December 13 – New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the state Department of the Environment are suing a Texas company that provides oil and gas pipeline inspection services for using radioactive material in New Mexico without a permit.
ARC Inspection Services LLC – based in Krum, Texas, and a provider of “non-destructive inspection and testing services for the pipeline and heavy industrial markets” – is also accused of falsifying documents to try to show that it has the authority to carry out ‘lucrative’ activities. industrial radiography.
According to the lawsuit recently filed in the First Judicial District Court, the company regularly stored equipment and radioactive materials at a storage site in Eunice in southeastern New Mexico, near the Texas border. The location was used to send radiography technicians and equipment to jobs in New Mexico and Texas without the proper license to operate in the state, the indictment alleges.
Shane Wells, who is listed on LinkedIn as the company’s owner, said by phone Friday that ARC Inspection Services LLC filed for bankruptcy last week.
He had no further comment on the lawsuit.
ARC Inspection Services specializes in conventional radiography, magnetic particle and color penetration and ultrasound testing, according to its LinkedIn page.
The Texas Department of State Health Services had information in August showing the company was operating in eight locations in New Mexico, according to the lawsuit, which says 167 violations have been committed in Texas.
According to the lawsuit, the company checked for damage to the integrity of oil or gas pipelines and metal welding using radiation, a technology similar to X-rays. The radioactive materials used for such orbits include cobalt-60, cesium-137, iridium-192, sodium-24 and americium-241, the lawsuit said.
The Texas Health Department received an anonymous report in August of Category 2 radioactive material being spread unattended in Eunice, Lea County.
A New Mexico Environment Department inspector “spoke with a known industrial radiography permit holder in Hobbs, New Mexico, who agreed to go to the address and who confirmed there was no abandoned radioactive source material,” the complaint said. “The licensee has confirmed that ARC radiography trucks and trailers were present at the site and has taken photographs documenting this fact.”
