South Carolina will seek a court order if conflict with the Department of Energy on Savannah River tank closure milestones is not settled in the dispute resolution process, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton said yesterday at the Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. DOE and the state recently entered dispute resolution after South Carolina denied milestone extension requests for the next two tanks slated for closure. “We are going to be politely cooperating with that but we have other arrows in our quiver that don’t require us to go through the [Alternative Dispute Resolution] process,” Templeton said. “However, it’s my intention to make sure that whatever the resolution is, if it’s not cooperative, that it comes from a court order. The reason for that is not that we want to fight, but it’s because DOE has the authority to turn around and take $150 million more dollars out of the Savannah River Site budget instead of paying their penalties out of the judgment fund. So I need an order if I don’t get cooperation so that the money comes out of the judgment fund and doesn’t further disable SRS.”
Templeton said the state will not extend previously agreed to milestones. Rather than pay $150 million in penalties for missed milestones, South Carolina is urging the Department to invest that money in increasing liquid waste processing at the site. “There’s no way at this point to meet the milestones. It is important, however, that if that $150 million penalty is invoked that it be used for the high level liquid waste. So, we are not going to forgive it, unless it is used to clean up as best as possible at this point the high level liquid waste,” Templeton said.
