II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1071

To designate the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

as the Center of Excellence for Environmental Stewardship of the Department of Energy to provide for the long-term stewardship of Department of Energy land, and establish the Natural Resources Institute

within the Center.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 18 (legislative day, MAY 14), 1999

Mr. CRAPO (for himself and Mr. CRAIG) introduced the following bill; which

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

A BILL

To designate the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory as the Center of Excellence for Environmental Stewardship of the Department of Energy

to provide for the long-term stewardship of Department

of Energy land, and establish the Natural Resources

Institute within the Center.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Environmental Stew5 ardship and Natural Resources Act of 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

3 (1) in order to maintain our quality of life, eco4 nomic growth should—

5 (A) be balanced with environmental man6 agement; and

7 (B) include collaborative scientific inquiry,

8 technology development, and public policy;

9 (2) the failure of environmental science data,

10 technology, and knowledge to adequately support

11 long-term policy leads to questions of scientific data

12 quality, credibility, and utility, and results in an at13 mosphere of adversarial science and conflicting pol14 icy;

15 (3) individuals affected by decisions regarding

16 long-term stewardship have not always been effective

17 in determining the needs for, setting the agenda for,

18 and participating in environmental research and de19 velopment;

20 (4) decisions regarding the long-term steward21 ship can significantly impact a region’s economy and

22 its residents’ quality of life;

23 (5) the Department of Energy is just beginning

24 to develop long-term strategies for managing its vast

25 holdings of land;
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1 (6) the Department of Energy environmental

2 management program—

3 (A) is the largest program in the Depart4 ment;

5 (B) must have the scientific capability to

6 support long-term stewardship in order for the

7 Department to manage legacy waste; and

8 (C) has no national laboratories designated

9 to address the science, research, and develop10 mental needs for long-term stewardship; and

11 (7) the Idaho National Engineering and Envi12 ronmental Laboratory, a multiprogrammatic feder13 ally funded research and development laboratory, is

14 geographically and technologically positioned to ca15 pably address the needs for long-term stewardship.

16 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—

17 (1) to designate the Idaho National Engineer18 ing and Environmental Laboratory as the Center of

19 Excellence for Environmental Stewardship of the

20 Department of Energy to provide for the long-term

21 stewardship of Department land;

22 (2) to establish the Natural Resources Institute

23 within the Center; and

24 (3) to authorize the Center and Institute—
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1 (A) to provide scientific and technical as2 sistance to the Department in carrying out the

3 environmental missions of the Department;

4 (B) to perform basic and applied scientific

5 research necessary, and develop methods and

6 technologies, for modeling, detection, character7 ization, remediation, treatment, and control of

8 contaminants—

9 (i) in the environment; or

10 (ii) stored or disposed of as waste;

11 (C) to serve as a neutral forum to develop

12 scientific solutions for long-term stewardship of

13 Department land;

14 (D) to coordinate research on and

15 develop—

16 (i) appropriate and systematic ap17 proaches to long-term stewardship; and

18 (ii) the specific tools and mechanisms

19 necessary to implement approaches—

20 (I) to support public policy devel21 opment by facilitating the creation of

22 public-private partnerships necessary

23 to implement systemic approaches to

24 long-term stewardship; and
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1 (II) in cooperation with colleges

2 and universities, to provide education

3 and training regarding long-term

4 stewardship by developing training

5 programs and educational curricula

6 using modern information systems

7 such as the Internet and video tele8 conferencing for a wide variety of

9 users, including—

10 (aa) the public;

11 (bb) local and regional gov12 ernment;

13 (cc) industry; and

14 (dd) colleges and univer15 sities; and

16 (E) to facilitate the creation of commercial

17 enterprises through application of derived use

18 science and technology by involving—

19 (i) local economic development agen20 cies;

21 (ii) technology incubators;

22 (iii) research institutes; and

23 (iv) the private sector; and
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1 (F) to transfer information and analyses

2 regarding long-term stewardship to persons and

3 organizations to allow informed decisionmaking.

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

5 In this Act:

6 (1) ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE ACTIVITY.—The

7 term ‘‘atomic energy defense activity’’ has the mean8 ing given the term in section 2 of the Nuclear Waste

9 Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101).

10 (2) CENTER.—The term ‘‘Center’’ means the

11 Center of Excellence for Environmental Stewardship

12 of the Department designated under section 4(a).

13 (3) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’

14 means the Department of Energy.

15 (4) DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEFENSE NU16 CLEAR FACILITY.—

17 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Department

18 of Energy defense nuclear facility’’ means a site

19 under control or jurisdiction of the Department

20 that is operated for the purpose of conducting

21 an atomic energy defense activity, including—

22 (i) a production facility, as defined in

23 section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of

24 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2014);
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1 (ii) a utilization facility, as defined in

2 section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of

3 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2014);

4 (iii) a nuclear waste storage or dis5 posal facility;

6 (iv) an atomic weapon testing and

7 evaluation facility;

8 (v) an atomic weapons research and

9 development facility; or

10 (vi) any facility described in any of

11 clauses (i) through (v) that—

12 (I) no longer is in operation; and

13 (II) was operated for the purpose

14 of conducting an atomic energy de15 fense activity.

16 (B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘Department

17 of Energy defense nuclear facility’’ does not in18 clude a facility that conducts only civilian nu19 clear activities, such as technology necessary for

20 the generation of electricity at a nuclear power

21 plant.

22 (5) INSTITUTE.—The term ‘‘Institute’’ means

23 the Natural Resources Institute established under

24 section 5(a).
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1 (6) LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP.—The term

2 ‘‘long-term stewardship’’ means the responsibility to

3 manage all natural and manmade resources in a

4 manner that balances economics, ecological, social,

5 and cultural factors.

6 (7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

7 the Secretary of Energy.

8 SEC. 4. CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

9 STEWARDSHIP.

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Idaho National Engineering

11 and Environmental Laboratory is designated as the Cen12 ter of Excellence for Environmental Stewardship of the

13 Department.

14 (b) DUTIES.—The Center shall—

15 (1) develop, test, and demonstrate new and in16 novative methods and technologies necessary for the

17 implementation of programs by the Department for

18 the long-term stewardship of—

19 (A) contaminated land;

20 (B) remediated land that remains contami21 nated, such as capped landfills or land under

22 which ground water is contaminated; and

23 (C) uncontaminated land used as a buffer

24 area around a Department of Energy defense

25 nuclear facility;
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1 (2) develop, test, and demonstrate new and in2 novative methods and technologies for the estimation

3 of Federal liability under section 107(f) of the Com4 prehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,

5 and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9607(f));

6 (3) develop and continually update systems en7 gineering methods for analyzing the options and effi8 ciencies for transportation, treatment, storage, and

9 disposal of waste at Department of Energy defense

10 nuclear facilities;

11 (4) conduct basic scientific research into the

12 transport of contaminants in the environment;

13 (5) develop models and predictive methods for

14 estimating—

15 (A) the transport of contaminants in var16 ious environmental settings; and

17 (B) the subsequent risk posed by contami18 nants in the environment to humans and associ19 ated ecosystems; and

20 (6) develop, test, and demonstrate new and in21 novative technologies for the detection, monitoring,

22 stabilization, and remediation of contaminants in the

23 environment.

24 (c) MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Center

25 shall enter into memoranda of understanding with the
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1 heads of appropriate Federal agencies to establish admin2 istrative procedures necessary for the Center to—

3 (1) participate in work for other programs on

4 land of the Department of the Interior and the De5 partment of Agriculture; and

6 (2) solve pressing long-term stewardship prob7 lems.

8 (d) ACQUISITION OF INFORMATION FROM FEDERAL

9 AGENCIES.—To assist the Center in carrying out this Act,

10 the Center may acquire from any Federal agency unclassi11 fied and nonproprietary information maintained by the

12 agency.

13 SEC. 5. NATURAL RESOURCES INSTITUTE.

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Within the Center, there is estab15 lished a Natural Resources Institute as a pilot demonstra16 tion project.

17 (b) DUTIES.—The Institute shall—

18 (1) serve in a dual capacity as a partner and

19 facilitator in performing the duties described in

20 paragraphs (2) through (5);

21 (2) initiate and perform multidisciplinary, solu22 tion-oriented, focused, and needs-driven research re23 garding long-term stewardship through—
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1 (A) coordination of research activities to

2 minimize duplication of effort and maximize sci3 entific advancement;

4 (B) maintenance of meaningful public in5 volvement in the development and implementa6 tion of research activities;

7 (C) performance of research by high-qual8 ity scientific experts who are private and public

9 partners of the Institute;

10 (D) performance of research in and devel11 opment of understanding of the field of pre12 dicting regional ecosystem dynamics;

13 (E) development of methodologies, tech14 nologies, and tools for environmental steward15 ship; and

16 (F) development and understanding of the

17 science associated with the long-term steward18 ship issues associated with Department land;

19 (3) support formulation and implementation of

20 long-term stewardship public policy through—

21 (A) consideration of the balance of socio22 economic concerns and quality of life issues

23 with respect to environmental remediation, cost,

24 and schedule concerns; and
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1 (B) involvement of the public with the re2 search and development activities of the Insti3 tute;

4 (4) act as an information resource center by—

5 (A) serving as a centralized repository for

6 environmental data, data management re7 sources, and analytical tools for Department

8 land;

9 (B) entering into partnership agreements

10 with private entities and public agencies to ac11 cess or acquire and maintain regional environ12 mental data sets through—

13 (i) monitoring data;

14 (ii) geographical information system

15 coverages;

16 (iii) satellite data; and

17 (iv) data from local and regional eco18 logical studies;

19 (C) providing quick and affordable access

20 to all public databases, such as those main21 tained by the Federal and State agencies, and,

22 as appropriate, access to private databases de23 veloped to support specific models or decisions;

24 and
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1 (D) training personnel to assist the public

2 and researchers in gaining access to informa3 tion on long-term stewardship; and

4 (5) provide training—

5 (A) using colleges and universities to edu6 cate the public, future scientists, and educators;

7 (B) seminars and training assistance for

8 the public; and

9 (C) collaboration with colleges and univer10 sities to provide resources, internships, and re11 search opportunities.

12 (c) COOPERATION.—In carrying out this section, the

13 Institute shall cooperate with—

14 (1) Federal and State agencies;

15 (2) colleges and universities;

16 (3) national laboratories;

17 (4) the public; and

18 (5) the private sector.

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