The biggest problems typically attract the most attention in environmental cleanup, and that’s why every step in the development of a new mercury treatment facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee is monitored, measured, and put up for critique.
The Department of Energy – as well as outside observers, such as U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) – have labeled mercury cleanup the No. 1 priority in Oak Ridge. The planned treatment facility at Y-12 is intended to reduce mercury discharges into the East Fork Poplar Creek, which has been posted as a health hazard since the early 1980s. The creek was polluted with tons of mercury during the 1950s and ‘60s work on hydrogen bombs, and residual discharges – decades later – still exceed criteria of the Clean Water Act.
URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, is handling the design of the treatment facility that is scheduled to come online around 2022 and cost about $150 million.
Asked for an update on the design effort, UCOR spokeswoman Anne Smith provided an email response: “Design is proceeding well and is nearing the end of the preliminary design phase. Final design activities have begun and will continue throughout the remainder of FY16.”
The new treatment facility will be located near Outfall 200, a critical point where mercury collected in Y-12’s storm sewer system is discharged into the upper end of East Fork Poplar Creek.
Environmental regulators are pushing DOE to advance mercury removal at Y-12 to help ease the burdens on East Fork, which travels through much of the west side of Oak Ridge after leaving the government property at Y-12.
