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The need for a “federally chartered”
citizen’s advisory board at the Piketon Atomic Plant
by Lorry Swain, of the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group (SONG)
Advisory committees have played an important role in shaping programs and policies of the federal government from the earliest days of the republic. Since President George Washington sought the advice of such a committee during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, the contribution made by these groups has been impressive and diverse.
Through enactment of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 1972, the U.S. Congress formally recognized the merits of seeking the advice and assistance of our nation’s citizens. At the same time, the Congress also sought to assure that advisory committees:
provide advice that is relevant, objective, and open to the public,
act promptly to complete their work,
and comply with reasonable cost controls and recordkeeping requirements.
There are about 1,000 of these advisory committees in existence at any one time. With the expertise from advisory committee members, federal officials and the nation have access to information and advice on a broad range of issues affecting federal policy and programs. The public, in return, is given the opportunity to participate actively in the federal government’s decision-making process.
Piketon is the only major site in the country under order for an environmental cleanup without having such a federally chartered citizen advisory board (a FACA CAB) to represent the interests of the surrounding community.
For the past several years, the DOE has ignored demands by local residents for an advisory board that would have input on decisions made at site. The DOE has even reneged on its own meager commitment to meet with the public twice a year in a DOE-controlled 2-hour “public update meeting.” Far from any semblance of democratic process, their semi-annual “public update meetings” at least provided a few minutes for local people to vocalize their concerns over the stalled cleanup and the secrecy surrounding the ongoing activity at the site. Now the DOE has cancelled three of the past four meetings, offering no reason.
Contrast this with the experience of the former Fernald uranium production site near Cincinnati. At Fernald, a FACA CAB, made up of local people, was directly involved in decisions made over the 13 years of that site’s environmental cleanup. Questions about the level of cleanup, where to put the contaminated materials, the target date for completion, and the permissible future use of the site were all matters decided by the Fernald citizen advisory board in recommendations to the DOE.
Those recommendations became the foundation for Fernald’s successful cleanup and its end use. In fact, the Fernald citizen advisory board became a model for establishing ten additional federally chartered citizen advisory boards at DOE sites across the country. Only at Piketon have the people been completely shut out of decision-making in matters that profoundly affect their lives. This could well be an environmental justice issue, with Piketon being such a rural area with a low-income population and serious unemployment.
For the past year, a group composed of area citizens, called the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group (SONG), has been alerting the community that the DOE may be in violation of environmental laws that mandate the creation of a federally chartered citizen advisory board for Piketon. SONG has taken a leading role in demanding:
1)that the site at Piketon be cleaned up in a timely, proper and adequate way;
2)that the storage of high-level nuclear waste be prohibited at the site;
3)and that an authentic FACA federally chartered citizen advisory board be created.
SONG presented DOE with nearly 5,000 signatures from local and regional people laying out these three demands.
After years of silence and disregard to community demands, in August 2007, DOE rushed to put together its own version of an advisory board, a board not federally chartered. This sudden interest in community involvement coincided with the DOE issuing a “Critical Decision-1” order, which states that the three very large and heavily contaminated buildings that have been out of production since 2001, when operations were shut down, are now surplus and that decommissioning and decontamination can begin.
Many people believe the stall in cleanup of these buildings was a way of holding a place for the storage of high-level radioactive waste. There is also the fear that the DOE may be attempting to create a whitewash committee. A fear well founded, since whistleblower information has surfaced about an agreement between DOE and a business consortium named SONIC, to empty the buildings of old equipment and then stuff them full of the nation’s high-level radioactive waste from reactors across the country. The plan involves “interim” storage of irradiated fuel rods that DOE is stuck with, now that the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada is proving to be a no-go.
SONIC also let the cat out of the bag in a document that became public last spring, in which they referred to an earlier proposal they submitted to the DOE for the creation of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Piketon. Through provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, SONG has demanded that the DOE make this proposal public, but so far, the DOE has failed to do so.
Citizen advisory boards are supposed to foster trust. Given the DOE’s abrupt turn-around in the matter of setting up their version of an advisory board at Piketon, it is crucial that the public understand its options regarding federally chartered citizen advisory board.
At Fernald, after a go-ahead for a FACA CAB was given, an advisory board was assembled over several months time. An independent convener, who had no ties to the DOE, interviewed candidates so as to include a broad range of affected people. The search for candidates proceeded by public meetings, mass mailings, and by recommendations from public interest groups and stakeholder organizations. After a few months, the advisory board for Fernald received their charter from FACA, they were now an independent public body, established to provide policy and technical advice to the regulating agencies. The charter gave the board legal teeth to carry out its advice. The charter ensured that the advisory board was given extensive technical training. A critical feature of such charters is the disallowance of people with financial conflicts of interest from serving on the advisory board.
At Piketon, the DOE has stated that it is not necessary to set up a CAB chartered under FACA. Bill Murphie, DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager, has publicly stated that a more “informal” group of people working with him should do just dandy for Piketon; there is no need for all those messy restrictions and legal guidelines. Word has also leaked out that the DOE is giving a lead role in forming Piketon’s “advisory board” to SODI (Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative). SODI is a business partner in SONIC! This gets around restrictions about conflict of interest and transparency.
A genuine FACA chartered CAB at Piketon is the only way to ensure that the people of the Piketon region have any real say-so over clean-up of the contamination, and over what happens next at this publicly-owned site.
Moderators taking testimony from the DOE and citizens at Piketon have written a statement critical of the DOE and vindicating the citizen’s request for a CAB.
What You Can Do:
Contact the DOE:
James Rispoli, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20585
Phone: 202-589-7709
Email: james.rispoli@hq.doe.gov,
Tell Assistant Secretary Rispoli that you want the establishment of an authentic, long overdue FACA chartered Citizens Advisory Board at Piketon. Insist that the DOE make public the proposal submitted to them by SONIC to store high-level radioactive waste at Piketon.
Contact Lorry Swain, phone: 606-932-2383, or email: lorryswain@yahoo.com, and ask how you can help.
Contact SONG at SHIPPSONG@aol.com or visit their website at www.OhioNeighbors.org. (The website is very outdated at this time, but should be updated soon.)
Contact Pat Marida, Chair of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear Issues Committee if you are interested in getting information on the Club’s nuclear work in Ohio or if you are interested in being part of the committee: 614-890-7865, email: marida@wideopenwest.com.
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