[CPEO-MEF] REGULATION: EPA issues Livermor Labs (CA) order

[Lenny Siegel]

U.S. EPA Region 9
Press Release
January 7, 2009

U.S. EPA says cleanup must resume at nuclear weapons research site

Northern California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory must 
immediately address Superfund site contamination

(San Francisco, Calif. -- 01/07/08) The U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency has notified the Department of Energy that they must immediately 
resume cleanup activities at its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
in Livermore, Calif., or face escalating penalties.

A federal facilities agreement was signed between EPA, DOE and 
California state agencies in June 1988. The agreement outlines DOE's 
responsibilities and milestones for addressing site contamination.

DOE has failed to operate numerous groundwater and soil vapor treatment 
facilities and associated wells -- an integral part of cleanup 
activities at the site. While pump-and-treat systems have been shutdown, 
site contamination has spread laterally and vertically, resulting in a 
larger volume of contaminated groundwater and increasing timeframes for 
completing the overall cleanup.

"The shutdown of the treatment systems puts the community and the 
environment at risk," said Michael Montgomery, assistant director for 
the EPA's Superfund Division in the Pacific Southwest region. "The 
taxpayers have already paid for the construction of the treatment 
systems -- it's DOE's responsibility to operate them"

Indicators show that the recent failure of a large treatment unit on the 
perimeter of the site has resulted in a loss of contaminated groundwater 
plume control off-site, where it may spread beneath adjacent local 
neighborhoods.

The EPA is seeking $105,000 in penalties for the period from July to 
September 2008 for DOE's failure to resume cleanup.

Additionally, the EPA is continuing to assess penalties of $10,000 per 
week from Oct. 1 until DOE resumes the cleanup. Because the violations 
of the federal facilities agreement are ongoing, the penalty amount will 
continue to increase until DOE fully restarts the shuttered treatment 
facilities and associated wells at the site.

Although DOE began shutting down and ceasing to repair treatment 
facilities in February 2008, the EPA is not assessing penalties for that 
time period in recognition of the challenges presented by a funding 
shortfall.

Recent Site History:

· In 2007, the EPA certified that DOE had built the necessary 
groundwater and soil vapor treatment systems needed to clean up the 
site. The intention was for DOE to operate the systems until the cleanup 
standards selected by DOE and the EPA were met. It was estimated that 
this would take several decades.

· In early 2008, DOE informed the EPA that Congress had reduced funding 
for the cleanup and that DOE would need to start shutting down the 
treatment systems. The EPA advised DOE to seek reprogramming of funds 
from Congress. By the time this was accomplished, 28 treatment systems 
had been shut down and 60 percent of the technical support staff had 
been laid off.

* Despite receiving full funding in July 2008, DOE has still not 
restored operation of most of the systems.

Site Background Information:

* The one square-mile Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory site is an 
active multi-program research laboratory operated by the University of 
California for the U.S. Department of Energy. A number of research and 
support operations at LLNL handle, generate, or manage hazardous 
materials that include radioactive wastes. Hazardous waste treatment 
activities are carried out on site. The site first was used as a Naval 
Air Station in the 1940s. In 1951, it was transferred to the U.S. Atomic 
Energy Commission and was established as a nuclear weapons and magnetic 
fusion energy research facility. In 1984, the California Department of 
Health Services issued an order for compliance to LLNL to provide 
alternative water supplies to residents west of the facility, whose 
wells had been contaminated by hazardous substances from LLNL.

* LLNL is a Superfund site, listed on the National Priorities List as 
one of the most contaminated sites in the country. The EPA and DOE first 
signed an agreement to cleanup LLNL in 1988. Groundwater and soil under 
the site and in neighboring areas are contaminated with volatile organic 
compounds and other hazardous chemicals.

To view a copy of the letter U.S. EPA sent to DOE regarding this matter 
please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region09/superfund/index.html

For additional information about Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
Superfund site please visit: 
http://www.epa.gov/region09/lawrencelivermoremain




For the original press release, go to
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/05e93563668b2e2985257537006ea644!OpenDocument

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org