Partisans may argue on how effective the Recovery Act was in halting the recent recession, but there is no denying that stimulus money — coupled with competent project management — accelerated the daunting environmental cleanup at the federal government facilities in Oak Ridge.
Several Recovery Act-funded projects at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant were completed ahead of schedule and under budget, and officials now are plowing the savings into other remediation projects.
The U.S. Department of Energy will use most of the savings — reported to be in the range of $26 million to $32 million — to address mercury discharges that have fouled the environment for decades.
Some of the projects, focused on reducing mercury releases into East Fork Poplar Creek, already are under way.
Y-12 used millions of pounds of mercury to process lithium for use in hydrogen bombs during the cold war. Tons of the toxic liquid metal were spilled, contaminating soils and area waterways.
One project will assess the mercury pollution at a site that once housed a furnace used to recover mercury from Y-12 equipment. Officials say sampling has already uncovered significant quantities of mercury in a concrete pad and soils of the site where the furnace building once stood.
The funds also will pay for mercury traps in the plant's storm sewer to collect mercury before it can reach East Fork Poplar Creek, which has been identified as a health hazard for three decades. Five underground tanks that could be tainted with mercury will be removed, and design work has begun on a water-treatment plant aimed at reducing mercury discharges into East Fork Poplar Creek to regulatory limits.
DOE's Oak Ridge office received about $1.9 billion from the 2009 Recovery Act. About $1.2 billion of that windfall was designated for projects — ranging from environmental cleanup to construction of new research facilities — to be carried out in Oak Ridge.
Dozens of old and radioactively contaminated buildings at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 were demolished and removed using stimulus money. According to DOE, seven Y-12 stimulus-funded projects created about 2,000 jobs, demolished about 150,000 square feet of old buildings and got rid of about 74,000 cubic meters of waste. Federal officials say the Recovery Act created or saved 3,863 jobs in Oak Ridge.
The federal operations at Oak Ridge over the decades have provided high-paying jobs to East Tennesseans and have been an economic engine for the region. Unfortunately, they also have polluted the surrounding land and water.
DOE has a responsibility to clean up the contaminants, and using stimulus money to address the problem has been a welcome and appropriate use of the funds. By completing remediation projects under budget, DOE can accelerate the cleanup timetable in Oak Ridge. That is a wise use of taxpayer money.