DOE: West Lake Does Not Qualify for FUSRAP

The Department of Energy has rejected overtures from members of Missouri’s congressional delegation requesting that DOE authorize changes to the cleanup of the West Lake Landfill. According to a Sept. 10 letter from Office of Legacy Management Director David Geiser, DOE has not obtained any new information from the cleanup that would qualify it for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. “At this time, neither the Department of Energy nor the U.S. Army Corp of Eningeers is in possession of new information suggesting that non-Cotter affiliated matieral may be present at the West Lake site,” Geiser wrote. “However, should new information be received, DOE, in consultation with USACE, would assess whether it merits a renewed inquiry into the site’s inclusion into FUSRAP.”

The lawmakers sent their letter in July after a potential new waste stream emerged that could link the landfill to DOE legacy waste. The letter appears to be motivated by recent revelations from the Cotter Corp., one of the site’s potential responsible parties, that helped identified the waste stream as potentially related to the government. Cotter has been looking into the public record and older documents to help alleviate public concern about what and where radiological material is located in the landfill. Currently, the West Lake Landfill is supervised by the EPA’s Superfund program, which took over responsibility for the site in 1990, but public outcry has called for the Corps to take over and bring a more experienced approach to the cleanup.