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EPA, Energy Settle Hanford Waste Case
Release Date: 10/13/2000
Contact Information: Lisa Castanon
castanon.lisa@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-0464
October 13, 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 00-059
Energy Agrees to Pay $25,000 Penalty, Perform Nearly
$90,000 in Supplemental Environmental Projects
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has settled its unlawful waste management practices case against the Department of Energy’s Hanford facility. Under the signed Consent Agreement and Final Order(CAFO), Energy will pay $25,000 in penalties and will be required to spend an additional $89,983 on two Supplementary Environmental Projects(SEPs). EPA filed a Complaint in February, 1999, for violations of federal waste handling laws discovered during a multi-media inspection at Hanford.
As part of the settlement, the Department of Energy(DOE) agreed to perform a one hundred percent radiological survey on 2,500 lead bricks that were previously located near waste sites at Hanford. DOE intended to dispose of the bricks in a Hanford landfill, but now, Rather than landfilling the lead bricks, DOE is required under the agreement to pay for a complete and thorough survey which will indicate if the bricks contain no greater than background levels of radiation. Those bricks that pass the survey will be placed in DOE’s excess inventory program and may be released to a community organization that is expected to sell the bricks for reuse and use the funds derived from the sale for community economic development activities.
Also under the agreement, DOE will perform a pollution prevention/reduction project to develop and implement new analytical procedures that would eliminate sodium interference for certain laboratory methods used at Hanford. The new procedures will be useful because many of the waste samples from Hanford tanks contain high concentrations of sodium which often interfere with laboratory analysis. The newly developed methods will reduce DOE’s mixed waste generation by using less chemical reagents and minimizing the sodium dilution process.
For a complete copy of this settlement agreement, visit EPA’s website at:
https://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OWCM.NSF/enforce/hanfordcafo
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https://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OWCM.NSF/enforce/hanfordcafo
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