DOE asked when Test Site will be cleaned up

Thursday, Aug. 21, 1997 | 9:05 a.m.

There are nearly 1,400 spots at the Nevada Test Site that need cleaning up yet it continues to receive waste from around the country.

That is just one barrier to effective environmental management. Another barrier is the secrecy of the Test Site, where national security concerns preclude immediate environmental attention.

The Test Site, managed by the Department of Energy, takes in waste from 15 other areas of the country for burial. Spots that could stand cleaning up include lagoons, ponds, muck piles and disposal wells.

Alvin Alm, the DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management, addressed such environmental issues at a public gathering Wednesday at the Cheyenne campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada.

One obvious hurdle to Test Site cleanup will be budget squeezes by Congress and the size of the site, said Earle Dixon, technical advisor to the NTS Community Advisory Board.

A question that came up Wednesday: If the Test Site must accept more waste from other DOE locations, what will Nevada receive in compensation? That question, for which there is no immediate answer, rankles state officials and Nevada residents, as the DOE considers the Test Site a regional dumping ground.

Currently, the Test Site is an attractive landfill for other areas needing to dispose of their wastes. It charges only $18 a cubic foot, about 100 times less than commercial and other DOE sites.

While he couldn't answer the question about compensation to Nevada, Alm said he has a plan to accelerate removing radioactive and toxic wastes from DOE sites around the country and complete the task by 2006.

An issue raised Wednesday concerned groundwater and the lack of studies to determine if it has been contaminated and how widespread the contamination may be. Alms promised to provide funds for future groundwater studies.

Another concern was the trucking of low-level waste to the Test Site. The current route takes trucks through the congested Spaghetti Bowl -- the intersection of Interstate 15 and U.S. 95. The area is under construction and presents a strong potential for an accident involving a truck loaded with radioactive waste.

Alm said Wednesday that on average 12 truckloads a week of low-level radioactive waste wind their way through the Spaghetti Bowl. But he said that may not continue.

"We're going to pursue other routes," he said.