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Don’t ‘dump’ on INL: Mercury hearing draws crowd in Idaho Falls
published Monday, August 17, 2009  2718 Views :: 1 Comments
August 17, 2009

Don’t ‘dump’ on INL: Mercury hearing draws crowd in Idaho Falls

Throwing the weight of his office against the U.S. Department of Energy’s
consideration of the Idaho National Laboratory as a storage site for large
volumes of toxic liquid mercury, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter personally
testified here against the proposal at the seventh of eight nationwide DOE
scoping hearings. He characterized the site as a “dump.”

During an Aug. 11 meeting, U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, the Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Snake River
Alliance also voiced opposition to locating between 7,500 to 10,000 metric
tons of the elemental mercury at the INL the next 40 years.

Other hearings have been held in Colorado, Washington, Missouri, South
Carolina, Nevada, Texas and Oregon where other sites have been identified.
The Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 – sponsored by then-Sen. Barack Obama and
signed into law by President George W. Bush – requires a domestic storage
site be operating by Jan. 1, 2013.

Otter was the only governor to testify in person at any mercury scoping
hearing, telling DOE officials that storing the dense metallic element in
the Gem State would detract from INL’s true mission, vision and image.
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter submitted a letter in writing, said Bill Levitan,
DOE environmental management director.

“The national lab will be the crown jewel in the development for safe, sane
base load electricity produced by nuclear energy,” Otter said, stressing INL
has been in the forefront of nuclear safety, research, development and
technology.

Otter said DOE has been unable or failed to keep past promises to the state
regarding nuclear waste disposal. A “toxic waste dump” in Idaho would
inhibit tourism and discourage new companies from moving to the state, he
said.

In an April 28 memo to DOE, Idaho Cleanup Project Deputy Manager Richard
Provencher said if the mercury were stored at INL, the Fuel Processing
Restoration facility constructed in 1992 could be a likely location.

Amy Taylor, an Eastern Idaho aide for Risch, read from an Aug. 11 letter the
U.S. senator sent to Dr. Steven Chu in which he reminded DOE’s secretary
that Idaho has a long, tortured history of spent nuclear fuel, transuranic
waste, high level liquid waste and calcined waste storage.

For years, Risch said, the federal government promised to remove this waste,
but it wasn’t until Gov. Phil Batt negotiated a 1995 settlement that Idaho
had any say in protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a “sole source”
aquifer supplying water for nearly 250,000 people. Some of the waste was
buried in unlined pits.

In 2002, Idaho had to begin legal proceedings to get DOE to fully comply
with the agreement. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S.
District Court ruling to enforce measurable cleanup timetables.

“Unfortunately, the difficulty in securing a waste removal agreement and
the need for subsequent litigation shows that the federal government is a
difficult partner in dealing with waste issues,” Risch said. “To bring in a
new type of waste in the form of elemental mercury that places our aquifer
at risk is not in the best interest of the state of Idaho.”

Storing up to 10,000 metric tons of mercury also is not in line with the
mission of the INL, where contractors and employees do outstanding world
class nuclear energy research and engineering work, he said.

“The Idaho work force is second to none and eager to take on new work as it
relates to its mission. However, the management and storage of elemental
mercury at the INL is one new job that I would oppose,” Risch said.

Robert Bullock, IDEQ hazardous waste permit manager, gave a list of reasons
why the mercury from commercial and excess federal stockpiles should not be
stored in Idaho. He said the final EIS must address treatment schedules and
final disposal of waste elemental mercury.

Seismic risk also needs to be fully considered in the EIS because the 7.3
Borah Peak earthquake of October 1983 – Idaho’s largest recorded in
magnitude and property damage ($12.5 million in the Challis/Mackay area) –
was centered only 40 miles northwest of INL, Bullock said, adding that
wildfires also are a risk.

EIS authors need to consider and evaluate converting the mercury into solid
form at generating sites prior to shipment to storage locations, consulting
with industry and commercial waste management experts to minimize
transportation risks, he testified.

“Among the locations being considered at the INL are buildings that are
already 17 years old. Based on the time frames being considered, even new
construction could be significantly aged and in need of replacement before
the federal government acts to dispose of elemental mercury,” Bullock said,
adding a “no action alternative” could represent the least risk to the
environment.

“Storage of thousands of tons of mercury presents an unacceptable scenario
for future generations.” Given the reluctance of DOE and Congress to commit
to a high level radioactive waste disposal location, “the likelihood that
the federal government will timely live up to any obligation to treat and
dispose of elemental mercury once it is ‘stored’ appears low,” Bullock said.

Willie Preacher, Shoshone-Bannock director of tribal DOE programs, said the
tribes are concerned that as the Idaho Cleanup Project removes legacy waste
from the 1950s, DOE now is entertaining shipping more waste into the INL,
where there are aboriginal and treaty right areas, impacting vegetation,
wildlife, fish, the aquifer and air. “We have a pristine site here that is
not very contaminated.”

Beatrice Brailsford, program director for the Snake River Alliance, an
anti-nuclear watchdog group, questioned why DOE was the federal agency put
in charge of mercury disposal, a controversial environmental issue.

“Why has mercury become the government’s responsibility?” she asked, noting
the U.S. Department of Defense has nearly 5,000 tons of mercury stored at
sites in Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio that could be shipped to the Hawthorne
Army Depot in Nevada.

Brailsford also asked why DOE wants a mercury disposal site operating by
Jan. 1, 2013, when the deadline for a Resource Conservation & Recovery Act
permit won’t be required until two years later.


 



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