Waste Control Specialists has won the right to import low-level nuclear waste from around the country into Texas, marking a victory for billionaire Harold Simmons.

Simmons has been the second biggest individual donor to Texas Governor Rick Perry since 2001, contributing $1.12 million, including $500,000 last year.

Simmons controls Valhi, owner of Waste Control, which, with a 5-2 vote, received permission on January 4 from the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to begin operations at the 1,300-acre disposal site in Andrews County in West Texas.

All of the commissioners on the waste disposal commission were appointed by Perry.

Waste Control is expected to import radioactive materials, such as rags, syringes and protective clothing, from 36 states.

Environmentalists have fought the company’s plan to take in the waste, claiming the radiation could seep into underground water supplies. Public Citizen and the Texas Civil Rights Project asked a Travis County Court in Austin to delay the commission’s decision until it considered all public input. The local court sided with the environmental groups and issued a restraining order, only to see it lifted by a federal judge after the company appealed.

-Noel Brinkerhoff