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The Department of Energy chose to suspend work to meet 23 legal cleanup deadlines at Hanford without making adequate attempts to work with its regulators, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA and the Hanford Advisory Board reacted last week to DOE's announcement that it would miss the deadlines for cleanup in central Hanford because of too little funding in the budget for fiscal 2009.
DOE wants to focus the money it does have in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 on cleaning up the area near the Columbia River and preventing contaminated ground water from leaving central Hanford.
"The board continues to be concerned with potential delays in the cleanup of the Hanford Site caused by a lack of funds," the board said in advice it issued to DOE Friday.
Earlier in the week EPA sent a letter to DOE reminding it that the deadlines legally required by the Tri-Party Agreement are still in place, unless its regulators -- EPA and the Washington State Department of Ecology -- agree to changes.
"DOE has chosen to unilaterally suspend work on a number of milestones without providing Ecology and EPA with a timely opportunity to review and comment on budget appropriation and funding allocation actions and without making any prior attempt to reach agreement on appropriate adjustments in workscope or milestones," said the letter signed by Larry Gadbois, acting EPA Hanford program manager.
The work that DOE is suspending will significantly impact the pace and overall cost of cleaning up Hanford, the letter said.
"Undoubtedly there are milestones in addition to those listed that will be affected as much of the cleanup work at Hanford is interdependent," Gadbois wrote.
The deadlines that will be missed include work to retrieve temporarily buried radioactive waste, treat it and other waste, and prepare waste contaminated with plutonium for shipment for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Deadlines to build facilities to treat waste that is so radioactively hot it must be handled with remotely operated equipment also are at risk.
Other deadlines that will be missed are for studies required by law to come up with plans to clean up contaminated soil and ground water in central Hanford. The contamination is left from the release of radioactive material into the ground after the processing of irradiated fuel rods to obtain plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
The deadlines are for work required to be completed from the end of 2009 through June 2012, with delays in 2009 expected to stall work in later years.
EPA is prepared to meet with the state and DOE to discuss funding allocation and to consider appropriate adjustments in work and deadlines, EPA wrote.
"However, in the absence of those required discussions, EPA cannot agree to make any adjustments or changes to the listed milestones," EPA wrote. "The listed Tri-Party Agreement milestones remain in effect and subject to enforcement action until modified."
The Hanford Advisory Board focused its efforts on urging adequate funding for Hanford this fiscal year to meet Tri-Party Agreement, or TPA, deadlines.
"The federal government has a legal and moral commitment to provide the necessary funding to meet its commitments to clean up Hanford's legacy wastes in accordance with TPA milestones," the board said in advice.
Although it can only give advice to DOE and its regulators, copies of the advice also will be sent to Washington's congressional delegation, which has been pushing for more money for Hanford cleanup.
Hanford's budget is now provided under a continuing resolution passed by Congress because a fiscal 2009 budget for DOE has yet to be passed. In the meantime, Hanford has money available at fiscal 2008 levels, which falls short of the money needed to meet legal cleanup obligations at Hanford, the board said.
The board would like about $234 million added to the current budget for a variety of projects, including those in central Hanford for which deadlines are at risk. More money also could be used for retrieving waste from leak-prone single shell tanks.
The board also wants more money for community support, which would include money for Hanford Advisory Board and other public meetings. However, board members have balked at a proposal that all Hanford Advisory Board meetings be held in the Tri-Cities to save travel costs.
The board plans meetings in Seattle and Portland in the coming year, although all committee meetings will be held in the Tri-Cities or in connection with those out-of-town meetings.
