After listening to its stakeholders complain for years about the need for early involvement, DOE has just revealed a grim preliminary budget for the Fiscal Year 2000 Environmental Management program. Reportedly, FY2001 and FY2002 look even worse.

With this budget, DOE is short an estimated $98.4 million in meeting the requirements put forward in its own "Accelerating Cleanup" plan for Oak Ridge. Perhaps agency managers are counting on the ire of their stakeholders to help them resolve this shortfall.

These cuts are provided courtesy of the Office of Management and Budget. If they materialize, this would not be the first year Oak Ridge has taken an unfair budget hit. Since 1995, Oak Ridge's environmental management funds have declined by 23 percent, compared to a 2 percent increase nationwide. Oak Ridgers face a paradox here:

1. Because we have been rational about accepting reasonable levels of risk for several site remediations (for example less stringent mercury cleanup levels for the Lower East Fork Poplar Creek), less money has been spent on these cleanups. The assumption was that this savings, likely hundreds of millions of dollars, would be allocated to Oak Ridge for remedial activities at some of the riskier and more difficult sites. This is not the case; rather, the savings were taken from Oak Ridge and transferred to other DOE sites.

2. Because we have not been irrational, Oak Ridge has not attracted the national attention (and budget money) bestowed on sites where anti-nuclear activists make exaggerated claims of environmental and health effects. Yet there is contamination leaving the Oak Ridge Reservation via streams and groundwater, and thus there is potential for area populations to be exposed to radioactive and chemical contaminants.

Oak Ridgers should not be penalized for being well informed and rational about environmental risks; we should be rewarded. This message needs to be brought home to the decision-makers in Washington.

Not only that, we must demonstrate that relative risks are much higher here than at most other DOE sites. Due to the high rainfall in this region, groundwater is commonly found within 20 feet of the ground surface, unlike depths of hundreds of feet typical of western DOE sites. The Oak Ridge Reservation is in close proximity to major population centers and transportation routes. Communities downstream take their drinking water from surface waters potentially impacted by reservation discharges.

Budget shortfalls will result in more waste and contamination being left in place for longer periods without adequate isolation from groundwater and the environment. This increases the potential for accidental releases and exposure of area populations.

Beyond the technical arguments for funding Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup at stable levels for the long term, there is an ethical argument as well. Oak Ridge was instrumental in producing the bomb materials and components that won World War II and the Cold War.

The nation owes our community sufficient resources to address the environmental legacy of that effort and sacrifice.

Stakeholders review test burn plan for TSCA Incinerator permit renewal

by Alfred A. Brooks

The State operating permit for the TSCA Incinerator is due for renewal soon. Stakeholders have had an opportunity to influence the "trial burn plan," which determines the future operating conditions of the incinerator over the next several years.

DOE is now waiting on comments from TDEC and additional draft guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before it finalizes the trial burn plan. Assuming these come in on time, the trial burn is scheduled for this summer. The trial burns are conducted under conditions prescribed by the EPA. Permits are granted after the burns and additional analytical measurements. During this testing, the incinerator is operated under a set of "worst-case" conditions to establish its ability to destroy organic compounds without producing hazardous combustion projects in the process, and to limit emission of heavy metals. These "worst-case" conditions are sufficiently extreme to ensure that small deviations from normal operating conditions do not result in unacceptable releases, as long as permitted feed conditions are maintained.

During operations, the TSCA Incinerator relies on the careful control of operating conditions, combined with control of feed waste composition, to reproduce the satisfactory combustion results that were verified during the trial burn. Normal operating conditions are controlled by computer and the waste feed is terminated long before the "worst-case" conditions of the trial burn are reached and any significant change in the combustion results would occur.

Most analytical instruments rely on calibration, the stability of the measurement conditions and the reliability of the measured phenomenon. The TSCA Incinerator can be considered a production version of a well-calibrated and carefully controlled analytical instrument.

The LOC's Citizens Advisory Panel has reviewed the Trial Burn Plan required for the current TSCA Incinerator re-permitting and has made the following comments on it:

The Plan seems generally complete and thorough; it should serve as a valid test of the incinerator's performance.
Acetonitrile or some equivalent difficult-to-combust cyanide compound should be added to the list of testing substances to assure that this class of organic compounds is destroyed. This has been discussed in several public meetings.
Every attempt should be made to determine, either by direct measurement or by process modeling, the emissions and public risk due to a thermal relief vent opening, especially while solids are being fed to the kiln. This should serve to establish a firm basis for estimating the operational risks from these aberrant events.

The CAP also plans to review the results of the trial burn when they become available.

Al Brooks is a CAP member

Environmental impact statements: A primer

by Susan Arnold Kaplan

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) gives Oak Ridgers and others a substantial say in projects that may affect their lives.

The legislation requires a process of public review that includes residents at a time when they can still make a difference. In Oak Ridge, this approach has been used in a wide variety of projects, from waste management on the ORR to reindustrialization at the former K-25 site to development of the ED-1 site. Looking to the future, NEPA will also give residents a chance to review the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The signing of NEPA on Jan. 1, 1970, changed the way the government did business. Intended to establish a national policy in favor of environmental protection and restoration, NEPA required the federal government to consider environmental impacts for any project likely to have a significant effect on environmental quality.

To ensure that federal agencies implement the act consistently, NEPA includes the environmental impact statement (EIS) process. This process requires agencies to prepare a number of documents during project planning and development.

For a "major action," which includes such things as a broad policy decision or major construction project, these documents may include Notice of Intent, Environmental Assessment, Finding of No Significant Impact, Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision.

Notice of Intent

This is a notice published in the Federal Register that an EIS will be prepared and considered.

Environmental Assessment (EA)

This is also known as an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It is a concise public document prepared by a federal agency before it undertakes a major action. The EA has two possible outcomes: a "finding of no significant impact" (FONSI) or the preparation of an EIS.

The EA will:

Provide sufficient analysis for determining if an EIS is needed or if a FONSI is appropriate,
Aid in the agency's compliance with the act when no EIS is necessary, and
Facilitate preparation of an EIS when one is necessary.

An EA is comprised of four parts: defining and detailing the proposed action, identifying and understanding the affected environment, determining the possible impacts, and reporting the results in an appropriate manner.

Draft Environment Impact Statement (DEIS)

This is a detailed written statement that undergoes a formal review process. The primary purpose for preparing a DEIS is to make the environmental consequences and risks of a proposed action known to the agency decision maker, the public and, ultimately, Congress and the President. It allows the intangible impacts on the environment to be accounted for, which is not possible in a traditional cost-benefit analysis and program evaluation.

Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)

This is a detailed written statement that incorporates the results of a formal review of the DEIS.

Finding Of No Significant Impact (FONSI)

This is a document prepared when an EA leads to a finding of No Significant Impact. The FONSI document briefly presents the reasons why an action, not otherwise excluded, will not have a significant effect on the human environment and will not require an EIS.

Record of Decision (ROD)

Each agency should prepare a concise public ROD at the time of its decision or, if appropriate, its recommendation to Congress. This record may be integrated into any other documentation prepared by the agency for a similar purpose. The ROD should include:

A statement of the decision;
Identification of all alternatives considered by the agency in reaching its decision, including specification of alternatives that were considered environmentally preferable. This section may also identify alternatives that were preferable for other reasons, such as economic and technical considerations or the agency's statutory mission.. It should also discuss other essential considerations of national policy weighed by the agency in making its decision.
A statement of practicable means included in the implementation of the action to mitigate environmental damage toward the selected alternatives. If some practicable mitigation techniques were not included, this section should say why.

The ROD should identify and summarize the monitoring and enforcement program designed to carry out the mitigation techniques. If a monitoring and enforcement program designed to carry out the mitigation techniques was not included, the reasons for its exclusion should be stated.

Note that nothing within NEPA requires that every environmental problem be resolved. Nor does it require that environmental considerations be the primary factor in an agency's decision-making process. It requires only that the environment be included in this process.

However, legal difficulties develop when the EA procedure is approached as a "paper exercise" or when it is done in an incomplete or short-sighted manner. The process then provides tools to opponents of a project; NEPA regulations and related agency rules provide an opponent with many opportunities to identify errors, both factual and substantive. Therefore, extremely careful attention to these requirements is the only way to guard against such use.

Susan Kaplan is a CAP member

TDEC expands residential well monitoring

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's DOE-Oversight Division is expanding its testing program for residential wells.

The testing, which focuses on contaminants from the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), determines if water from these wells is suitable for drinking or bathing. Wells to be tested are within a mile of the ORR boundary or are along the Upper Watts Bar Reservoir between the ORR and Kingston (excluding the Emory River arm of the reservoir).

The area to be tested is shown on the accompanying map. The well water will be analyzed for radiological substances, inorganic substances and selected metals. There is no cost for participating in the program, and results will be made available to well owners and users. For more information on the Well Sampling Program, contact the Division at (423) 481-0995 or toll-free at (888) 891-TDEC.

Wanted: New CAP members

The Citizens Advisory Panel is currently accepting applications for new members. The CAP studies and makes recommendations to local, state and federal officials regarding environmental management concerns and economic transition issues at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation.

Citizens with a broad range of interests are encouraged to apply; technical expertise is not required. If you are interested in joining an active, inquiring group, call or drop by the LOC office to obtain an application. They are due by May 8 and new three-year terms will begin July 1.

Hot Flashes

LOC, SSAB reps meet with NTS stakeholders

CAP member Al Brooks, LOC Executive Director Susan Gawarecki and three members of the SSAB met with Nevada Test Site (NTS) stakeholders Feb. 11-12. This meeting with the NTS Citizen's Advisory Board (CAB) Administrative Committee was held at the DOE Nevada Operations Office (NVOO).

The meeting was aimed at launching a dialogue between stakeholders at the two sites regarding disposal of Oak Ridge's low-level waste (LLW) at NTS. Al and Susan described Oak Ridge's disposal needs and hydrogeology and, in turn, heard a technical description of current NTS LLW disposal practices and hydrogeology. The two sides also discussed CAB's concerns over transportation, scheduling, long-term stewardship, local oversight and contaminant releases. NTS CAB members and NVOO seemed to favor beginning with limited shipments of selected and previously negotiated LLW, specifically the remote-handled concrete monoliths stored at ORNL, which are not suitable for ORR disposal.

The intersite stakeholders communications are useful and help to dispel misconceptions. The LOC plans to begin facilitating this dialogue electronically using an unmoderated list server. We also plan to attend the upcoming LLW Seminar in the fall.

LOC members speak to Contract Managers

The LOC was well represented at the National Contract Management Association's World Congress, held March 29-April 1 in Huntsville, Ala. In the Communities in Transition session, CAP Chairman Steve Kopp presented a paper entitled "Local Involvement in Federal Decision Making: The Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee." This paper was co-authored by Amy Fitzgerald, former executive director of the LOC.

CAP member Susan Kaplan (as Kapline Enterprises, Inc.) spoke on "Oak Ridge Economic Development - Let's Not Forget Our Roots," which included a discussion of the benefits of public participation. Kudos to our members for their public discussion of these important issues.

TDEC annual report receives technical communication award

It's good and it's still free.

The TDEC DOE Oversight Division's 1997 Annual Status Report has been recognized by the Society for Technical Communication. The report received a Technical Communication Award for Excellence in Publications from the society's East Tennessee Chapter.

Specifically honored by the award were LOC Executive Director Susan Gawarecki, editorial consultant Leo Williams and TDEC intern Amy Brown. The award adds to the report's enthusiastic reception. We reported in February that Congressman Zach Wamp was so impressed that he has required his staff to read it.

The report is available at the LOC office.

Regional workshop set for Chicago

The Intersite Discussion on Nuclear Material and Waste, formerly known as "The National Dialogue," is gearing up for two regional workshops in June. Oak Ridge issues are to be included in the June 25-27 workshop at Loyola University in Chicago.

The site coordinator for Oak Ridge is Greg Bourne at (404) 875-1983. The LOC anticipates participating in these workshops and will be holding planning sessions. Please contact the LOC office if you would like to be included in this process.

Alphabet Soup

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

CAP = Citizens' Advisory Panel
CAB = NTS Citizens Advisory Board
DOE = Department of Energy
EA = Environmental Assessment
EIS = Environmental Impact Statement
EPA = Environmental Protection Agency
EQAB = City of Oak Ridge Environmental Quality Advisory Board
EUWG = End Use Working Group
FONSI = Finding of No Significant Impact
FY = Fiscal Year
LOC = Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
LLW = Low-level radiological waste
NEPA = National Environmental Policy Act
NTS = Nevada Test Site
NVOO = Nevada Operations Office
ORR = Oak Ridge Reservation
ORNL = Oak Ridge National Laboratory
RCERB = Roane County Environmental Review Board
ROD = Record of Decision
SSAB = Oak Ridge Reservation Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board
TDEC = Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
TSCA = Toxic Substances Control Act

April 1998

DOE penalizes Oak Ridgersfor being well informed