The Environmental Defense Institute (EDI) recently discovered government reports that document hazardous air pollutant emissions from the Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) which significantly exceed the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) limits, and the Clean Air Act (CAA) standards. INEEL currently has over a million gallons of high-level liquid radioactive waste that also has high concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC) such a solvents used to dissolve reactor fuel rods and highly toxic heavy metals like mercury and chromium. These VOC's can vaporize easily into a gas and go out the exhaust stack unless the proper filters (i.e., carbon bed) required by the regulations are used to control these emissions. Currently, INEEL only uses dust particle filters, called HEPA filters, which do not stop VOC or volitized radionuclides like iodine-129 from being discharged into the environment. ⁽¹⁾

Since 1963 when INEEL first started incinerating its high-level liquid radioactive waste to conserve tank space, over eight million gallons have been processed in what DOE calls "calciner" incinerators or processed in High-Level Liquid Waste Evaporators. ⁽²⁾

High-level liquid mixed waste is the most deadly material in the world not only due to the intense radioactivity but also due to the hazardous chemical and heavy metal constituents. To this date none of these extremely hazardous waste processing operations at INEEL has ever been permitted, due to the fact that none could meet the federal EPA regulatory emission standards.

In April of 2000, the Environmental Defense Institute, Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free and David McCoy filed a Notice of Intent to Sue DOE and the State and Federal Regulators unless they shut down these radioactive waste incinerators. The "Calciner" was subsequently put on temporary "stand-down."

However, the High-Level Liquid Waste Evaporator and other radioactive waste evaporators continue to operate. In July of 2002, EDI, KYNF, and McCoy filed another Notice of Intent to Sue DOE and the Regulators over the illegal operation of the high-level waste evaporators.

The Environmental Protection Agency sets numerical regulatory limits on how much hazardous air pollutants can be released on both an hourly as well as annual basis. ⁽³⁾ The Comparison of Hazardous Air Pollutant Table below shows what was released and what the regulatory limit is for that category of emission. The Table shows, for instance, VOC emissions as high as 6,971 as a percent of the hourly standard and 4,214% over the maximum annual average release.

EDI believes the INEEL emission data is significantly understated because the DOE operators do not monitor at all for these emissions which is in itself a violation of the regulations. DOE claims that it is sufficient to use what they call "process knowledge" to "estimate" emissions. The State regulators are aware of these monitoring deficiencies and emission violations, however have yet to take any regulatory action to shutdown the operations until such time as DOE can demonstrate compliance.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, to its credit, did issue a Notice of Deficiency on DOE's hazardous waste permit application on two of the three waste evaporators. It is not likely a coincidence that these regulators are finally recognizing the non-compliance emission issues after being named, along with DOE, in Notices of Intent to Sue for violating environmental laws.

For a more complete analysis of this non-compliance emission issue and our challenge on RCRA Permit Application, see EDI's Website Publications on Petition to EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. http://personalpages.tds.net/~edinst

On December 4, 2002, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 in Seattle filed a Notice of Violation Penalty Assessment against the DOE for violations of numerous federal environmental laws for failure to comply with "remedial actions" related to the INEEL's high-level radioactive waste tanks. According to the EPA Notice, the initial penalty will accrue after the first week at a rate of $10,000 per week until the violation is corrected.

At issue according to EPA is DOE's failure to "establish necessary infiltration controls to reduce infiltration through the High Level Waste Tank Farm Soil by 80% thereby minimizing continued leaching of radionuclides into the underlying aquifer." DOE's current actions, "do not prevent the mobilization of contaminates from the pipes and valves into the soil and eventually into the underlying aquifer since the soil continues to be exposed to precipitation." It must be noted that these initial fines are always drastically reduced via negotiation behind closed doors (called dispute resolution) and not made publicly available. The final fines are the equivalent to traffic violations that DOE historically just factors into its operational budget as a cost to continue to pollute. This ineffectual "patty cake" regulatory process between sister executive branch agencies has been going on for decades with no fundamental changes that would effectively protect the aquifer.

This is a significant issue given the fact that radioactive and chemical waste continues to migrate from the INEEL site into the underlying Snake River Aquifer as documented by water sample data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) that shows this pollution migration well beyond the INEEL boundary. Leaks and spills from these deadly waste storage areas pose a major hazard for all Idahoans who rely of the aquifer.

The Environmental Defense Institute applauds this EPA regulatory initiative, however it remains fundamentally a band-aid that fails to address the underlying crucial hazards. EPA and the State of Idaho approved a closure plan for two INEEL high-level waste tanks that would allow nearly all of the tank sediments to remain with only some concrete grout to minimally "stabilize" the waste. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), together with most of the NW Native American Tribes, has challenged the INEEL, Hanford, and Savannah, tank closure plans in US Federal Court.

The Environmental Defense Institute (EDI) filed an Friend of the Court Brief in support of the NRDC suit against DOE where EDI documented USGS studies that showed these tanks were within the Big Lost River flood plain and thus vulnerable to long term flooding and migration of contaminates into the aquifer. This information shows categorically that this site does not qualify as a high-level radioactive hazardous waste disposal site.

End Notes
1. Environmental Compliance Inventory of INEEL, Volume I - ECI Results, December 1996, Lockheed Martin, INEEL-96/0389, pg. 2.1-6.

2. Idaho High-Level Waste Environmental Impact Statement, 1999, pg. C.9-11, DOE/EIS-0287D.

3. Under 40 CFR 264.1032(a), and 265.1032 Process Vent Standards that applies to fractionators, and evaporators that states; "Reduce total organic emissions from all affected process vents at the facility below 1.4 kg/hr (3 lb/hr) AND 2.8 Mg/yr (3.1 tons/yr), or, "Reduce by use of a control devise, total organic emissions from all effected process vents ...by 95 weight percent."

Under 40 CFR 63.112 Major Source: "Section 112(a)(1) of the Act defines a major source as: any stationary source or group of stationary sources located within a contiguous area and under common control that emits or has the potential - to - emit considering controls, in the aggregate 10 tons per year (tpy) or more of any [hazardous air pollutant] HAP or 25 tpy or more of any combination of HAP." [ FR 57574 10/26/99 final ruling]