A Texas billionaire who is one of the top Republican campaign contributors of the 2012 presidential cycle is at the center of an ongoing controversy over a waste storage project near Andrews, Texas.

Harold Simmons, a majority owner of Waste Control Specialists, has donated more than $11.5 million this election cycle, according to Political MoneyLine, with most of the money -- at least $10 million -- going to American Crossroads, the conservative super PAC connected to Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's political guru.

Simmons has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Restore Our Future, a super PAC backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee. Romney's campaign recently announced that Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman and founder of the American Crossroads, is joining the campaign in a voluntary role as a senior adviser.

In a rare interview, published last month in The Wall Street Journal, Simmons, who is 80, referred to President Obama as "that socialist" and called the president "the most dangerous American alive."

But lately, Simmons has been grabbing more headlines for a waste dump he owns in Texas that has sparked concern among local environmental and consumer advocacy groups for its potential to pollute local sources of water, including the Ogallala Aquifer.

Simmons owns a majority of stock in Valhi Inc., the parent company of Waste Control Specialists, which operates a waste facility in western Andrews County, Texas. The site is the only commercial facility in the United States licensed to dispose of Class A, B and C low-level radioactive waste.

WCS is currently waiting for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow the company to begin importing low-level radioactive waste from more than 35 states at its $500 million, private site near the New Mexico border (Greenwire, March 19).

The TCEQ granted WCS a license in 2009 to dispose of low-level radioactive waste at its 1,338-acre treatment, storage and disposal facility, but the state agency has not yet authorized the company to begin disposal operations. The Dallas-based company says the facility is located in an arid and isolated location, atop a formation of 500 feet of impermeable red-bed clay, which makes it an "ideal setting for the storage and disposal" of waste. The company has also said the state of Texas has determined that the facility does not sit above or adjacent to any underground drinking water formations.

Opponents of the project say the waste dump has advanced due to Simmons' political connections.

Trevor Lovell, the environmental program coordinator for Texas Public Citizen, said at least one former TCEQ official who oversaw the project now works as a lobbyist for WCS. Lovell and Public Citizen are also trying to raise awareness about their concerns that water under the site could become contaminated if waste is stored there.

The site is also facing political opposition in Texas.

This week, state Rep. Lon Burnam (D) of Fort Worth, who opposes the project, asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) to allow him to make public confidential documents that he says detail state officials' concerns about possible groundwater near the dump site. Burnham asked Abbott at a press conference on Monday to allow him to release the documents, which he said he obtained under a 2009 open records request.

Texas regulators and WCS have dismissed those complaints.

Andrea Morrow, a spokeswoman for TCEQ, said saturated groundwater has not been detected within 100 feet of the site and WCS is not violating the terms of its license, particularly because the company has not yet started to accept waste. There's no timeline for the commission to approve imports of waste to the dump, but Morrow said TCEQ believes the "license, if issued, will be protective of human health and the environment."

Morrow also said "the license to construct and subsequent amendments have been subject to rigorous review over a period of years."

The state agency will monitor more than 250 wells surrounding the disposal facility, including different zones that may contain water including uppermost groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer and surrounding sandstone layers, she said. TCEQ employees permanently assigned to the site will also be on duty when the waste is received and disposed of, she said.

Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for WCS, said material shipped to the site will be stored in lead and steel casks that are approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. There have been very few incidents of exposure because the material is so well-protected, he added.

McDonald also said Burnam's comments were simply a ploy for attention and that the state lawmaker has opposed the project for at least a decade.