NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The state House has voted unanimously to put a halt on accepting radioactive waste at the Middle Point Landfill in Rutherford County.

Video: House Votes To Stop Radioactive Dumping At Landfill

Tuesday’s vote was spurred by a Channel 4 I-Team investigation that uncovered the state's 20-year practice of allowing certain processed radioactive waste to be dumped out like regular trash.

The problem is no one but the state seemed to know about it.

“I don't think we knew. … I obviously didn't until this interview,” said state Rep. Donna Rowland in a previous interview.

It's been four weeks since Rowland said she felt a new sting from a perennial thorn in her side -- the Middle Point Landfill.

She said she had fought against its expansion but had no idea that the state was allowing millions of pounds of low-level radioactive waste to be dumped there.

Tuesday, Rowland maneuvered to close that door, at least halfway.

“We passed a bill today that puts a moratorium on the dumping of radioactive waste in the Middle Point Landfill which is located in Rutherford County,” Rowland said.

It's quickly becoming a case of who knew and when did they know it?

Last week, Rutherford County commissioners blasted the state for keeping its established program for accepting low level radioactive trash all but secret.

But Rep. Bill Ketron said he knew when he sat on the County Commission in the 1990s he had been briefed.

“We were aware of some radioactive materials coming in, but it was only 150,000 pounds, not a million and something pounds,” he said.

While the state contends that there is no danger to the public from the disposal, it has been difficult for Channel 4 News to fully check out the claim.

The companies who do this work said they won’t share their client lists for competitive reasons. Nearly all the companies are from Tennessee.

And the state said it was those processing companies that devised the entire program they now call Bulk Survey for Release.

If Rowland’s dumping moratorium makes it through the Senate and past Gov. Phil Bredesen’s desk, at least one busy route for accepting radioactive waste will be closed.

But there are still four other landfills in the state where it can and does happen and the state said the risk is no greater than what we already breathe and encounter everyday.

“I would submit that 0.8 additional cancers in 100,000 individuals, when they’re already 45,000 are occurring anyway is an acceptably low risk,” said Tennessee Radiological Health representative Eddie Nanney.

The ban on radioactive dumping affects only Middle Point Landfill and still needs to pass in the Senate. Rowland expected that to happen Tuesday afternoon.

Thursday night, the full Rutherford County Commission will vote on its own proposed dumping moratorium. The meeting is set for 6 p.m., June 28 at the Rutherford County Courthouse.