Future management of hazardous wastes generated at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York. Environmental assessment

This document assesses the potential environmental impacts of a variety of alternatives which could provide a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permitted waste packaging and storage facility that would handle all hazardous, radioactive, and mixed wastes generated at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and would operate in full compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Location of the existing Hazardous Waste Management Facility (HWMF) with respect to ground water and the site boundary, technical and capacity limitations, inadequate utilities, and required remediation of the area make the existing facility environmentally unacceptable for long term continued use. This Environmental Assessment (EA) describes the need for action by the Department of Energy (DOE). It evaluates the alternatives for fulfilling that need, including the alternative preferred by DOE, a no-action alternative, and other reasonable alternatives. The EA provides a general description of BNL and the existing environment at the current HWMF and alternative locations considered for a new Waste Management Facility (WMF). Finally, the EA describes the potential environmental impacts of the alternatives considered. The preferred alternative, also identified as Alternative D, would be to construct and operate a new WMF on land formerly occupied by barracks during Camp Upton operations, in an area north of Building 830 and the High Flux Beam Reactor/Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) recharge basins, east of North Railroad Street, and south of East Fifth Avenue. The purpose of this new facility would be to move all storage and transfer activities inside buildings and on paved and curbed areas, consolidate facilities to improve operations management, and provide improved protection of the environment