Open AccessUMTRA Ground Water Project management action process document
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/211337
Subject(s) - remedial action , clean air act , engineering , waste management , clean water act , groundwater , tailings , environmental science , water quality , environmental remediation , air pollution , contamination , ecology , chemistry , materials science , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , metallurgy , biology
A critical U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) mission is to plan, implement, and complete DOE Environmental Restoration (ER) programs at facilities that were operated by or in support of the former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). These facilities include the 24 inactive processing sites the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) (42 USC Section 7901 et seq.) identified as Title I sites, which had operated from the late 1940s through the 1970s. In UMTRCA, Congress acknowledged the potentially harmful health effects associated with uranium mill tailings and directed the DOE to stabilize, dispose of, and control the tailings in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The UMTRA Surface Project deals with buildings, tailings, and contaminated soils at the processing sites and any associated vicinity properties (VP). Surface remediation at the processing sites will be completed in 1997 when the Naturita, Colorado, site is scheduled to be finished. The UMTRA Ground Water Project was authorized in an amendment to the UMTRCA (42 USC Section 7922(a)), when Congress directed DOE to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground water standards. The UMTRA Ground Water Project addresses any contamination derived from the milling operation that is determined to be present at levels above the EPA standards