Stemming the tide of newly generated waste

OS’s traditional focus has been on technologies for addressing legacy waste and contaminated soil and groundwater resulting from past environmental practices. But, more recently, OST has been discovering that its technologies also have a role to play in lowering the volume of newly generated waste. In collaboration with DOE’s Office of Pollution Prevention (OPP), OST has initiated 12 projects that exemplify how OST technologies are being applied to pollution prevention (P2)—the elimination or reduction in the generation or release of pollutants, contaminants, hazardous substances, and wastes to the environment.

In early 1999, OPP asked field sites to propose pollution prevention projects with potential to reap high returns on investment (ROI). After observing that many of the proposed projects could be linked to OST-developed technologies, OPP and OST decided to work together to select some projects for deployment. Life-cycle savings for the 12 selected projects are estimated at $105 million.

One of the selected P2 projects, Technology Transfer of Waste-Reducing Groundwater Sampling Systems (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), is a technology transfer initiative with an ROI of 32%. This project involves deploying the Savannah River Site-developed Purge Water Management System (PWMS) at LLNL. The patented PWMS is a closed-loop, noncontact system used to return purge water to the originating aquifer after a sampling event without significantly altering water quality (see Initiatives, Spring 2001).


Another P2 project, TRU Waste Retrieval Mobile Assay System (Hanford Site), boasts an ROI of 170%. This mobile assaying equipment conducts characterization activities in a mobile unit at retrievable storage locations, thus avoiding the need to transport the containers to the Waste Receiving and Processing Facility. This approach will allow those containers that assay as low-level waste to be returned directly to the burial grounds for permanent disposal at minimum expense. Waste handling costs are significantly reduced and hazards associated with processing minimized.

Finding other ways to collaborate
In July 2000, the Ohio Field Office and the Savannah River Site initiated a pilot program to explore the benefits of collaboration between the OST and P2 programs in the field. The sites are finding that such collaborations can facilitate deployment of OST technologies and implementation of projects for reducing waste. Since then, similar collaborative efforts have been started at the Chicago and Oak Ridge Operations Offices.

OPP expert teams conduct assessments, recently with support from OST, to identify cost-effective options for addressing site problems. And field offices have started using the P2 ROI calculation approach to quantify technology benefits in support of future OST demonstration projects. These collaborative efforts, and others that are being discussed, have come about as the OST and P2 programs have come to the understanding that greater use of new technologies for promoting waste reduction can contribute to a broad range of Environmental Management mission activities.

For more information on OST’s collaboration with the P2 program, contact John Lum at (301) 903-1384, john.lum@em.doe.gov, or Stan Wolf at (301) 903-7962, stanley.wolf@em.
doe.gov.