1 - paducah environmental information center

Annual Site Environmental Report for 1999
Closure activities for USTs continued in
1999 in order to achieve permanent ("clean")
closure. Activities included submittal to KDWM
of various Closure Assessment Reports and
Classification Guides. Soils at two UST sites
were resampled: in accordance with an approved
Alternative Sampling Plan. In 1999,
correspondence was received from . KDWM
related to seveniJ.' of DOE's USTs and permanent
closure was acknowledged for four of the USTs.
Closure activities for USTs continued into 2000.
UST Program NOVs
No UST NOYs were received in 1999.
National Environmental Policy Act
: The National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) provides a means to evaluate the
potential environmental impact of proposed
federal activities and to examine alternatives to
those actions. Compliance with NEPA, as
administered by DOE's NEPA Implementing
Procedures (10 CPR 1021). and Council on
Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CPR
1500-1508), ensures that consideration is given
to environmental values and factors in federal
planning and decision making. In accordance
with 10 CPR 1021, the Paducah Site conducts
NEPA reviews for proposed. actions and
determines if any proposal requires preparation
of an environmental impact statement (EIS),
requires preparation of an environmental
assessment (EA), or is categorically excluded
(CX) from preparation of either an EIS or an EA.
.The Paducah Site maintains records for all NEPA
reviews.
CERCLA are discussed in the environmental
restoration sections of this report.
In 1999, the DOE Oak Ridge Operations
Office determined that five actions at the
Paducah Site met the criteria for CX from further
NEPA review. Four other activities were
determined to be within the scope of previously
appro~ed CXs. In addition, numerous minor
activities were within the scope of the previously
approved categorical exclusions for routine
maintenance, small-scale facility modifications,
and site characterization~ The Paducah DOE Site
Office and the DOE Oak Ridge Operations
Office NEPA Compliance Officer approve and
monitor the: internal applications of previously
approved CX' determinations.
DOE continued preparation of an EA for
the treatment of mixed wastes at the Paducah Site
using the Yortec vitrification system. A draft of
the EA was issued for a second public review iii
1999. .
In 1999, DOE also completed the
Programmatic EIS for management of depleted
uranium hexafluoride (DUF ). 6
The Record of
Decision (ROD) documents the decision to
convert the DUF 6
to uranium oxide and uranium
metal.
NEPA NOVs
No NOYs were received in 1999.
National Historic Preservation Act
In accordance with the 1994 DOE
Secretarial Policy Statement on NEPA,
preparation of separate NEPA documents for
environmental restoration activities conducted
under CERCLA is no longer required. Instead,
DOE CERCLA documents now incorporate
NEPA values. Actions conducted under
The National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA) of 1966 is the primary law governing
federal agencies' responsibility for identifying
and protecting historic properties (cultural
resources included in, or eligible for inclusion in,
the National Register of Historic Places). There
are currently no historic properties at the
Paducah Site in the National Register of Historic
Environmental Compliance
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