The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management published a notice of intent in the Federal Register on Dec. 27 to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Office of Environmental Management
January 30, 2025
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SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) published a notice of intent in the Federal Register on Dec. 27 to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The SEIS is a mechanism for the Department to evaluate additional alternatives for cleanup of soils in Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), where DOE formerly operated the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC), and the Northern Buffer Zone (NBZ).
The notice of intent kicks off a 60-day public scoping period, with a 30-day extension, where DOE looks forward to hearing public feedback and ideas on proposed alternatives for an SEIS.
“We are striving to achieve an implementable soil cleanup standard that meets our previous agreement,” said Josh Mengers, federal project director at DOE’s ETEC site. “We want to partner with the community and get to final soils cleanup plans that are protective but also avoid doing more harm than good.”
The state of California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) recently shared issues with the DOE and the community on current soil remediation methodology during its Soil Smarts Workshop series, which will continue into 2025 and seeks to reduce errors in misidentifying soil samples as contaminated when they are not. These misidentified samples are referred to as false positives.
“We are focused on getting the levels right to avoid unnecessary soil removal and execute the final stretch of DOE’s mission at SSFL,” Mengers said.
The SEIS is intended to supplement the Final Environmental Impact Statement for remediation of Area IV and NBZ, and will include additional soils remediation alternatives not previously evaluated, including DTSC’s Multiple Lines of Evidence approach that the agency is currently developing with the community.
DOE will hold two public scoping meetings, rescheduled to — a virtual meeting on Mar. 6 and an in-person meeting on March 18 — to provide information to the community about the proposed alternatives and gather input from stakeholders. Feedback will help DOE with the SEIS in proposing final implementable cleanup plans at SSFL.
Comments will now be accepted through March 27. Submissions can be emailed to SSFL_DOE_SEIS@emcbc.doe.gov using the subject line “Scoping Comments” or mailed to Dr. Joshua Mengers, NEPA Document Manager, at Leidos 2109 Air Park Road SE, Ste 200, Albuquerque, NM 87106.
More information about the scoping period and the SEIS is available on EM’s ETEC website.
-Contributors: Stephanie Shewmon, Melissa Simon
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