[CPEO-MEF] "The Politics of Cleanup" - a new report from Energy Communities Alliance

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ECA Offers Recommendations to Accelerate Complex Federal Environmental 
Cleanups
"The Politics of Cleanup" Identifies Lessons Learned that Can Apply to 
All Federal Facility Sites
February 13, 2007

Interaction among federal, state, tribal and local parties plays a 
critical role in accelerating environmental cleanup at federal facility 
sites (Department of Energy, Department of Defense and other sites). 
Foremost, members of the communities affected by federal cleanup actions 
must effectively work with federal and state regulators and cleanup 
contractors if they hope to meet the public goal of cleaning up sites in 
a way that will permit the sites to become community assets. This is one 
of the main observations made in "The Politics of Cleanup," a new 
research report published today by Energy Communities Alliance (ECA).

"The Politics of Cleanup" recognizes that the environmental cleanup 
process at a federal facility site is not simply a technical activity, 
but also a political process. The report found that within a legally 
compliant cleanup process, there is a range of permissible future uses. 
There also are many different cleanup actions that the parties can 
employ in order to support the agreed-upon future uses. The process for 
identifying and resolving such issues - and the decisions themselves - 
constitute "the politics of cleanup."

ECA Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg explained: "We created the 
report to identify how all parties - federal agencies, Congress, state 
and federal regulators, local governments, tribal governments, and 
citizens - can save time and minimize frustrations throughout the 
cleanup process by understanding the process and what is required of 
each party to accelerate the environmental cleanup."

The report identifies 15 key recommendations divided into four 
categories: (1) Developing goals and identifying the future use of the 
site; (2) Accomplishing cleanup by focusing on and refining goals 
throughout the cleanup process; (3) Engaging the community through 
consultation, coordination and ongoing dialogue; and (4) Resolving 
conflict to achieve goals.  In the report, ECA examined cleanup projects 
at three U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) locations: the Rocky Flats 
Environmental Technology Site in Colorado, the Mound Site in Ohio and 
the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.  However, the book applies to 
the cleanup of Department of Defense and federal facility sites as well.

Advance praise for "The Politics of Cleanup" has come from Capitol Hill 
and the Department of Energy.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Chairman of the Senate Energy & 
Natural Resources Committee, stated: "'The Politics of Cleanup' helps 
simplify the complicated process of federal environmental cleanups, and 
shows how valuable strong community involvement can be."

U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a member of the House Armed Services 
Committee whose congressional district includes the Rocky Flats 
Environmental Technology Site, said: "Cleaning up the Rocky Flats site 
in a timely and cost-effective way was more than just a technically 
complex task. It needed active involvement and strong support from both 
Congress and state, federal, and local agencies and officials, as well 
as the residents of nearby communities, in addition to the dedicated 
efforts of the contractor and the people who did the work. I was proud 
to be part of the effort and am glad to see that 'The Politics of 
Cleanup' identifies the key challenges we faced. I think this report 
provides valuable information about the lessons learned at Rocky Flats 
as well as useful recommendations to help address similar challenges in 
connection with environmental cleanups at other sites."

James Rispoli, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental 
Management (EM), said: "With the publication of this report, Energy 
Communities Alliance has made an important contribution to EM's mission 
of cleaning up the nation's former nuclear weapons complex. 'The 
Politics of Cleanup' carefully and thoughtfully examines an often 
overlooked part of the cleanup effort, namely the importance of local 
communities, states, tribal nations and DOE working together to resolve 
difficult issues."

The report can be downloaded from the ECA Web site, http://www.energyca.org.

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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