The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said on April 10 it has no plans for a public hearing on the Department of Energy’s waste acceptance criteria for the On-Site Disposal Facility being built at the Portsmouth Site.
The document is available online, aency spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer noted by email: “There is no requirement for a public hearing.”
The Energy Department, at its discretion, could discuss the document at one of many local public forums scheduled before the facility is scheduled to start receiving waste this fall. The next such meeting is for the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board, slated for May 7, Griesmer said. That would be one week after a stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Mike DeWine for COVID-19 safety is currently set to expire.
The Pike County Ohio Board of Commissioners earlier this month urged the state EPA to fully disclose the waste criteria and provide an “open dialogue” for the public regarding what types of construction debris will go into the new facility rather than being shipped off-site.
The Pike County commissioners are discussing the disposal facility situation, Dennis Foreman, a member of DOE’s Site Specific Advisory Board for Portsmouth, said by email this week.
The document was submitted to the state in April 2018 by DOE and its remediation contractor at the former gaseous diffusion plant, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. About 1.47 million cubic yards of waste is expected to result from tearing down structures at Portsmouth – most of it from three huge process buildings used in uranium enrichment, with demolition of X-326 beginning as early as this fall.
The facility located in the northeast corner of the Portsmouth Site could take several types of material, according to the criteria. That would include soil; debris that include pieces of concrete or metal up to 10 feet long; larger debris that cannot be easily compressed, such as parts of construction equipment; material that will naturally decompose over time, such as contaminated wood; and items that require special handling because they are coated in asbestos.
Banned items include material subject to ignition as stipulated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), transuranic waste, high-level radioactive waste, acid batteries, oils’; and PCBs. Waste from outside of the Portsmouth Site is also prohibited.
In a related note, the Ohio EPA is planning a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the Fluor-BWXT permit application to discharge wastewater into the Scioto River. A registration link can be found here.
