An old Chinese curse says "May you live in interesting times," and these are interesting times indeed in Oak Ridge. Some cynical souls have accused the DOE of attempting to dilute efforts of the stakeholder community by holding a seemingly endless succession of meetings. I prefer the less sinister viewpoint that DOE has finally realized that stakeholders need to ratify, and even participate in, decisions regarding environmental management on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Nonetheless, these "interesting times" have resulted in long evenings spent in meeting rooms as stakeholders consider end uses, proposed plans, new technologies, permits, health concerns, facility reuse, and myriad other issues on which DOE wishes to gain community input and acceptance.

There is an interesting side effect of the increased emphasis on public participation in the decision-making process. Stakeholders are becoming emboldened to assert their vision of the Oak Ridge Reservation's future, as well as what DOE's cleanup priorities should be. This was illustrated most clearly at the Sept. 4 meeting regarding remediation of the ponds at ETTP, including those that grace the main entrance. DOE proposed, and the citizens opposed, that the ponds be drained, excavated, lined and backfilled. A vocal majority made it clear that risks associated with these ponds were low relative to the many more dangerous contamination problems at ETTP and elsewhere on the Reservation.

There are two, often unspoken, issues at the root of ETTP's ponds controversy. The first is that regulations drive most remediation on the ORR. Because the EPA and TDEC have enforcement hammers in the form of fines, DOE strives to stay within the environmental regulations. Unfortunately, regulatory compliance requires extensive effort and money that often go to efforts that yield little, if any, risk reduction. Other projects - for which DOE is self-regulating and, therefore, not subject to outside scrutiny - are underfunded, postponed, mothballed or neglected. These involve contamination of structures and the environment by the most radioactive and dangerous materials on the Reservation.

The second issue is that EPA and the State need to demonstrate to their political constituencies that DOE is making progress in cleaning up sites on the Reservation.

If the ETTP ponds are remediated, this counts as one more box checked off. Politicians who fund these agencies are often unaware that these are "low-hanging fruit," i.e. easy wins with relatively few technical problems.

So what to do?

Stakeholders need to insist that both EPA and TDEC participate actively in the public review process. When regulators are on hand for this process, they too often sit quietly, failing to voice their disagreement with DOE proposals or with stakeholder views.

Final decisions are then made in private meetings, making DOE look like it has ignored explicit stakeholder input. Regulators need to hear and respond directly to emphasize cleanup of sites that pose the highest risk.

Furthermore, regulatory representatives need to be able to commit to stakeholders that decisions negotiated in public meetings will be carried out through final cleanup, enabling DOE to make substantive progress toward environmental restoration of the Reservation.

DOE National Dialogue

Knoxville workshop aims to form nationwide network

by Al Brooks

A DOE initiative to establish communication among affected communities nationwide came to East Tennessee the weekend of Sept. 5-7.

The regional workshop for DOE's National Dialogue was held in Knoxville and organized by the University of Cincinnati's Center for Environmental Communications Studies. An estimated 200 people attended, representing stakeholders at the Oak Ridge Reservation; Mound Laboratories, the Fernald Site and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio; the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina; and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. Several Native American nations were also represented, as was DOE and the League of Women Voters.

The participants had diverse opinions and varied knowledge of details. The meeting gave the impression that the National Dialogue is at a formative state that corresponds to the development of public participation in Oak Ridge as it was one to three years ago.

The effort can move significantly faster if it considers the experience of successful local groups already working at several DOE sites. In fact, it seems improbable that the National Dialogue can reach carefully considered, fact-based conclusions in a meaningful time without this guidance.

One of the most promising developments to come out of the National Dialogue is a series of dialogues between sites with shared problems. One of these, between the Nevada Test Site and the ORR, has been identified and is under way. This communication will be pursued by the CAP's EM Policy Subcommittee.

The Knoxville meeting consisted of several brief presentations from each site and the Nations, followed by a series of breakout discussions. Topics were (loosely): public participation, consideration of equity, and goals.

Oak Ridge clearly has valuable public participation under way, as do several other DOE sites. It is also clear that we have many common problems.

Al Brooks is a member of the LOC CAP

CAP restructures subcommittees

by Susan Gawarecki

The Citizens' Advisory Panel has restructured its subcommittees and divided them into two groups: those working on internal matters and those working on external issues.

The internal subcommittees support our mission, operations and outreach efforts. They (and their chairs) are:

Bylaws/Procedures (Al Brooks),
Selection (Barbara Walton), and
Newsletter (Wendy Packan).

The external subcommittees will take on projects and issues case by case. They will embrace CAP values and missions for which the internal subcommittees are responsible, especially by considering regulatory issues, liaison with other stakeholder groups and specific issues as they arise. The three external subcommittees and their purposes are:

Environmental Management Policy, which will address overarching policy issues, including prioritization, budget, end use, institutional controls, and DOE complex-wide waste equity issues. Norman Mulvenon chairs this subcommittee.
EM Technical Issues/Projects, which will address specific, technical issues and projects, generally with a set deadline, that arise during ongoing EM activities. These include specific CERCLA projects and FFA milestones, on-site disposal cells, the TSCA Incinerator, and fish advisories. Al Brook chairs this subcommittee. Economic Transition, which will focus on some issues new to the CAP, including reindustrialization, privatization, workforce transition, technology transfer, economic development , and mission transition. Susan Kaplan chairs this subcommittee.

What I did on my summer 'vacation'

by Amy Brown

This has truly been an incredible summer!

The first half of the summer, I spent my days cataloging the LOC's report holdings and creating a search file. This project introduced me to the vast technical issues surrounding cleanup at the Oak Ridge Reservation.

During the course of the summer, I developed a particular interest in issues concerning the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator while researching topics for the CAP's white paper.

I also had my first introduction to field work by traveling to Watts Bar Reservoir to participate in monitoring of fish shocks.

To complete the summer, I have been updating TDEC's report to the public, which should be available by mid-October.

In closing I wish to thank the LOC and TDEC DOE-O for allowing me the opportunity to be the summer intern, with an extra thanks to Susan and Eleanor for their patience.

Amy Brown recently completed a productive summer as the LOC intern.

Notebook

A report from the salt mines

by Susan Gawarecki

DOE officials faced some hard questions at the Energy Communities Alliance fall meeting in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Keynote speakers at the Oct. 1-3 meeting included Al Alm, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, and Bob DeGrasse, Director of DOE's Office of Worker and Community Transition. Participants had an opportunity to grill these decision makers on issues of importance to Oak Ridge and bring specific needs to their attention.

Questions to Mr. Alm included the need for de minimis standards - levels of radioactivity below which materials are considered uncontaminated - in order to conserve disposal dollars. Mr. DeGrasse responded to concerns over the need for DOE to address the health-care concerns of workers at ETTP.

I jumped at an opportunity to tour the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, DOE's designated geologic repository for transuranic waste. This impressive network of passages and rooms is excavated 0.4 mile below the surface in deep salt layers. Plagued by delays in permitting, WIPP is now scheduled to begin accepting waste in May, 1998, still considered by many to be an optimistic date. Oak Ridge has yet to gain permission to dispose of its TRU waste at WIPP; only Los Alamos has qualified at this time.

Alphabet Soup

(Initials and acronyms to make this newsletter and other DOE-related documents easier to read)

ATSDR = Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry CAP = Citizens' Advisory Panel CERCLA = Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act DOE = Department of Energy
EM = Environmental Management
EPA = Environmental Protection Agency
ETTP = East Tennessee Technology Park
EUWG = End Use Working Group
FFA = Federal Facilities Agreement
LOC = Local Oversight Committee
ORHASP = Oak Ridge Health Agreement Steering Panel
ORR = Oak Ridge Reservation
PCBs = Polychlorinated Biphenyls
TDEC DOE-O = Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation - Department of Energy Oversight Division
TRU = Transuranic
TSCA = Toxic Substances Control Act
WIPP = Waste Isolation Pilot Plant