While the Department of Energy is responsible for cleaning up the majority of residual radioactive and chemical contamination from the production of nuclear weapons, the Environmental Protection Agency, state environmental agencies, local governments, and citizens must undertake long-term stewardship of such sites to ensure public health.
The Environmental Law Institute® (ELI) and Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) have released a new report, entitled The Role of Local Governments in Long-Term Stewardship at Two DOE Facilities, that explores the state of the long-term stewardship programs at two Department of Energy (DOE) sites — Los Alamos, New Mexico and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The report was developed to assist local, state and tribal governments, citizens, DOE, DOE contractors, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others to develop a better understanding of the long-term stewardship roles that local governments currently undertake at DOE sites. The report finds that while long-term stewardship is considered a critical element of the DOE remediation program, few tools exist for implementation of long-term stewardship. There is a need for DOE, state environmental regulatory agencies, local governments, contractors and others undertaking various long-term stewardship activities to improve their use of existing tools and create new tools to effectively implement long-term stewardship. To obtain a copy of the report, go to http://www.eli.org or http://www.energyca.org.
For more information, contact John Pendergrass (ELI) at 202-939-3846 or Sara Szynwelski (ECA) at 202-828-2318.
The Energy Communities Alliance is the membership organization of local governments that are adjacent to or impacted by DOE activities.