Waste Control Specialists

Harold Simmons, Owner

Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) is a treatment, storage, & disposal company dealing in radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes. Developed and controlled by Texas billionaire investor Harold Simmons until his death at the end of 2013, the company was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1989 as a landfill operator, and awarded a unique license for disposal of low level radioactive waste in 2009. Its main operations are in remote West Texas.

WCS is one of five subsidiaries of the holding company Valhi, Inc., with corporate offices in Dallas. Valhi, Inc. is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker VHI.

In 2015 EnergySolutions, its main competitor, announced plans to purchase WCS from Valhi; the merger is being challenged by the United States Department of Justice on competitiveness grounds.

WCS is the only privately owned and operated facility in the United States that has been licensed to treat, store and dispose of Class A, B, C, & Greater than Class C low level radioactive waste (LLRW). The Dallas-based company was recruited to Andrews, Texas by business leaders looking to diversify an economy dominated by the oil and gas industry.

WCS’ facility in western Andrews County is the only commercial facility in the United States licensed in more than 30 years to dispose of Class A, B and C low-level radioactive waste. It is also licensed for the treatment and storage of low-level radioactive waste, and has served as a temporary storage facility for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) projects.

WCS met all operating guidelines established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).TCEQ Executive Director (August 2004 to June 2008), Glenn Shankle, later became a lobbyist for WCS. State records indicate he earned as much as $149,999 per year from WCS.

The WCS facility also is the site of the disposal facility for the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact, and most recently was the site of the storage and disposal of byproduct material from the DOE Fernald, Ohio cleanup site. In 2011 a vote was held by the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission that will allow WCS to import waste from 36 other states across the US.