Miss. Supreme Court: Oil & Gas Board Needed Approval from Environmental Commission to Pass NORM Disposal Amendment

JACKSON, Miss. –– The Mississippi Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision upholding an amendment to state law regulating the landspreading of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials, finding that the state's oil and gas board did not properly obtain approval from a state commission on environmental equality.

In the Feb. 20 decision, the high court remanded the case with directions to obtain that approval, but otherwise found that the amendment did not violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights or federal law.

The plaintiffs are landowners in oil and gas producing regions in Mississippi that wish to challenge a petition of the …