After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists.
That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement published in the Federal Register this week.
The supplemental analysis will examine the suitability of DOE’s original selection, Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County, Texas, as well as the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada that was also deemed a “reasonable alternative” in prior environmental reviews.
In addition, the notices says the supplemental analysis will study four other potential locations: the Bethlehem Apparatus in Bethlehem, Pa., Veolia North America in Gum Springs, Ark., Perma-Fix Diversified Scientific Services in Kingston, Tenn., and the CleanHarbors environmental facilities in Pecatonica, Ill., Greenbrier, Tenn., and Tooele, Utah.
Under the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008, DOE must identify at least one facility to safely store 7,000 metric tons or more of elemental mercury generated within the United States long-term for 40 years. The National Nuclear Security Administration now holds about 1,200 metric tons generated as part of its national defense mission at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to the Federal Register notice.
In December 2019, the DOE selected Waste Control Specialists partly because it could accommodate the mercury without construction of new buildings.
But the decision was quickly challenged in federal district court by mining concerns, Coeur Rochester and Nevada Gold Mines. Gold mining is one of the primary generators of elementary mercury in the United States. Among other things, the plaintiffs argued the $37,000 per metric ton fee DOE planned to charge them for storage at WCS is excessive. The gold mines also claimed DOE provided inadequate notice and comment opportunity before selecting the private company to provide storage for the federal government.
Last October, the DOE issued a new request for information on potential sites for the long-term storage, which helped lay the groundwork for the just-announced supplemental environmental impact statement. DOE said in Tuesday’s notice it expects to issue the draft impact statement by the end of this year.
To be placed on the distribution list for the supplemental environmental impact statement, contact Julia Donkin, a National Environmental Policy Act document manager with the DOE Office of Environmental Management at [email protected].
