‘Novel’ deal puts $42M into Tennessee accounts for Manhattan Project cleanup projects

After 15 years of negotiations between the state of Tennessee and the U.S. Department of Energy over the price tag of environmental damages stemming from the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, the two have signed a $42 million agreement to pay for restoration projects.

The money, set to be deposited by the Department of Energy into a Tennessee state account over the next several years, will be given to nonprofits and public entities to fund projects like building public trails and planting native species.

“The city is putting together a list of projects and will be applying for funding,” Oak Ridge City Manager Randy Hemann said. “We have no shortage of projects.”

The projects, which could receive millions of dollars each, must fall into one of five categories: habitat creation, habitat restoration or enhancement, habitat preservation, groundwater or recreation. Eligible projects cover Anderson and Roane counties, as well as parts of Loudon and Knox counties.

The agreement is part of a process to restore Oak Ridge and surrounding waterways to the state there were in before the Department of Energy released contaminants, including radioactive waste, while enriching uranium for the first atomic bomb. The $42 million helps the federal government settle its liabilities.

Energy Department redirects Tennessee funds

The Oak Ridge Reservation, a federally owned tract of 32,260 acres that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, was designated a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1989.

Trustees to negotiate the damages owed to the state are:

• Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• U.S. Department of Energy
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior

Representatives of the trustees sit on a council that will select projects.

The council put together a novel plan to settle the disagreement between the state and the DOE shortly after Gov. Bill Lee took office.

What makes the plan unique is the source of the $42 million, said Jay Mullis, manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Half of the money has already been given from the DOE to Tennessee through an agreement dating back to the 1990s. The DOE agreed to give the state $1 million each year in a perpetual care fund for the landfill it uses in Oak Ridge today. Typically, the state would use the fund to care for the landfill after it closes, Mullis said.

But the state will not bear the responsibility to care for the DOE’s landfill, set to be replaced in 2029, so the money has accrued with no clear purpose.

Now, it will be repurposed for restoration projects after the DOE agreed to match the funds.

“I had to put a decent amount of pressure on the DOE feds at headquarters to move this along, because it was so novel,” Mullis told Knox News. “Bureaucracies hate anything that’s novel. But if we’re going to get anything novel done, Oak Ridge is the place to do it.”

How Oak Ridge compares to other Manhattan Project sites

Between the 1940s and 1970s, the DOE buried around 6 million cubic feet of radioactive and other waste in shallow burial sites. It also discharged waste directly into the East Fork Poplar Creek. Since 1986, when remedial activities began, it has removed contaminated soil into landfills and cleaned up waterways.

Cleanup leaders in Oak Ridge, who direct part of the largest environmental cleanup project in the world, often tout their work as the most efficient, innovative and cost-effective of all Manhattan Project sites.

Other sites, particularly the quagmire of radioactive waste in Hanover, Washington, have spent tens of millions of dollars just assessing environmental damages.

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor UCOR tore down all buildings at the K-25 site, once home to the world’s largest building, and will finish cleaning its soil of radioactive material this year.

They also have found unique ways to reuse radioactive material, like giving a Cold War-era generator to a company that will reuse it to create power in the deep sea and space.

Mullis and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner David Salyers held a signing ceremony in Oak Ridge for the new agreement July 11.

“This funding will protect the natural resources in the area as well as go toward outdoor recreational opportunities for Tennesseans, creating a more balanced and healthy environment for all,” Salyers said in a press release.

DOE to host public meetings on the application process

The first phase of the restoration process focused on the Watts Bar Reservoir. To compensate for damage to the waterway, the DOE established the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement in 2009, a 3,000-acre natural habitat and recreational area managed in partnership with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

The second phase, focused on other Oak Ridge land and the Clinch River, will be restored through community projects funded by the agreement. The projects are separate from the DOE’s risk-based cleanup, such as demolition of Manhattan Project-era nuclear reactors.

Nonprofits and public entities that want to apply for funding can find more information about the grant application process in a draft procedure document.

The state will receive public comments at ORRrestoration@tn.gov until Aug. 12.

The trustee council will post the final document online later this summer and will host public meetings in the community to help organizations understand the application process.

Oak Ridger news editor Donna Smith contributed to this reporting.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.