An advisory committee consisting of four governors and representatives from four federal agencies recommended that new federal technologies be demonstrated at federal facilities in several western states. These sites will serve as regional innovative technology demonstration sites.
The Federal Advisory Committee to Develop On-Site Innovative Technologies (DOIT) selected projects that will demonstrate new approaches to streamlining regulatory review, improving commercialization of technologies, and involving local citizens. New approaches shown at these demonstration projects will be evaluated over the next year, and lessons learned will be used to guide changes to state and federal policies on using innovative remediation technologies for cleaning up federal sites.
The DOIT Committee is composed of representatives from western states; the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Western Governors' Association and the Office of Management and Budget are ex officio members. Members of the committee include the Secretaries Les Aspin (DoD), Hazel O'Leary (DOE), and Bruce Babbitt (DOI); EPA Administrator Carol Browner; and Governors Bob Miller of Nevada, Cecil Andrus of Idaho, Pete Wilson of California, and Michael Leavitt of Utah.
Four working groups of the DOIT Committee for military bases, mine waste, mixed waste, and munitions identified the candidate projects, which are listed below. The working groups include representatives of federal and state agencies, Indian tribes, environmental groups, industry, and academia. Now that the committee has recommended technologies and demonstration sites, the four working groups will meet with local site managers and stakeholder groups to discuss the design and testing of new regulatory approaches and ways to speed commercialization. Once details are worked out, they will be tested at the demonstration sites. The working groups will also begin identifying projects to test new approaches to procurement/contracting reform, land use planning, site/problem prioritization, and risk assessment.
The DOIT Committee was created in 1992 to bring the senior executives of state and federal agencies together to address the barriers to developing and using innovative cleanup technologies. Technologies adopted by the committee have the potential to reduce the cost of cleaning up the nation's nuclear weapons complex, and ultimately, for creating jobs at home and exporting cleanup technologies abroad. Candidate technology projects considered by the DOIT Committee are listed below.
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Rocky Flats Plant, Denver, Colorado
Site to be Determined
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico
McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, California
Williams Air Force Base, Mesa, Arizona
Hill Air Force Base, Utah
Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas
Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center, California
Black Hills Ordnance Depot, South Dakota
Jefferson Proving Ground, Indiana
Fort Ord, California
Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona
