ARMY CORPS TAKES ON "FUSRAP"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ARMY CORPS TO CLEAN UP REMAINING FUSRAP (ATOMIC) SITES

In the fiscal year 1998 Energy and Water Appropriations Act Congress
appropriated $140,000,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers to take over,
from the Department of Energy, the Formerly Used Sites Remedial Action
Program (FUSRAP). In their report on the legislation, House-Senate
Conferees declared, "The Corps currently manages and executes a similar
program, the Formerly Used Defense Sites program, for the Department of
Defense, and the conferees believe there are significant cost and
schedule efficiencies to be gained by having the Corps manage FUSRAP as
well."

FUSRAP facilities are properties that have not been active since the
days of the Atomic Energy Commission, one of the predecessors to the
Energy Department, and even back further to the World War II Manhattan
Project. Most are privately owned. A few remain in Energy's inventory.

There are officially 46 distinct FUSRAP sites, 21 of which require
further remediation.

STATE/Site City Owner

CONNECTICUT
Combustion Engineering Site Windsor Private

ILLINOIS
Madison Site Madison Private

MARYLAND
W.R. Grace & Company Curtis Bay Private

MASSACHUSETTS
Shpack Landfill Norton Private

MISSOURI
Latty Avenue Properties Hazelwood Private
St. Louis Airport Site St. Louis City
St. Louis Arpt. Site Vicinity St. Louis Private
St. Louis Downtown Site St. Louis Private

NEW JERSEY
Du Pont & Company Deepwater Private
Maywood Site Maywood Energy Dept.
Middlesex Sampling Plant Middlesex Energy Dept.
Wayne Site Wayne Energy Dept.

NEW YORK
Ashland 1 Tonawanda Private
Ashland 2 Tonawanda Private
Bliss & Laughlin Steel Buffalo Private
Colonie Site Colonie Private
Niagara Falls Storage Site Lewiston Energy Dept.
Praxair (Linde Air Projects) Tonawanda Private
Seaway Industrial Park Tonawanda Private

OHIO
Luckey Site Luckey Private
Painesville Site Painesville Private

As of 1997, the Energy Department listed completion dates, for cleanup
at these facilities, ranging from 1997 through 2016. Congress
established a 2002 deadline, and it gave the Army Corps 90 days from
enactment to report back "if it is possible and/or reasonable to meet
the proposed 2002 completion date..."

The initial Corps Operation Order, primarily designed to explain
contracting and organizational plans to Corps staff, contains an annex
calling for an assessment of the state of public involvement at each
site. It directs the creation of public involvement plans that "in no
case ... reflect a level of public participation less than existed with
the Department of Energy." However, despite the Corps growing success
with Restoration Advisory Boards at former Defense Department
properties, the order makes no mention of advisory groups for the FUSRAP
sites.

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight (AKA SFSU
CAREER/PRO)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org