Heyoka: Environmental management after-the-fact at federal facilities

This project is a study of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Universe Baseline of waste and Environmental Restoration (ER) Sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) but may be applied to any federal facility belonging to any federal agency. Until the completion of this baseline there was not a single document that described all units at LANL. The baseline includes information gathered from facility files, administrative authority files, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency files, and all information available from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Information System (RCRIS). These sources were compiled into one baseline description in spreadsheet form that is maintained as a public document by the Hazardous and Radioactive Materials Bureau (HRMB) of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). Baseline information is available to the public and other government agencies by request and has already been used by Boston University as a source document for a national study. The baseline describes all regulated and non regulated operating hazardous waste management units and their location at LANL. Once the baseline was completed an analysis was performed to determine the most efficient way of organizing and managing the permitting process for the LANL Hazardous Waste Permit under the provisions of RCRA, the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to RCRA. the Federal Facilities Compliance Act, and the Emergency Preparedness and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). A new more efficient method of managing the LANL Hazardous Waste Permit will benefit the public by reducing risks to human health and the environment, providing positive state budget impacts through a more realistic workload and permit fees paid over a period of years, benefits to the LANL budget by extending the budget impacts of paying permit fees over a period of years and most important the benefit to human health and the environment by improved regulatory supervision by the administrative authority which will ensure environmental justice as required by Executive order in February 1994.