The Department of Energy is fighting back against $54.3 million in fines from New Mexico for violations at Los Alamos and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, filing official responses Friday denying many of the alleged violations and calling the penalties “grossly disproportionate.” The New Mexico Environment Department assessed the fines early last month for violations related to the Feb. 14 radiation release at WIPP. DOE’s response Friday asks for the penalties to be lifted for the numerous violations denied by DOE and calls for the penalties to be reduced or mitigated where DOE has admitted to the violations. At WIPP, DOE claims NMED can’t collect the penalties because DOE “complied with all applicable permit terms, rules, regulations, and laws.”
DOE has asked for a hearing on the issue, claiming in its response that NMED’s “imposition of penalties is arbitrary, capricious and without substantial basis in law or in fact,” and that the state “improperly imposed penalties for violations of law which did not occur.” The penalty is also “grossly disproportionate to other fines assessed against other permittees,” according to DOE, which claims the penalties are “based upon improper, multiplicious allegations of violations on the Hazardous Waste Management regulations.”
However, NMED said in a statement it “feels its compliance orders represent an accurate and dispassionate application of its penalty policy and procedures and we are very confident that we will prevail in any legal challenge to the compliance orders.” Soon after the fines were announced DOE contacted the state about settlement options. “While NMED is always willing to consider settlement options in an effort to avoid excessive taxpayer expenses involved in litigation, our top priority is correcting the problems that ultimately caused the release at WIPP and ensuring the long term success of New Mexico’s federal facilities,” according to NMED. “The parties will continue to engage in settlement discussions as the legal process moves forward. However, we will not agree to back down on any of the problematic issues we identified in the compliance orders.”
DOE said in a statement that it has initiated discussions on the issues identified in the compliance orders. “We look forward to addressing the underlying causes that led to the compliance orders and to developing a positive path forward for the re-opening of WIPP and the resumption of transuranic waste operations at LANL,” according to the DOE statement. “We have also filed formal legal responses as required to respond to the State’s orders. We share with NMED the goal of quickly addressing outstanding issues and fully resuming operations at both LANL and WIPP.”
