Open letter to City Council on proposed DOE landfill, Scarboro

Martin McBride
·4 min read

Dear Oak Ridge City Council:

For the proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility to succeed, the EMDF must be cared for and adequately funded over the next century. A crucial component is balancing the economic burden on the wonderful Americans living next to the EMDF, in the historic Scarboro Community.

Currently, U.S. Department of Energy headquarters is unaware of the amazing people of Scarboro. DOE decision-makers in the Offices of Science, NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration), and Environmental Management all owe a major debt to them. Yet they know nothing of this amazing community. That’s unacceptable and a sure path-to-failure for the EMDF.

In past decades, vital support from Scarboro residents has: (a) enabled the HFIR (High Flux Isotope Reactor) restart, preventing severe damage to programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; (b) enabled the Y-12 restart, protecting our nation’s important defense mission; and (c) prevented DOE’s cleanup costs from expanding several fold.  Scarboro has been a steadfast friend of DOE, for a long time. Yet, DOE Headquarters totally ignores them and economically burdens them with more and more DOE waste.

The EMDF could be a major win for the nation, provided DOE headquarters recognizes the importance of Scarboro. These wonderful people have been DOE’s great friends. If the department cannot see reason and treat the people of Scarboro fairly, the Council should:

a) Vote against the proposed EMDF;

b) Impose a one-year time limit on all new DOE waste storage within Oak Ridge;

c) Request that DOE remove existing waste storage from the city within  a reasonable period, say five to eight years; and

d) Insist that DOE’s current cleanup schedule of its Oak Ridge sites be maintained — despite the loss of the EMDF. The department’s residual racial discrimination and mismanagement should not be an excuse to delay the cleanup.

Background: The federal government established the Black community of Scarboro following World War II (in the late 1940s) as a segregated housing area for DOE workers. For many years, Black Oak Ridge residents had no other option for housing.

The Scarboro community is located right-next to the DOE fence line in an isolated section of the city. Over and over, the Scarboro community’s steadfast support has meant success for DOE’s Oak Ridge missions.

During WWII, thousands of patriotic Black Americans (future Scarboro residents) worked around-the-clock under harsh segregation to build DOE’s Y-12, ORNL, and the K-25 facilities to help end WWII and bring our precious troops home.

In the 1950s, the courageous Oak Ridge-85 students (from Scarboro) provided our country with its very-first public school desegregation in the Southeastern United States. This was a major victory over the violent Jim Crow racial culture. DOE (then the Atomic Energy Commission) leadership played a key role in this wonderful Civil Rights milestone.

In the 1980s, Scarboro’s strategic support was essential to the successful restart of ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor program and the subsequent creation of ORNL’s impressive Spallation Neutron Source facility. Absence of this support could have severely crippled ORNL, one of our nation’s scientific crown jewels.

I managed the successful HFIR restart in the 1980s and was the director of the Reactor Operations Division.

In the 1990s, Scarboro’s strategic support was essential to the successful restart of Y-12. The vital NNSA defense mission would have been substantially damaged without Y-12’s restart.

From the time of the creation of the DOE-EM organization, Scarboro’s unwavering support has meant an accelerated Oak Ridge cleanup and hundreds-of-millions of dollars in federal cost-savings.

In 2019 and 2020, the city received no response from three Secretaries of Energy, in two separate Administrations, when the city sought DOE recognition of the fabulous contribution of the "OR-85" students. If the importance of Scarboro had been recognized by the Offices of Science, NNSA, and Environmental Management, the Secretaries would have responded.

DOE waste can be safely and effectively stored in Oak Ridge, provided that DOE maintains an active interest in the community over the long haul.

Roger Petrie, Regulatory Affairs Specialist · U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, speaks about a proposed landfill in Oak Ridge to hold debris from demolished buildings. The event took place at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
Roger Petrie, Regulatory Affairs Specialist · U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, speaks about a proposed landfill in Oak Ridge to hold debris from demolished buildings. The event took place at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

It’s time to get this straightened out, prior to EMDF approval.

Thank you. 

Martin McBride

Oak Ridge

Retired DOE site manager

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Open letter on proposed DOE landfill and Scarboro