The Secretary of Energy
Washington, DC 20585
April 4, 2001

 

The Honorable Kenny C. Guinn
Governor of Nevada
Carson City, Nevada 89701

In my confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, I pledged to work with the Congress and the States to find ways to improve the programs on the Department of Energy's (DOE) program to clean up the environmental legacy of more than 50 years of nuclear weapons production. I take that pledge very seriously and want to work with you on ways to more affectively address the cleanup challenges at the Nevada Test Site.

This Administration is firmly committed to safely cleaning up the DOE complex and complying with environmental laws and regulations. As we embark on this new Administration, we need to take the opportunity to examine whether we are conducting our cleanup at all sites in the best and most practical way possible.

Over ten years ago, the Department of Energy committed to clean up the environmental legacy of the Cold War and worked with the states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a compliance framework for all our major sites. Since that framework was established, we have seen a number of changes.
  • Technology has advanced significantly so that we can now solve cleanup problems that had no solutions ten years ago;
  • we have characterized the waste at our sites, improved our knowledge of the risks, and better understand the scope of the problem we are addressing as well as the potential solutions; and
  • we have tried some potential solutions - some have worked, some have not
We have learned from all these experiences. It is clear that we need to continue to push to find more efficient and better ways of doing business at the Nevada Test Site and our other sites.

I have directed Dr. Carolyn Huntoon, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, to lead an effort in the Department to look for additional ways to strengthen our project management, ensure that work is governed by sound science, and implement contracting strategies that drive cleanup work to be completed safely, on-schedule, and within budget.

The department can and will work on all of these matters, however, if we are to be successful, we will need your help, as well as help from the EPA and the communities around the Nevada Test Site. I, therefore, request that you designate a representative who will work with Dr. Huntoon to examine ways to improve the compliance framework that currently governs much of our work, and promote safe, cost-effective, on-the-ground results at the Nevada Test Site.

In pursuing these objectives, we would like to examine innovative or non-conventional approaches, including using or testing new technologies. In addition, we may find that we need to modify the framework and work priorities to reflect new and more effective ways of doing business. Some areas that we could jointly examine range from broad issues, such as agreeing on the end state for site cleanup and the best approaches to achieve that end state, to more specific issues, such as more effective ways to manage the disposition of transuranic waste.

My goal is to develop a stronger partnership with States and the EPA that will allow us to pursue the most efficient cleanups possible at our sites. I look forward to working with you. Please feel free to contact me, or Dr. Huntoon, at (202) 586-7709 to discuss this matter.
 

Yours sincerely,

Spencer Abraham

Spencer Abraham


 
Read Governor Kenny Guinn's response letter
dated April 25, 2001
 

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