While concerns have been raised about the proposed location of the Department of Energy’s new CERCLA landfill in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a DOE contractor is continuing to work on design of the waste-disposal facility.
The department is evaluating a number of sites on the government’s Oak Ridge Reservation because of concerns raised by environmental regulators and local stakeholders about the preferred location adjacent to the existing landfill — known as the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility – not far from residential areas.
DOE has emphasized that an Oak Ridge site is preferable — for cost and safety reasons — to disposing of the hazardous and radioactive wastes at commercial sites elsewhere.
Even with the landfill site still an open issue, DOE’s cleanup contractor — URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) — is working on design concepts for the landfill to be called the Environmental Management Disposal Facility and preparing for the project.
“DOE and the regulators are in the process of evaluating a number of sites on the Oak Ridge Reservation that may be suitable for a disposal facility, if the on-site option is chosen,” UCOR spokeswoman Anne Smith said.
“UCOR, with support from its parent companies, is in the process of completing the conceptual design of the facility,” Smith said. “A majority of the work we have done is site-generic, and can be used no matter which on-site location is selected. However, we will not begin preliminary design until a decision is made on whether or not to construct additional on-site disposal, and the preferred location is selected.”
The waste capacity at the existing landfill is about 2.18 million cubic yards, and it’s anticipated that — depending on cleanup projects progress and funding — it will reach capacity in 2023-24. DOE would like to have the new facility operable about 18 months before the old one is filled to ease the transition and make the most use of the last available space.
The landfill project is still in the remedial investigation/feasibility study phase. DOE is expected to present its actual proposal for the project sometime in the early part of this year. That will prompt a public comment period. But it’s not there yet, because the regulators have pushed DOE to do some additional characterization and studies of alternative sites on the reservation.
There is no opening date for the new landfill at this point.
Because it is a CERCLA landfill, the Environmental Management Disposal Facility — if it’s approved — will be used solely for the disposal of hazardous and radioactive wastes generated by cleanup projects on the government reservation. There have been some exceptions in the past, such as accepting waste from off-site cleanup projects the department conducted because the sites had DOE-related contamination.
The biggest waste contributor in recent years has been the demolition work taking place at K-25 and other uranium-enrichment facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park.
