Baseline study completed for potential Paducah land transfer

The staff at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky has completed an environmental baseline study that could set the stage for transferring 188 acres of land to local authorities for redevelopment.

The 169-page study was completed by DOE contractor Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership and forwarded to Kentucky officials and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late May, the DOE Office of Environmental Management announced Tuesday.

EPA and Kentucky both approved the study’s findings, which support transferring 188 acres in the southeast part of the gaseous diffusion plant campus back to local control.

The study is mandated by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, more commonly known as the Superfund law, according to DOE.

The 188 acres includes utility rights-of-way maintained by the Tennessee Valley Authority and Kentucky Utilities Company. The Paducah Site is on a 3,556-acre federal reservation in a rural section of McCracken County, 10 miles west of Paducah, and 3.5 miles south of the Ohio River, according to the baseline report. The gaseous diffusion plant footprint is concentrated within a 615-acre industrial area. 

“New opportunities are on the horizon for Paducah as we work side by side with the community and their vision for reindustrialization, planting the seeds for economic growth in the region,” Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Manager Joel Bradburne said in the Tuesday announcement.