Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
3/6/2015
The Department of Energy has reached a settlement with Idaho environmental regulators to resolve violations issued against DOE for delays in emptying waste tanks at the Idaho site of liquid radioactive waste. The settlement, announced late this week, includes a civil penalty of $648,000, for which DOE can perform supplemental environmental projects in lieu of payments; and a requirement for DOE to develop by April 3 a schedule to remove the remaining tanks at the Idaho site from active service by the end of 2018. DOE can face financial penalties for missing any of the deadlines in the settlement, and can face a penalty of $2 million if it determines that operation of the facility intended to treat the remaining liquid waste at the site—the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit—is “not feasible,” according to a release from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
The IDEQ release states, “This agreement addresses one of DOE’s most significant obligations under the Hazardous Waste Management Act. Compliance with this Consent Order will help to ensure protection of human health and the environment, including one of the State of Idaho’s greatest resources, the Snake River Plain Aquifer.” In a written response late this week, Danielle Miller, a spokeswoman for the DOE Idaho Operations Office, said, “DOE is committed to the safe startup and operation of IWTU.”
DOE Twice Missed Deadline For Emptying Tanks
DOE’s Idaho site is home to four underground waste tanks still in service, three of which hold a total of approximately 900,000 gallons of material and a fourth kept empty to serve as a potential spare tank. Last month, Idaho environmental regulators cited DOE for failing to empty the three tanks by a Dec. 31, 2014, deadline, levying penalties totaling $3,600 per day until the tanks are emptied, and which were set to increase to a total of $6,000 per day beginning July 1. DOE also previously missed a deadline of the end of 2012 to have the tanks emptied.
The IWTU facility, which will convert the liquid waste into a dry material through a steam reforming process for disposal, is in the latter stages of start-up testing. The facility is currently in an outage period expected to run until mid-April to conduct maintenance, modify equipment as necessary, and inspect the effectiveness of previous equipment upgrades, following testing with a simulant. Once the outage is completed, DOE plans to conduct additional simulant tests to “ensure safe operational conditions,” Miller said. It still remains to be seen, though, when the facility will begin processing actual waste.
