DOE Has Run Up More Than $2.37 Million in Idaho Fines

The Energy Department has as of this week been penalized more than $2.37 million by the state of Idaho over the ongoing failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent fuel reprocessing at INL. Largely finished in 2012, the facility has not worked as intended in testing, and DOE continues to evaluate the system’s technologies. The department currently estimates the facility will be operational by late summer 2018, years later than the timeline set out by a state-federal agreement.

For now, though, DOE is working with the state to address what is now a $6,000 daily fine by funding another round of supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in the state, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste program manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said Tuesday.

The SEPs are projects to enhance the environment of Idaho that DOE would not otherwise be required to do. A couple of recent examples include: protecting and restoring water quality in the Teton River Watershed, and a recycling and water conservation public education project in Idaho Falls.

The latest round of supplemental environmental projects will likely be agreed upon in the first half of 2018, Creed said. They would cover daily penalties assessed from March 31 of this year through the end of March 2018.

“The Department is taking a deliberative approach to starting up the IWTU to ensure any technical issues that could adversely impact the operation of the facility are identified and resolved before beginning the treatment of radioactive waste,” said a DOE spokesperson. “Safety and protection of the workers, the public, and the environment is our top priority. We remain focused on meeting our commitment to treat the waste and to empty and close the remaining liquid waste storage tanks.”

In May 2015, DOE and former INL cleanup contractor CH2M-WG Idaho jointly paid an initial $648,000 fine with DOE meeting its commitment by funding four SEPs in the state. The cleanup contract is now held by Fluor. Idaho assesses its fines against DOE, but the federal agency and its contractors determine who actually pays, Creed said.

At the end of July, the Idaho DEQ approved a DOE plan for six more environmental projects to satisfy the $648,000 in penalties that were assessed from Oct. 1, 2016 through March 30, 2017.

The state has been fining DOE at a rate of $6,000 per day since March 31, for a total through Sept. 26 of $1.08 million, Creed said.

In the 1990s, the parties entered into a consent order to resolve U.S. Environmental Protection Agency noncompliance findings at INL. The original consent order required DOE to stop using high-level liquid waste tanks by June 2015. Over the years, the state and DOE have made a series of modifications to the consent order. In January 2015, the state issued a notice of violation to DOE for failure to stop using certain tanks. The 2015 notice was the outgrowth of failure to achieve operation of the IWTU.

As part of an early 2015 agreement among the parties to address violations at INL, DOE can propose funding supplemental environmental projects in lieu of paying civil penalties.