Archaeologists learn a great deal about past civilizations by studying their trash. In the case of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the site's major landfill, known as the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA), holds keys to understanding the dynamics that shape the site.
The SDA is about 97 acres in size and contains about 36 acres of waste disposal and 61 acres of open space. Chemical and radioactive wastes have been disposed here since 1952. It is location about 600 feet above Idaho's largest aquifer the Snake River Aquifer.
The history of SDA is a case study in how public policy balances risks and benefits and how this balance can shift with time. In 1952, when waste disposal at the SDA began, long-term environmental consequences of industrial waste dumping were not considered. Most Idahoans recognize the 1960s photos of trucks dumping barrels of radioactive and chemical waste in the eastern Idaho desert. This practice was comparable to other nationwide industrial waste disposal practices at the time. With the enactment of federal environmental legislation such as NEPA, RCRA and CERCLA these former disposal practices have changed to improve protection of human health and the environment.
Our challenge now is deciding how to make the SDA safe for site workers, the public, and the environment - both now and for the long term. How should we deal with contamination, primarily caused by disposal practices of the 1950s and 1960s?
Two legal documents come together to provide the framework to help answer that question and meet the State's goals for cleanup of the SDA. One is a 1995 court settlement agreement between the State, DOE and the Navy requiring removal of certain radioactive wastes from Idaho. The other is the 1991 Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order between DOE, EPA and the State, laying out a process for how to evaluate and clean up contaminated areas on the INL. |
