DOE Looking At Ways to Expand On Site Landfill
WC Monitor
8/22/2014
With space running out at the Department of Energy’s on-site landfill and plans for a follow-on landfill still in the early, early stages, DOE’s Oak Ridge Environmental Management office is looking at ways to expand the existing capability and give additional time before constructing a new landfill. The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board, DOE’s citizens advisory board on environmental issues, released DOE’s response to the board’s recommendations on future waste disposal, and some of those of DOE actions could include changes at the existing CERCLA facility – known officially as the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility – or perhaps even a change in the waste-acceptance criteria at the sanitary landfills near the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
Large volumes of waste generated by demolition projects have rapidly eaten up the available space at the EMWMF, and more demolition rubble is on the way, based on plans to finish the tear down of the K-31 building and move forward with demolition of the K-27 uranium-enrichment facility. DOE said the agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 office are continuing to meet “regularly” on issues addressing the plans for future CERCLA-related waste disposal, with a revised remedial investigation/feasibility study to be submitted by the end of the calendar year.
DOE indicated it would look at the possibility of adding to the current capacity at EMWMF in advance of constructing a new $800 million Environmental Management Disposal Facility. “In its response, DOE said it was examining the final cover design of the EMWMF to allow for extended capacity,” the advisory board said. “The waste acceptance criteria for other so-called ‘sanitary landfills’ on Chestnut Ridge are being evaluated for possible modifications to allow a wider variety of waste.”
The revised document will include some limited “site-specific hydrogeologic characterization data that is currently being acquired for the proposed on-site location,” DOE stated. The advisory board had recommended that DOE make sure that when it moves ahead with future waste disposal, make sure there’s plenty of space to accommodate all of the Oak Ridge waste on the horizon.
The plans will incorporate “an additional 25 percent capacity as a contingency to provide for uncertainty in volume projections,” DOE’s response states. Details on how DOE plans to potential change the “final cover design” of EMWMF to add disposal capacity aren’t yet clear.
DOE also addressed another of the advisory’s board potential concerns: ensuring that future waste operations at the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility will include a trust fund – similar to the one that exists for EMWMF – to fund long-term stewardship of the disposal facility. “Continuation of the concept of a trust fund in the planning and eventual implementation of on-site disposal is contingent on the state accepting such an agreement,” DOE stated. “Regardless of that decision, DOE will be responsible for long-term stewardship of an on-site facility, either through establishment of a trust fund with the state or independently.”
