of broken rock usually carried to the surface by a drilling fluid circulating within the drill bit. Drilling fluids vary in their composition, and some of the chemicals used can have health effects depending on dosage.

But spreading the broken rock on land has the potential to improve soil quality, especially if the cuttings do not contain high levels of hydrocarbons and salt. Bider, testifying on behalf of KDHE, said so far land-spreading has been used in Kansas only in two areas of Rice County.

But he said “certain drilling companies that are active in other states prefer land-spreading, and they may someday expand their business activity in Kansas.” The practice is widely used in Oklahoma, he said. Bider said KDHE consulted with agronomy professors at K-State to identify best practices to protect the soil where the cuttings are spread. “The primary contaminant of concern is chlorides, which can be very high in some drill cuttings,” he said.

“Care must be taken to avoid over-application.” Legislators on the Senate Committee on Natural Resources attached one amendment to require land sellers to inform potential buyers of any land-spreading activities and another amendment to require the KCC to present an annual report on land-spreading to the committee.

Pistora said the Sierra Club would prefer the drill cuttings be disposed of in other ways, but the law allowing land-spreading has been on the books for a couple of years and KDHE has not identified any health hazards.

“From what they’ve said, they haven’t had any testing indicate any higher levels of chloride or anything that might be harmful to human health,” he said. Pistora said land-spreading remains “something we’re paying attention to.”

Water variances The third part of Senate Bill 124 would allow the KDHE secretary to temporarily change the water quality standards set in state law. It is a power that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has at the federal level and has generally used for specific pollutants.

Pistora said his understanding was that KDHE wanted the variances to assist small-town sewage treatment operations in complying with new ammonia standards meant to protect aquatic mussels and snails. Updating the treatment regimens could be costly, he said, and the Sierra Club understands KDHE’s desire to allow some leeway initially.

“We want to be reasonable in making sure folks can try to meet water quality standards as best they can without throwing the book at them, so to speak,” Pistora said.

While his group has some concerns about the legislation opening a broader hole in water quality standards, he said KDHE officials have said they will tighten that in the rules and regulations process. The three-pronged bill is heading to a conference committee Monday, when three House members and three senators will try to negotiate a final product.

Before the bill passed the House, Kuether proposed an amendment to require the KCC to also send its annual land-spreading report to the Senate Utilities Committee and the House Energy and Environment Committee. “More of us having eyes on anything to do with the environment or water issues is a good thing,” Kuether said.

The amendment passed, with Republican support. But that wasn’t enough to sway Kuether and her Democratic colleagues, most of whom voted against the bill. Rep. Ponka-We Victors, a Democrat from Wichita who will sit on the conference committee, said the bill’s contents, taken as a whole, made her uneasy. “It just didn’t sit well with me,” Victors said.

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.