DOE Holds ‘Productive’ Talks With Regulators on Mercury Facility
WC Monitor
5/8/2015
A settlement to the dispute over a new mercury-treatment facility at Y-12 could be on the way following an April 21 meeting with environmental regulators that a Department of Energy spokesman termed “productive.” Representatives from the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge met with officials from the Region 4 office of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The meeting was part of the process for settling the formal dispute over plans for the $125 million project that’s supposed to reduce discharges of mercury into the East Fork Poplar Creek.
In response to questions, Mike Koentop, executive officer of DOE’s EM Office at Oak Ridge, said, “We are currently working toward an agreement on the conceptual plant design, as well as how to apply water quality protection standards for the Upper East Fork Poplar Creek.” He added, “As required by the Federal Facility Agreement, we will jointly develop a dispute resolution agreement and hope to have that finalized in the May/June timeframe.” The parties have not released details of the dispute issues, except to indicate that they involve the design of the new facility and how it would be applied to the mercury compliance values. T
he plan is to construct the treatment facility at Outfall 200, where the storm sewer effluents reach the upper stretches of the East Fork. “We are extremely fortunate to have a positive working relationship with our environmental regulators at EPA Region 4 and TDEC,” Koentop said. He said the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility is a “key component” in the mercury cleanup plans at the Oak Ridge site. The mercury contamination at Y-12 is a legacy of the Cold War lithium-separation operations for development of hydrogen bombs, and the processes required vast amounts of mercury, with many tons lost to the environment. The East Fork Poplar Creek has been posted as a health hazard since 1982.
