The Department's Environmental Restoration and Waste Management program, commonly referred to as the Environmental Management program, is responsible for identifying and reducing risks and managing waste at 137 sites in 34 States and territories where nuclear energy or weapons research and production resulted in radioactive, hazardous, and mixed waste contamination. Portions of the more than 3,300 square miles of land managed by the Department contain contaminated surface or ground water, soil, and structures. The number of sites in the program continues to grow as facilities are transferred to be cleaned up and closed down. Figure 1 shows the 1995 Environmental Management funding requests for 17 States with Department of Energy sites. Environmental Management Funding by State for Fiscal Year 1995.
Funding is concentrated among the states having the largest or most complex sites.
Washington State has more than twice the funding of any other State because of the size and nature of the problems at the Hanford Site. The program's main challenge is to balance technical and financial realities with the public's expectations and develop a strategy that enables the Department to meet its commitments to the American people. Environmental Management must meet legal requirements of applicable laws and regulations, as well as the requirements of its compliance agreements, and these requirements continue to grow. Regulators may be asked to approve modifications to enforceable agreements if warranted by technical changes at the sites. However, the Environmental Management program will continue to make progress by maximizing the use of its available financial resources.