DOE's Piketon plans largely championed by public
WAVERLY –
Comments at a public meeting Monday suggested overwhelming support for the Department of Energy's plans to demolish more than 200 buildings at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and build an on-site disposal facility to house some of the waste.
Technically, there are two separate issues on the table. One has to do with whether the buildings are torn down; the other concerns are what should happen to the demolition debris and other waste if the structures are, in fact, razed.
DOE officials are recommending the demolition of the more than 200 buildings still standing on the former Cold War-era uranium enrichment campus in Piketon, as well as a waste disposal plan that calls for keeping a majority of the nearly 1.5 million cubic yards of debris on-site in a specially engineered disposal facility and transporting the rest of it off-site.
Those are not the only options, however.
The agency also studied, but is not recommending, the option of leaving the buildings alone. When it comes to the disposal, other options include doing nothing with the waste or transporting all of it off-site.
The public comment period began this past week and extends through Jan. 10.
The department, along with cleanup contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, hosted the 3½-hour meeting Monday at Waverly High School to collect public comments from people who wished to state their support or opposition to the proposal in person and on the record.
Some comments were brief, such as the ones pledging "full and total" support for the cleanup as recommended by the DOE. Others exceeded the time limit and had to be cut short.
Among those voicing support for the DOE's preferred plans were Pike County Commissioner Blaine Beekman and multiple members of the Site Specific Advisory Board, a panel of local stakeholders that offers advice and recommendations to the DOE on matters such as environmental remediation and waste management.
"Our first reaction was negative, but after much discussion with DOE, members of our community and our fellow commissioners in Jackson, Ross and Scioto counties, we reached a consensus," Beekman said. "We could accept the low-level waste cell at Piketon if, in return, DOE would commit to a cleanup of the existing (contaminated) plumes and landfills on site."
Herman Potter, president of the United Steelworkers union's Local 689 chapter, said the consolidation of the plumes and landfills are essential to re-industrializing the site for future use. He urged the DOE to maintain the site's unique infrastructure because it "keeps workers on the site and can be a carrot for industries wanting to come in."
Potter and several others said the DOE's written commitment to cleaning up the site must include stronger language that ensures the work will be done.
"The language used in the plan is not all mandatory; it's permissive and allows DOE to back out of some things," said Kevin Shoemaker, an attorney for the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative.
Before the crowd of about 100 people, the plans also encountered opposition from the likes of environmentalist and historic preservationist Geoffrey Sea and Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security President Vina Colley.
"We want jobs and we want the cleanup to go forward, but if we build the (on-site disposal facility), there's no guarantee we're not going to become a national dump site," Colley said.
The DOE plan stipulates the facility would not accept outside waste, but Colley remains unconvinced that will remain the case.
Sea criticized the comment process, calling for it to be extended to 120 days to allow for adequate discussion about what he said are two separate issues. He supports tearing down all of the buildings except one — the control room, which he said has historical significance and likely no contamination.
He also called for more meetings to be scheduled.
Sea said the entire process has been "rigged to ramrod the on-site disposal facility through."