The Washington state Department of Ecology has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday as part of its preparation of a supplemental environmental impact statement for Perma-Fix Northwest in the city of Richland, near the Department of Energy’s the Hanford Site.
Richland in 1998 conducted the last environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the plant, which treats low-level and mixed-low-level radioactive wastes. It provides services such as waste encapsulation, volume reduction, compaction and sorting, and verification of transuranic waste.
Much has changed both in north Richland, where the plant is located, and in Perma-Fix Northwest operations since the 1998 EIS, said John Price, the Department of Ecology’s section manager for the Tri-Party Agreement on cleanup at Hanford. North Richland developed further, including more buildings on the campus of nearby Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
When the last EIS was completed, Perma-Fix said 20 percent of its Richland business would be from Department of Energy sites, and now the majority of the waste it handles comes from Hanford and other Energy Department facilities, Price said. It did not handle transuranic waste then, which it now does, he said. The 1998 EIS also did not mention international waste, and the plant has since accepted waste from Canada and the United Kingdom and could accept some waste from Mexico.
The Department of Ecology used the 1998 EIS to approve a state Dangerous Waste Regulations permit in 1999, which was up for renewal in 2009. Perma-Fix Northwest submitted to the state an application for renewal that year, but it has yet to be approved.
A draft EIS is scheduled to be released for public review in late 2019, with a final EIS anticipated in spring 2020.
The public meeting at 5 p.m. at the Richland Public Library will cover the possible scope of the EIS. Written comments on what should be considered in the EIS will be accepted at the meeting. Comments also can be submitted through March 25 at http://wt.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=i6TH7.
