Transfer and Transition: Interagency Coordination for Managing Public Lands at UMTRCA Title II Sites in Wyoming - 16614
By the end of fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) is anticipating adding 17 sites remediated under Title II of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) to the current inventory of 90 sites that it manages. Among the new sites are ones where federal public lands occur within the proposed long-term care boundary, the boundary determined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and LM as necessary to maintain site protectiveness for the entombed uranium mill tailings and residual groundwater contamination. For these sites, public land withdrawals for land and minerals will need to be established. LM's primary mission at UMTRCA sites is to protect the public and the environment from exposure to contamination at the sites. For the sites with public lands or federally controlled minerals that will be transferring to LM, the Office will apply to the Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for new, public land and mineral withdrawals. At most current LM UMTRCA sites that involved public lands and minerals, DOI granted DOE 'full administrative jurisdiction' and permanent withdrawals. Hence, these withdrawals are, permanently, no longer subject to public land, mining, and mineral-leasing laws and regulations. LM is coordinating with DOI/BLM in Wyoming to permanently withdraw full and partial jurisdiction at future UMTRCA Title II sites in that state. This approach would allow LM to fully administer surface lands and minerals, where necessary, and DOI and LM to administer surface lands and leasable minerals where it would not jeopardize sites' radiological safety and long-term public and environmental protection. This 'shared-jurisdiction approach' will meet LM's strategic goal of protecting human health and the environment but also allow BLM to fulfill their mission to 'manage and conserve the lands under the mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield'. In addition, LM could also fulfill the fourth goal of its Strategic Plan, to optimize land use and assets. The portions of the sites where LM will ask for full jurisdiction are those that contain the disposal cell and any adjacent lands and minerals required to maintain and protect it. It is anticipated that the shared jurisdiction portion of the withdrawal would largely coincide with land where known or projected contaminated groundwater from the past ore processing exists or will migrate over time. Examples of BLM-authorized activities on the shared jurisdiction portions of the withdrawals may include livestock grazing, wildlife habitat improvement projects, recreation, and rights of ways for roads, pipelines, utilities, and communication sites. In addition, BLM could authorize subsurface uses such as oil and gas, coal, or geothermal development or groundwater pumping from deeper aquifers if the proposal would not disturb groundwater contamination. For areas of the withdrawal where the agencies will share jurisdictional authority, DOE LM and BLM will develop an interagency agreement (IA) to define acceptable uses and associated roles and responsibilities. To ensure maximum protection of human health and the environment, each site's IA will include a provision allowing DOE LM the right of first refusal against any action it believes might affect radiological safety at the site. (authors)