For decades, radioactive, hazardous, mixed, and solid wastes have been accumulating and contaminating the environment. Some of the waste directly affects the public in the communities where it has accumulated. These interested and affected parties, or stakeholders, have a direct concern in how and when the waste in their area is cleaned up. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Energy has formed several groups that involve the public in the decision-making process more than ever before. The Community Leaders Network, the Federal Advisory Committee to Develop On-Site Innovative Technologies, Site Specific Advisory Boards, and Site Technology Coordination Groups are intended to reach the public and get them involved with cleanup of waste sites and the deployment of new remediation technologies.
Community Leaders Network
Community Leaders Network, or CLN, was formed in 1993 by the Urban Energy and Transportation Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Program's Office of Science and Technology. (related article) CLN is affiliated with DOE sites across the complex.
CLN's purpose is to help DOE understand whether or not proposed technologies are acceptable to public and tribal concerns on a local and national level. The network also provides input on technology development issues within the DOE focus areas and crosscutting programs. CLN gives individual community leaders a forum for meeting with DOE representatives to:
CLN is an informal, loosely structured organization, made up of people with an interest in environmental technology issues. Members include representatives of local and tribal governments, environmental organizations, labor, industry, academia, and citizens in the communities around DOE sites.
Because CLN is not an advisory committee governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, it does not reach or necessarily strive for consensus on technology development issues. Rather, it is an informal network of concerned citizens that volunteer their time and provide unique and frequently diverse perspectives on the role of technology development in advanced cleanup efforts within the DOE complex. More information on the Community Leaders Network can be found on the World Wide Web at http://cln.osu.edu:86/.
Federal Advisory Committee to Develop On-Site Innovative Technologies
The Federal Advisory Committee to Develop On-Site Innovative Technologies, otherwise known as the DOIT Committee, was chartered in December 1992 and will conclude its activities in June of this year. The goal of DOIT has been to clean up western state federal waste sites in general, and to help develop, deploy, and commercialize new remediation technologies in particular.
The DOIT committee is composed of representatives from the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, and Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Western Governors' Association.
At the outset, four working groups were established and organized around areas of concern to the federal and state partners--abandoned mine waste, mixed radioactive/hazardous waste, military munitions, and hazardous waste generic technologies. As part of DOIT's mission to gain regional and local public acceptance of new technologies, it has invited people in tribal and local governments, environmental and public interest groups, business, industry, academia, and the general public to participate in technology demonstrations at several different federal sites.
DOIT has demonstrated new technologies at the Rocky Flats Plant, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center, McClellan Air Force Base, Hill Air Force Base, Yuma Proving Grounds, Black Hills Army Depot, and a mine site in Nevada. At these sites, community stakeholders were part of site implementation teams. Their input was solicited during all phases of demonstrations to assist in getting sites cleaned up effectively.
The DOIT program provided sites with an opportunity to involve stakeholders early in the technology development process. This was done to identify ways to clean up the site earlier and cheaper, to work with other sites that could potentially benefit from technologies being developed, and to assure early, ongoing input from the public. These efforts could ultimately streamline the permitting of technologies and eventual cleanup of the site.
Information on the Committee to Develop On-Site Innovative Technologies can be found at http://www.em.doe.gov/rainmxws/mxws5.html.
Site Specific Advisory Boards
Site Specific Advisory Boards, or SSABs, were created in 1994 by DOE to provide communication between site personnel and citizens of surrounding communities. Nearly 300 citizens across the nation participate in SSABs. SSABs meet locally on a site-specific basis at DOE installations, including Hanford, Rocky Flats, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
Each local SSAB has a representative on the federally chartered EM Site Specific Advisory Board, which serves as an umbrella for each local EM board throughout the DOE complex. As a national board, the EM SSAB makes recommendations to the assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management and to the director of EM's Office of Public Accountability. Anyone interested in a site's activities, including people in environmental and community groups, local governments, Indian tribes, labor organizations, universities, and waste management or environmental companies, are eligible for membership in an SSAB.
SSABs facilitate dialogue between the community and site operators and help develop citizen expertise related to environmental cleanup. Through SSABs, citizen members can learn more about the complex issues that face them and provide informed input to the decision process. Once members reach a consensus, an SSAB provides recommendations and relevant advice to DOE.
Site Specific Advisory Boards have a homepage also. The address is http://www.em.doe.gov/stake/site.html.
Site Technology Coordination Groups
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management established Site Technology Coordination Groups in 1994 to improve customer involvement. STCGs exist at DOE sites and field offices in Albuquerque, Chicago, Hanford, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, http://www.nv.doe.gov>Nevada, Oakland, Oak Ridge, Ohio (including Fernald and the Ohio Field Office), Rocky Flats, and Savannah River. STCGs work to define and set priorities for site needs, understand technology alternatives, and implement technical solutions developed by DOE. Sites develop needs statements and provide them to the focus areas. They also work with the focus areas to plan demonstrations and implement technologies.
Depending on the site, STCGs can include technology developers, technology customers, stakeholders, and regulators. Most STCGs are made up of DOE contractors and DOE personnel, with DOE public affairs personnel participating to provide the perspectives of the Site Specific Advisory Boards and the public. Of all the STCGs, Hanford has the most diverse membership, consisting of Hanford Advisory Board members, community members, tribal representatives, industry representatives, regulators, and DOE personnel. At Hanford, all STCG members, including those external to DOE, have voting rights.
The Hanford STCG has experienced some success using a two-tiered approach. The first tier is a management council organized to develop technology priorities for the Hanford Site. Chaired by the DOE-Richland deputy manager, the council has 15 voting members and five ex-officio members. The second tier involves a series of sub-groups, including four standing groups organized around DOE's focus areas: tanks, plumes and landfills (combined because of similar challenges), mixed waste, and decontamination and decommissioning. Each subgroup consists of DOE-Richland technology customers, regulators, stakeholders, and others.
Sites are experimenting with communication tools and are trying different approaches. For example, Albuquerque has developed a newsletter and uses telephone conferences to involve its field sites. Hanford has an Internet site with information about its STCG at http://www.wa.gov/cted/etp/2_stcg.html. Oak Ridge invites visitors from academia, other states, and regulators to its meetings and has an Internet site at http://www.em.doe.gov/techneed/index.html. The site contains a technology needs database that the STCG uses to make the public aware of its needs. In addition, DOE is establishing an STCG homepage that will be available through the EM homepage at http://em.doe.gov. The site should be available within a month.
