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Senate committee approves multiple DEQ rule dockets, including contested-case alignment and petroleum corrective-action updates
Summary
The committee approved a DEQ docket that aligns contested-case procedures with the Office of Administrative Hearings, a radioactive waste disposal rule update, and revised petroleum release corrective-action rules that move water-quality sections into a consolidated chapter and adopt EPA risk calculators.
The Senate committee approved four Department of Environmental Quality dockets that update administrative procedure references, streamline radiological-waste regulations and consolidate petroleum release corrective-action requirements.
Kristen Ryan, deputy director for the Department of Environmental Quality, presented docket 5801232401, a package of temporary and pending contested-case rules. She said the DEQ rules were amended to align language with rules adopted by the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) and to retain DEQ-specific procedural items: where petitioners obtain appeal information, a 35-day deadline to appeal agency actions, a 21-day intervention deadline for permit holders, trade-secret safeguards and notice and stay procedures. Ryan said the temporary rules were adopted by the DEQ board on June 26, 2024, became effective July 1, 2024, and will expire at the adjournment sine die of the 2025 legislative session if not approved by concurrent resolution. The committee approved docket 5801232401 on a motion by Senator Van Orden and second by Senator Guthrie.
Michael McCurdy, Waste Management and Remediation Division administrator, presented two DEQ dockets. Docket 5801102301 updates rules regulating disposal of low-activity radiological waste not regulated under the Atomic Energy Act. McCurdy summarized definition changes, clarified incorporation-by-reference language for radiation-protection standards, and said negotiated rulemaking occurred in 2023; the Board of Environmental Quality adopted the rule November 14, 2024. The committee approved docket 5801102301 on a motion by Senator Harris and second by Senator Cook.
McCurdy also presented docket 5801242401, which consolidates petroleum-release requirements by moving two sections from the Water Quality Standards (IDAPA 58.01.02) into IDAPA 58.01.24 and adopts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency risk-calculator methodology for site evaluations. McCurdy explained DEQ replaced internally maintained risk software with EPA’s calculators because the agency cannot sustain frequent software updates; he said a bid to update DEQ’s software was “in the neighborhood of $1,900,000 whereas using EPA's calculators are free.” The docket includes negotiated-rulemaking changes, unresolved comments on two minor issues that the agency discussed with commenters, and a public process for revising the DEQ risk-evaluation manual. Albert Crawshaw, rules and policy coordinator for DEQ’s hazardous waste program, told the committee that revisions to the byproduct-material definition were included to reflect Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) exemptions.
Docket 5801242401 was approved on a motion by Senator Guthrie, seconded by Senator Hart. Mary Ann Nelson presented the companion docket to remove the transferred sections from the water quality chapter; the committee approved that companion docket on a motion by Senator Harris and second by Senator Hart.
All DEQ dockets were approved by committee voice votes recorded in the transcript as “Aye.” The transcript contains no detailed fiscal notes or scheduled implementation dates beyond the temporary rule expiration and references to federal standards (40 CFR part 280) and EPA risk calculators.
