The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

Potentially toxic Oak Ridge landfill won’t be built until cleared by operator’s water research

Written by

Image of historic Elza Entrance signage

Potential water runoff issues stall future Oak Ridge landfill construction

OAK RIDGE — A landfill intended to hold potentially toxic debris from the demolition of legacy Oak Ridge research facilities is moving forward but construction won’t start until it is definitively determined whether the site could pollute ground and surface water.

As reported previously by Hellbenderpress, environmentalists fear toxins leaking out of the proposed landfill could contaminate waterways and make their way into fish that people might catch downstream. The landfill’s contractor, however, said leaving buildings full of toxic residue standing may be more dangerous for workers and nearby residents and the landfill will help get the buildings quickly demolished. The contractor is doing a mock-up study this year to see how best to handle water issues on the future landfill site.

This summer, the contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC will choose a subcontractor and do field work. Ben Williams, the Department of Energy’s public affairs specialist, said roads and utilities will need to move to get the site ready at that time. But UCOR stated it won’t build the landfill until after a water study spanning “two wet seasons,” beginning later this year. 

The DOE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) signed a Record of Decision in September 2022, allowing for the landfill to move ahead. Documents on UCOR’s website discuss aspects of the landfill, and officials talked with the public at a recent meeting.

Oak Ridge is home to multiple federal nuclear research facilities. They date back to uranium enrichment for the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. The U.S. Department of Energy now runs several sites in the city. Oak Ridge National Laboratory still hosts research, and the Y-12 National Security Complex still maintains weapons.

Crews are demolishing some older buildings at ORNL and Y-12. UCOR on its website claims Oak Ridge has “more high-risk contaminated facilities” than any other site for the DOE. UCOR argues that the new landfill “allows DOE to address and remove existing hazards at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory — reducing risks to residents and workers in Oak Ridge.”

UCOR, at an earlier meeting and on its website stated that the estimated 1.6-million cubic yards of demolition waste and soils won’t include the most toxic stuff, which DOE plans to ship to other locations.

While doing nothing and leaving the old buildings exposed may pose risks, the landfill plan has faced criticism and comments from environmental groups, individuals and regulators centering around water pollution. They’ve been discussing the risks of waste seeping into groundwater, the water that rocks and soil hold, and what might happen when that groundwater gets into streams for years.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), a nonprofit with headquarters in Charlottesville but an office in Nashville sent a letter in November 2021 to the EPA, warning of “high groundwater concentrations” near the site. It also expressed concerns about what might happen in wet weather as Oak Ridge’s local newspaper, The Oak Ridger as reported. Several residents of the Oak Ridge area also signed the letter.

The letter stated an existing, similar landfill DOE has used for debris has suffered from similar problems, letting out “thousands of gallons of untreated wastewater containing radionuclides and other hazardous pollutants.”

This statement is in keeping with one from EPA Acting Regional Administrator Mary Walker in March of 2019, stating the existing landfill was “currently discharging waste with hazardous substances into Bear Creek.”

The DOE, however, has spoken positively of its track record with the current landfill stating, “For more than 15 years, Oak Ridge employees have safely operated the current facility without negatively impacting human health or the environment.”

Amanda Garcia, director of the SELC’s Tennessee office, explained to The Oak Ridger she worried about bigger fish from the Clinch River eating smaller fish from Bear Creek, which might carry contamination. The SELC’s letter warned about this contamination affecting “fishing practices of nearby low-wealth Latino communities."

Earlier in 2019, TDEC also criticized the plans for the future landfill as they existed at that time, also focusing like the EPA and SELC on water contamination risk.

UCOR’s website describes a study to address these groundwater issues. It will involve building a groundwater field testing facility with ditches and detention areas built like those at a full-sized landfill. It would also have a cover system to stop rainfall from coming in. Williams said the water test stage won’t involve holding any waste.

UCOR on its website promotes the different covers and liners it plans to use for the eventual landfill, meant to keep rainwater out and groundwater away from the debris.

Still, Oak Ridge’s environmentalists such as Virginia Dale, executive board member of Advocates for Oak Ridge Reservation criticized UCOR and DOE’s landfill plans even after attending the recent meeting.

“It is frustrating to have asked the same questions over and over again and not gotten answers to them,” she said regarding questions that she and others asked. She still had concerns about how rainfall will affect the landfill and criticized the lack of specific standards for the waste the landfill would accept. She lamented the decision to invest in getting the site ready for waste rather than looking more at options for shipping it to another location.

“I’m very disappointed that it got approved,” Sandra Goss, executive director of Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning said in an interview. She and Dale are both Oak Ridge residents. “I’m very sorry for the individuals that are going to come after us and deal with the results of that facility being installed there.”

Rate this item
(1 Vote)
Published in News, Water, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
Published in News

Latest from Ben Pounds

Related items

  • Sandra Goss: Fly your flag for land and water
    in News
    By

    Sandra Goss, Executive Director, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness PlanningTennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning Executive Director Sandra Goss is nearing retirement after decades of tending to the environmental issues facing East Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau.At cusp of retirement, Sandra Goss reflects on what she and others have saved

    This is the latest installment of an occasional series, Hellbent, profiling citizens who work to preserve and improve the Southern Appalachian environment.

    OAK RIDGE — I can see the view of Lilly Bluff Overlook at Obed Wild and Scenic River in my mind. The trees are bare save some evergreens. The stream I love to splash around in during warmer times is flowing between the slopes. 

    I can see the cliff face in the distance. It would be a great place to interview Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP) Executive Director Sandra Goss; after all she and her organization helped preserve the area. It’s also near the places she grew up. She cited the experiences as inspiring her conservation ethic.

    Earlier this winter, the Christmas tree in Oak Ridge’s Jackson Square was on its side due to icy gusts and I’ve called off meeting with Goss in person at Panera to avoid torturing her or me with the elements. We could hike, but not stand around.

    I’ve seen her at TCWP Christmas parties in Oak Ridge and on hikes though, so just like Lilly Bluff, I can imagine her silver-white hair, smile and glasses as I speak to her by phone. I hear her accent, more Southern Appalachian than the Yankee-ish Oak Ridge accent I speak, nodding to her origin in Crossville.

    Goss is retiring Aug. 31, and she’s looking back on her work and forward to the break.

  • Oak Ridge environmentalists successfully lobbied to reroute intrusive power lines
    in News
    By

    New Horizon Center power lineThis map shows several of the various options that were proposed over the years for a new power line to the Horizon Center. Options numbered 1 here would have severely impacted the North Boundary Greenway. Options 1 and 2 also would have diminished the ecologic values of the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement. The now authorized option 5 will tap into the existing 161 kilovolt TVA power line at a new substation to be built on the south-east side of Oak Ridge Turnpike (TN-95).  City of Oak Ridge Electric Department

    Conversations, letters, alliances and action prompted electrifying win for East Tennessee citizens

    OAK RIDGE — After a grassroots citizen effort highlighted the fact new electric lines would mar habitat and popular hiking trails, the city plans to put them elsewhere.

    The move came after objections raised by East Tennessee environmental groups, previously reported by Hellbender Press, to protect the land along the North Boundary Greenway, a wide gravel path used by hikers and cyclists. The new route goes down Novus Drive’s median, starting south of State Route 95.

    Contractors aren’t done building the Novus Drive route, but city staff made the new route clear in December when asking for funding. Oak Ridge City manager Mark Watson stated the new lines and substation need to be ready for the proposed TRISO-X nuclear fuel facility by December 2024.

  • Water and waste on TVA agenda as utility plans Bull Run shutdown
    in News
    By

    TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant — then and nowBull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton, Tennessee, was originally commissioned 55 years ago but TVA is now soliciting public input on the best way to shut down operations. Tennessee Valley Authority

    TVA solicits public input following release of environmental assessment for Bull Run Fossil Plant decommission

    CLAXTON — Tennessee Valley Authority plans to close its Bull Run Fossil Plant (BRF) in Anderson County, but it’s still looking for public input on what comes next.

    “As a large, inflexible coal unit with medium operating costs and a high forced outage rate, BRF does not fit current and likely future portfolio needs,” the federal utility said in a draft Environmental Assessment.

    TVA is looking at three different options for the future of the structures still standing on the site by the Clinch River near Oak Ridge: taking down all structures; taking down some of them; or leaving everything standing. A recent report lays out the environmental consequences of each of these actions. The report, in draft form, is against that third choice, listing it as only an option for the sake of comparison.

    “If the facility is left in the “as-is” condition, it likely would present a higher risk than Alternatives A or B for the potential to contaminate soil and groundwater as systems and structures degrade. As such, this alternative is not a reasonable alternative,” the draft states.

    TVA stated its considering removing “all or most of the buildings and structures” on a 250-acre area. After closing the plant, but before any demolitions, TVA will begin by removing components that may be used at other TVA sites, draining of oil and fluids from equipment, taking ash out of the boilers, removing information technology assets, removing plant records and other tasks.

    The Bull Run Environmental Assessment is 170 pages long and available for public review. It doesn’t directly tackle the coal ash storage conundrum that has grabbed the attention of politicians, nearby residents and environmental activists, because that issue involves separate regulations. 

  • Ahead of retiring Bull Run Fossil Plant, TVA faces questions about the site’s toxicity
    in News
    By

    bull run 107 hero0196f525 b2ce 46c9 88ad 0f2337a86726

    CLAXTON — Even though TVA is about to retire Bull Run Fossil Plant, water pollution issues related to it are still up for debate.

    A water discharge permit hearing took place Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation building, 761 Emory Valley Road in Oak Ridge. 

    If you missed the meeting, you can still provide comments by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. through Thursday, Jan. 26. 

    The permit would, if approved, allow releases of “cooling water, process wastewater and storm water runoff” from Bull Run Fossil Plant into the Clinch River and operation of a cooling water intake system. Environmental groups have concerns. 

    Tennessee Valley Authority plans to retire Bull Run Fossil plant by 2023. Over several years and at meetings, both connected to TVA and organized by activist groups, citizens have voiced concerns about water quality issues due to the continued coal ash waste TVA stores on the site. In advance of this meeting, representatives of the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Voices, Statewide Coalition for Community eMpowerment and Center for Biological Diversity all signed a letter asking for TDEC to set standards for water pollution from coal ash based on available technology.

    This story will be updated.

  • Help control invasive exotic plants Saturday at Oak Ridge cedar barrens
    in Action Alert Archive
    By

    Oak Ridge Cedar Barrens fall 2022

     

    OAK RIDGE — The Oak Ridge Cedar Barren will again be the site of exotic invasive plant removal on Saturday, Nov. 5 as we conduct our fall cleanup, our third and final cleanup of the year.  Located next to Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, the Barren is a joint project of the City of Oak Ridge, State Natural Areas Division, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning. The area is one of just a few cedar barrens in East Tennessee, and is subject to invasion by bushy lespedeza, leatherleaf viburnum, privet, autumn olive, mimosa, Nepal grass, multiflora rose, and woody plants that threaten the system’s prairie grasses. Our efforts help to eliminate invasives and other shade-producing plants that prevent the prairie grasses from getting needed sunlight.

    Volunteers should meet in the Jefferson Middle School Parking lot at 9 a.m., with sturdy shoes, loppers, gloves, and water.  The work session will conclude at noon with a pizza lunch. For more information, contact Tim Bigelow at 865-607-6781 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    Hellbender Press reported in detail on last year’s Cedar Barren spring cleanup.

  • For the win: The storied snail darter swims back from the brink
    in News
    By

    Snail DarterThe snail darter, which caused an epic battle around TVA plans to dam the Tellico River in the 1970s, was recently removed from the Endangered Species List. Jeremy Monroe/Tennessee Aquarium

    The little fish that caused a maelstrom over a TVA dam project gets the last laugh

    TELLICO — In a win for endangered species protected by federal law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week the fabled snail darter’s recovery and removal from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife. 

    Native to the Tennessee River watershed in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, the fish has long been an Endangered Species Act icon thanks to conservation efforts to save its habitat starting in the 1970s, when the Tennessee Valley Authority proposed construction of a dam on the Little Tennessee River. The snail darter (Percina tanasi) was central in the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, which solidified the scope of the then recently passed ESA. 

  • Wither wisteria: ‘People care about our land’
    in News
    By

    IMG 4106Anne Child removes invasive exotic plants during a recent Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning event to mark National Public Lands Day at TVA’s Worthington Cemetery in Oak Ridge. Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press

    Citizens pay it back on Public Lands Day in Oak Ridge, Smokies and beyond

    OAK RIDGE — Rain drizzled as volunteers dug and clipped plants in woods around an old cemetery turned science lab.

    It was a Public Lands Day event at Tennessee Valley Authority Worthington Cemetery Ecological Study area in Oak Ridge near Melton Hill Lake. Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, an environmental organization based in Oak Ridge, led the Sept. 24 work party in support of American public lands.

    Other events were held throughout the country to mark the date (including Great Smoky Mountains National Park), which has proven itself to be the most productive day of the year for citizen sweat equity in public lands.

  • Celebrate the wild ties that bind Americans on Public Lands Day 2022 — Saturday, Sept. 24
    in Earth
    By

    fontana

    GATLINBURG — The director of the National Park Service is expected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Saturday to celebrate National Public Lands Day.

    Director Chuck Sams plans to make some remarks in appreciation for the volunteers who help backstop national park maintenance costs before citizens fan out for various tasks across the park. Sams is the first Native American to head the park service, and he will be joined by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Chief Richard G. Sneed.

  • Enviros to TVA: Retire the fossil-fuel pacifier
    in News
    By

    Cumberland FPTVA’s Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville is the subject of a suit filed by environmental groups, including Appalachian Voices and Southern Environmental Law Center.  Tennessee Valley Authority

    SELC, others file suit in hopes of dissuading TVA from future fossil options

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    CLARKSVILLE — On behalf of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, the Southern Environmental Law Center asked TVA to prepare a supplemental environmental statement to address concerns with TVA’s draft environmental impact statement, which details the agency’s plans to retire the Cumberland Fossil Plant.

    The Cumberland Fossil Plant, about 22 miles southwest of Clarksville, is TVA’s largest coal-fired power station and was built between 1968 and 1973. TVA plans to retire each unit of the two-unit, coal-fired steam-generation plant separately: one unit no later than 2030, and the second unit no later than 2033. But the plant will need to be replaced, and TVA is currently considering three alternatives to fossil fuel, including natural gas and solar energy, according to its draft EIS.

    (Tennessee Valley Authority already plans to close down the Knoxville-area Bull Run fossil plant in Claxton next year).

  • U.S. Supreme Court’s recent clean-air ruling renews spotlight on fossil-energy producers like TVA
    in News
    By

    TVA 4 Cumberland FP

    Supreme Court air-pollution ruling calls into stark context all that must be done

    This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

    KNOXVILLE — The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions that cause climate change has renewed the spotlight on the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility and Tennessee’s primary source of electricity.

    The case involved EPA efforts to implement a key provision of the Clean Air Act in a challenge brought by 15 Republican-led states. That provision, which never went into effect, would have required existing power plants to shift from dirty sources of energy — such as coal — to cleaner sources, including solar and wind, as part of an urgent effort to reduce global warming.

More in this category: « Orange STEM: UT links East Tennessee students with Science, Technical, Engineering and Math studies Migrating sandhill cranes descend on Southeast »
back to top