Proposed sites for the Environmental Management Disposal Facility from Proposed Plan for the Disposal of Oak Ridge Reservation Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Waste – June 2018
The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to build a new landfill (EMDF) on a greenfield site on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) for disposal of radioactive and hazardous waste from ongoing cleanup. There are known to be serious problems with the DOE proposal and public voices may still be effective in getting DOE to reconsider its plans, or (more likely) getting the regulatory agencies that have a say in this (U.S. EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation) to insist on major changes.
For several years, local government, environmental groups, and the public have been pressing DOE for information about what wastes would be put in the landfill (“waste acceptance criteria”), the DOE analysis of comparative costs and jobs for onsite versus offsite disposal, the environmental regulations that DOE wants to have waived, and how DOE expects to immobilize the mercury waste it intends to put in the landfill, but DOE has not answered.
Background information about this situation can be found at https://aforr.info/hazardous-waste-landfill-emdf/. Concerns about the EMDF should be submitted to Laura Wilkerson (DOE: Laura.Wilkerson@orem.doe.gov), Colby Morgan (TDEC: Colby.Morgan@tn.gov), Connie Jones (US EPA: jones.constance@epa.gov), and elected officials. – source: AFORR Newsletter, Jan. 2022
