Thursday September 3, 10:43 am Eastern Time Company Press Release

American Ecology Chairman Jack Lemley Calls for Repeal of Law Governing Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal in Senate Hearing

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1998--Jack K. Lemley, chairman of American Ecology Corp. (NASDAQ:ECOL - news), today called for repeal of the federal Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act in testimony before the Senate Armed Services trategic Forces Subcommittee.

Boise, Idaho-based American Ecology operates the only low-level radioactive waste disposal facility operating under the 1980 law and has been designated by multi-state "compacts" as the developer and operator of two proposed disposal sites. In his testimony, Lemley demonstrated that Congress has created a disposal system for medical, academic, pharmaceutical manufacturing and some utility waste that forces costs to spiral and offers the public no more protection than the free-market system that served waste generators for decades prior to the 1980s.

"Our company alone has spent nearly $100 million pursuing the government's new policy," Lemley said. "In total, almost half a billion dollars have been spent on this errant mission, and much of that has been passed along to electric utility ratepayers."

Lemley said the law treats government and civilian low-level radioactive waste differently -- and to no constructive end.

"To compound the mistake, low-level waste from Energy Department sources was treated differently by Congress than material from private and other government sources," Lemley said. "With low-level waste, that's a distinction without a difference."

Lemley said branches of the armed services and a number of other federal agencies are customers of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Richland, Washington, operated by US Ecology, an American Ecology subsidiary.

"Our records at Richland show that DOE is the 'lone ranger' among federal agencies," Lemley said. "In 1997, 21 federal agencies and installations, including the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Veterans Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, were approved for waste disposal at Richland. DOE is conspicuous by its absence."

Low-level radioactive waste is generated by medical facilities, universities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical research centers, utility companies and other sources. Contaminated soils, tools and protective clothing are typical examples of the kind of low-level radioactive material that Department of Energy facilities generate for disposal.

Lemley said unless the federal law governing the disposal of low-level radioactive waste coherently addresses government and private waste as a single unit, two adverse consequences will plague society:

-- Utility ratepayers and other ordinary consumers will be saddled with huge disposal bills to pay.
-- Millions of cubic feet of environmentally sound disposal space at US Ecology's Richland facility and other commercial sites will go unused at the end of their licensed operating periods.

Lemley contributed his testimony as part of a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee forum on the issue of low-level radioactive waste disposal by the Department of Energy. The Senate Armed Services committee oversees appropriations to the DOE's low-level waste disposal program budget. American Ecology provides processing, packaging, transportation, remediation and disposal services for generators of hazardous waste and low-level radioactive waste at licensed facilities throughout the United States.

The company has been in business since 1952.

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