Opinion ID: 492030
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Endangerment In Controlled Area

Text: 76 The two major components of the HLW rules, the general containment requirements and the individual protection requirements, supra, set limits on radiation releases to every part of the earth, including ground water, beyond the area under direct control of those in charge of disposing of this waste (referred to as the controlled area). These requirements have various release limits (depending on which rule is involved, i.e., the limits of the general containment requirements are of a different type from those of the individual protection requirements) which apply outside the controlled area, but neither sets limits on contamination of ground water within the controlled area. A further component, the special source ground water protection requirements, sets limits on releases to certain ground water supplies found within the controlled area, or within five kilometers of the controlled area. However, this rule applies to only a very special class of ground water. 77 Thus, while the ground water outside the controlled area is covered by both the general containment requirements and the individual protection requirements (the sufficiency of which we shall later address), there is essentially no protection of ground water within the controlled area (other than the specific ground water rule, infra, with its highly limited applicability). This is because the general containment and individual protection requirements apply only to releases to the accessible environment. The accessible environment is defined as (1) the atmosphere; (2) land surfaces; (3) surface waters; (4) oceans; and (5) all of the lithosphere that is beyond the controlled area. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 191.12(k). Lithosphere is defined as the solid part of the earth below the surface, including any ground water contained within it. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 191.12(j). Controlled area is defined as: (1) A surface location, to be identified by passive institutional controls, that encompasses no more than 100 square kilometers and extends horizontally no more than five kilometers in any direction from the outer boundary of the original location of the radioactive wastes in a disposal system; and (2) the subsurface underlying such a surface location. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 191.12(g). 78 Thus the two broadly applicable rules (general containment and the individual protection requirements) set some limits on radiation releases to every part of the earth, including the ground water, except within the controlled area, i.e., the part of the earth immediately surrounding the repository. This means that any ground water found within the controlled area (except the special water protected under the ground water protection requirements) may be contaminated without limit. The administrator has explained that the definition of accessible environment, 79 was intended to reflect the concept that the geologic media surrounding a mined repository are part of the long-term containment system, with disposal sites being selected so that the surrounding media prevent or retard transport of radionuclides through ground water. Such surrounding media would be dedicated for this purpose, with the intention to prohibit incompatible activities (either those that might disrupt the disposal system or those that could cause significant radiation exposures) in perpetuity. Applying standards to the ground water contained within these geologic media surrounding a repository would ignore the role of this natural barrier, and it could reduce the incentive to search for sites with characteristics that would enhance long-term containment of these wastes. 80 50 Fed.Reg. 38,077, col. 1. The administrator further explained that the accessible environmentdoes not include the lithosphere (and the ground water within it) that is below the controlled area surrounding a disposal system. The standards are formulated this way because the properties of the geologic media around a mined repository are expected to provide much of the disposal system's capability to isolate these wastes over these long time periods. Thus, a certain area of the natural environment is envisioned to be dedicated to keeping these dangerous materials away from future generations and may not be suitable for certain other uses. 81 50 Fed.Reg. 38,071, col. 2. Hence the regulations under review deliberately expose the ground water in the controlled area to contamination in the belief that the controlled area may appropriately be used in this manner to keep the dangerous high level wastes away from future generations. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the current HLW standard allows endangerment, as the term is used in the SDWA, of most kinds of drinking water sources in the controlled area. However, as we later discuss, the EPA's choice to sacrifice the purity of water at repository sites as part of the control strategy was impliedly sanctioned by Congress when, subsequent to passage of the SDWA, it enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. We accordingly find no illegality. (Our conclusion in this regard is discussed in a later part of this opinion.) 82 While unlimited endangerment of most waters is thus allowed (albeit permissibly) within the controlled area, there is within the controlled area one special category of ground water which, as we have seen, receives special protection. The special source ground water protection requirements afford protection to Class I ground water of certain types in and close to (within five kilometers of) the controlled area. The ground water requirements limit the radionuclide concentrations in these Class I waters for 1,000 years to no more than concentration limits similar to those established for community water systems under the SDWA. That is, this standard sets limits that are compatible with the maximum contaminant level for man-made radiation set under the SDWA. Thus, when applicable, the special source ground water protection requirements comply with the no endangerment policy expressed in Part C of the SDWA since they exactly parallel the limits set by the EPA under the SDWA. However, the ground water protection requirements apply only to so-called Class I ground water (as defined in the EPA's Ground-Water Protection Strategy published in August 1984). In addition, they apply only to those Class I waters which also meet the following conditions: 83 (1) They are within the controlled area or near (less than five kilometers beyond) the controlled area; (2) they are supplying drinking water for thousands of persons as of the date that the Department [of Energy] selects the site for extensive exploration as a potential location of a disposal system; and (3) they are irreplaceable in that no reasonable alternative source of drinking water is available to that population. 84 Clearly, the applicability of the special source ground water protection requirements is very much restricted. Petitioners, indeed, make much of this. They assert that this rule violates the SDWA's no endangerment policy since it protects so limited a class of water within so small an area, omitting the great bulk of the nation's usable ground water. 85 But while petitioners are doubtless right concerning the narrow scope of this provision, their criticism fails to take account of the EPA's strategy of dedicating the geologic media within the controlled area (including any ground water found within such geologic media) to serve as a part of the containment mechanism. The EPA obviously intended the special source ground water rule to provide protection only to a small category of ground water deemed to be so valuable that it should not be used for containment purposes. As the Agency assumed that ground water within the controlled area will be part of the containment mechanism, and that therefore a direct limit on releases to ground water within the controlled area is an exception to the general approach, it is understandable that any ground water requirements within the controlled area would have a very limited applicability. 86 These ground water requirements will likely serve more as a deterrent to siting repositories at places containing valuable ground water resources of this description than as a protective mechanism at actual repositories (where the special ground water covered by the ground water rule is unlikely to be present). Moreover, the ground water requirements have no effect more than five kilometers beyond the controlled area. It follows that there will likely be no protection to ground water within an actual controlled area site.