Agencies sign last record of decision for DOE Idaho cleanup program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Idaho have signed the last of 25 Superfund records of decision (RODs) at DOE’s Idaho Site. These three agencies have been implementing an agreement to clean up the 890 square-mile, eastern Idaho site since 1991.

Last year, the agencies completed a multi-year environmental study of the Snake River Plain Aquifer beneath the site (called Operable Unit 10-08) and concluded groundwater leaving the Site boundary will continue to be safe for domestic and agricultural uses. The study also investigated 82 surface sites for potential contamination. None of the sites pose a threat to groundwater, but the agencies concluded that two sites require cleanup because of concentrations of lead, arsenic or mercury in the soil.

Also in the ROD, the agencies agreed to implement a new process for addressing contamination that may be discovered later. If the new site is similar to a site that has already been cleaned up, the same remedy – removal and disposal – could be used again.

Of almost 700 actual and suspected contaminant release sites at the Idaho Site, 58 required removal and disposal of contaminants and 29 required capping or a combination of the two remedies. Cleanup of some of these sites will continue for at least two more decades. The vast majority of investigated sites were deemed “no action” or “no further action sites” by the agencies due to their low risk to people or the environment.

In the 20 years since DOE’s Idaho site was added to EPA’s National Priorities List, two entire facilities were declared excess and demolished – Test Area North, developed in the 1950s to build and test nuclear powered jet engines, and the Power Burst Facility, a reactor built to test the effects of steady-state and neutron fluxes on nuclear fuel. Groundwater treatment continues at the Test Area North.

Cleanup, including buried waste retrieval, sub-surface removal and destruction of organic vapors, groundwater treatment, construction of moisture-limiting surface barriers or demolition of excess facilities, continues at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, Advanced Test Reactor Complex and the Materials and Fuels Complex.

For further information, the public can access the Operable Unit 10-08 ROD in the Administrative Record at ar.inel.gov. The Administrative Record is also located at the INL Technical Library in Idaho Falls and the Albertsons Library on the campus of Boise State University.

-- DOE--

CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC, directs the Idaho Cleanup Project, the safe, environmental cleanup of DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory site, located 45 miles west of Idaho Falls. The 7-year, $2.9 billion project, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, focuses on early risk reduction and protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer.

For more information visit the Idaho Cleanup Project on the Web at https://idahocleanupproject.com

DOE-ID-09-019

Editorial Date October 15, 2009
By Bradley Bugger