The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday awarded Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a task order for long-term storage of elemental mercury in existing buildings on its Andrews County, Texas, property.
The agency’s press release did not reveal the value of the deal to lease WCS storage space for up to 6,800 metric tons (7,480 tons) of mercury.
The task order landed less than a week after the Energy Department issued a record of decision on Dec. 6 that endorsed the storage arrangement.
Using two buildings at the licensed hazardous waste disposal site will be cheaper than building new structures and simplify the Energy Department procurement processes, the agency said in the record of decision. It will also have negligible environmental impacts, according to DOE.
The ROD follows up on a supplemental analysis issued by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in June, which built on a 2020 draft environmental impact statement that found the WCS complex was the preferred alternative for storing up to 10,000 metric tons of elemental mercury.
Over the years DOE has studied both its own facilities and commercial options for the mercury storage, including possibly building a facility on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant property near Carlsbad, N.M. The federal agency has now settled upon using the Container Storage Building for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and nonhazardous wastes and Bin Storage Unit 1 at WCS.
Publication of the supplemental environmental analysis this summer generated only five letters to DOE, just one of which expressed opposition to making WCS the preferred alternative, the agency said.
Earlier this year, the Energy Department asked WCS to submit a task proposal for long-term storage of 1,200 metric tons of mercury from the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The mercury at Y-12, however, is not a waste and might not necessarily be shipped to another facility, an agency spokesperson said in a Thursday email.
The Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 sought to reduce availability of elemental or metallic mercury for purposes such as mining. It also called for establishment of a domestic site for long-term storage of this type of mercury generated within the United States.
The Energy Department is in charge of lining up this storage site. Much of the waste going into storage would come from nongovernment sources, such as mines.
While the environmental studies have been limited to storing 6,800 metric tons of the mercury at WCS, the Energy Department determined the Container Storage Building and Bulk Storage Unit at the Texas site could be used to store more than 10,000 metric tons, according to the ROD.
For more information, contact David Haught, an engineer with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, at [email protected].
