The Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee have agreed to devote $42 million to address natural resource damages around the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a recently-published assessment.
The state and federal agencies that serve as the trustees for natural resources at the Oak Ridge Site have agreed in principle that $42 million is sufficient to settle DOE’s liability for the second phase of resource damages at the Superfund site. That is according to the Oak Ridge Reservation Natural Resource Damage Assessment published last month and undergoing public comment.
About half of the total settlement would be funded through repurposing a perpetual care fund for the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility (EMWMF), which is the existing on-site low-level radioactive waste landfill at Oak Ridge, according to the assessment.
The remaining half would be paid by DOE over a period of up to seven years, according to the document. The trustee agencies will oversee use of the settlement amount for habitat restoration projects and related work described in the document.
Restoration efforts envisioned in the document are projects meant to improve wetland areas and recreational uses —such as hiking, fishing, boating and hunting — impaired over the decades due to the work done at the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant area, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
This is distinct from nuclear remediation work done by DOE’s cleanup contractors at the Oak Ridge Site, said Rachel DelVecchio, principal at Industrial Economics, said during an Aug. 31 presentation on the environmental assessment, which can be viewed here.
DOE and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation recently extended the comment deadline to Oct. 12 from Sept. 28.
