The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) have confirmed that half of the federal acreage on the 33,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation had not been impacted by historic operations and does not require environmental clean-up. This designation relating to more than 16,000 acres, simplifies future land transfers and supports beneficial reuse on those parcels.
“Ensuring communities around our cleanup sites are safe, clean and prosperous is at the core of our mission,” said OREM Manager Erik Olds. “This clarification is noteworthy because it helps Oak Ridge to continue growing and thriving in the years ahead by providing a more accurate view of the area and simplifying the land transfer process.”
OREM has already transferred more than 1,800 acres to the community for economic development. This has attracted more than 25 businesses that have announced $8bn in capital investments with more developments expected in the coming years.
While DOE will not transfer all this acreage under the recent designation, the clarification presents a clearer understanding of the landscape and supports the transfers that do occur. It also allows for a wider variety of uses and developments on the land.
EPA had placed the entire Oak Ridge Reservation on the Superfund programme’s National Priorities List in 1989 to expedite cleanup, explained OREM Regulatory Specialist Roger Petrie. “That approach allowed cleanup to begin sooner by avoiding the cost and time otherwise spent to characterise all of the land at that time,” he said.
The US Superfund program is a federal government initiative administered by EPA to clean up the most hazardous waste sites. It was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. EPA identifies potentially hazardous sites and evaluates them using a Hazard Ranking System. Sites that score above a certain threshold are placed on the National Priorities List (NPL).
Once a site is on the NPL, the EPA conducts investigations, establishes, and implements a cleanup plan. These can involve short-term “removal actions” to address immediate threats or long-term “remedial actions” to permanently reduce risks. As of June 2024, there were approximately 1,340 sites on the NPL, while another 457 sites had been cleaned up and removed.
At Oak Ridge, OREM and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation subsequently conducted investigative efforts and environmental surveys to provide a clearer picture of the areas not impacted by DOE’s previous operations.
“All the property won’t be transferred because there are portions of this property that DOE will retain for security purposes and for other reasons,” said Petrie. “We’ve been very successful to this point transferring about 1,800 acres. Now, having 16,000 acres that are opened up, it is even a more attractive place for people to come.”
This is the latest in a line of recent success from OREM and EPA’s partnership in Oak Ridge. With EPA support, OREM is setting the pace for environmental cleanup across all the 175 federal facilities in the Superfund program. Since 2020, OREM has accounted for 16% of all completed cleanup tasks across those sites.
Earlier this year, EPA confirmed all soil cleanup is complete at a portion of the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), a 1,400-acre area known as Zone 1, enabling the reuse of land for economic development. It marked the fourth record of decision advancing cleanup signed in the past three years.
ETTP is formerly known as the K-25 Site or Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant that operated from the mid-1940s until 1985. The plant was originally used to enrich uranium as part of the Manhattan Project, but it continued operations after World War II to produce enriched uranium for defence missions and commercial power.
Decades of cleanup by OREM and its contractors have transformed the former uranium enrichment complex into a multiuse industrial centre, historical park and conservation area that benefit the community. ETTP was the recipient of EPA’s 2024 National Federal Facility Excellence in Reuse Award.
