When the federal government developed what is now the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 1949, the U.S. was engaged in the Cold War. National security policy centered on developing a larger and more sophisticated nuclear weapon arsenal than the Soviet Union.

To reach this goal, the nation often placed a higher priority on immediate weapons technology development and secrecy than on long-term effects on human health and the environment. When the veil of secrecy finally lifted at the end of the Cold War in the 1980s, many Idahoans learned for the first time that Department of Energy (DOE) activities had contaminated the Snake River Plain Aquifer.

As the truth about contamination from a half century of nuclear research and weapons production came to light, states increased their demands that DOE and other federal agencies meet the same environmental standards imposed on private industry. Congress eventually passed legislation making federal agencies subject to Superfund cleanup requirements, as well as clean air and hazardous waste laws. However, DOE remained largely self-regulating when it came to nuclear materials and wastes.

In response to continued calls to improve DOE’s public image, the Secretary of Energy proposed a non-regulatory oversight role for states that hosted DOE facilities. In 1989, the Idaho Legislature established a comprehensive oversight program for the INL. In 1990, Idaho became the first state in the nation to negotiate a five-year agreement with DOE to provide funding for independent environmental oversight and monitoring of a DOE facility within its borders.

Over the years, DEQ's INL Oversight Program has developed an effective monitoring network to help evaluate the effects of the INL on public health and the environment.

Activities performed by INL Oversight include environmental surveillance, impact assessment, emergency planning and response, public information, and administration.

INL Oversight maintains an independent environmental surveillance program designed to verify and supplement INL monitoring programs. Over the past 11 years, the program has developed a database of knowledge that allows us to better understand background radiation, track emissions from site facilities, and follow behavior of contamination in the aquifer.

Monitoring and emergency response work closely together. In case of an emergency, like last summer’s fires, we do enhanced monitoring and scrutinize routine monitoring results even more closely than usual. Monitoring data also help us develop an understanding of the environment on and around the site so we know how contaminants could travel through various pathways. This information helps emergency planners prepare for emergencies and take steps to reduce potential impacts. Real-time radiological and meteorological information will also be shared with responders in the event of an emergency.

Oversight publishes technical reports to let other scientists know what we’ve discovered and a newsletter to let the public know how the INL affects the environment. Last year we produced posters so people can get a quick read on the situation.

Environmental surveillance activities include an ongoing sampling program for air, water, soil and milk. Oversight also conducts special studies. Several studies now underway evaluate the effectiveness of a method to verify if a particular area is indeed "clean."

Oversight’s environmental surveillance objectives include:

• Focusing on quality assurance and control so our data will be reliable
• Continually reassessing our sampling programs' ability to provide a meaningful picture of air and groundwater impacts from the INL
• Using specialized monitoring equipment to evaluate priority sites, and
• Improving soil sampling information by developing an appropriate soil sampling grid.

As the program responsible for coordinating all state activity relating to the INL, Oversight is charged with developing a "big picture" view of how the site affects Idaho’s environment and inhabitants. That "big picture" view includes tracking inventories of various types of waste and how they are handled, keeping up-to-date on how facilities are managed, understanding potential impacts of INL activities, and evaluating how INL is complying with various state agreements and court orders, including the 1995 Settlement Agreement.

Oversight staff regularly visit the site, ask questions, and review engineering documents; review and comment on planning and decision-making documents; and conduct independent research on how much risk activities may involve.

Information gathered through impact assessment helps environmental surveillance staff decide where to focus special monitoring efforts, and may also guide the work of emergency planners.

Because many people are concerned about nuclear waste, there's a lot of public information activity involving impact assessment. We provide additional public information and education for high-profile impact assessment issues, like decision-making involving management of high-level waste and the Advanced Mixed Treatment Project.

Oversight’s impact assessment goals include the following:

• Participating in the decision-making process for INL high-level waste management
• Negotiating an agreement for completing the transfer of spent nuclear from pool storage to dry storage (completed)
• Participating in DOE's long-term stewardship initiative
• Ensuring DOE's Hazards Assessments are revised as appropriate, and
• Reviewing planning documents to determine potential impacts of DOE activities in Idaho.

Oversight staff work with other state agencies and assist local governments in their planning and response to emergencies involving radiological materials, whether they occur at the INL or the many other places in Idaho radioactive materials are used (like hospitals and technology and engineering companies). There are also plans for responding to incidents occurring along transportation routes.

An Oversight Health Physicist is on call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to help local communities or State Police officers respond to any event involving radioactive waste or material. In the event of an incident involving a radioactive hazard, Oversight health physicists assess potential effects to human health and the environment and advise state and local agencies how to respond, and provide data and interpretation of that data to the public.

Environmental monitoring data is vital to good emergency response, as is the information about day-to-day site activities provided by impact assessment activities. In the event of an emergency, or even a field exercise, public information lets the press and the public know what is happening.

Oversight’s emergency planning and response goals include the following:

• Ensuring State plans are in place to respond effectively to radiological events in Idaho
• Ensuring appropriate procedures for state participation are available in the INL Emergency Operations Center
• Conducting exercises to evaluate procedures
• Improving Internet access to emergency data and response information for state and local responders and working with the Eastern Idaho Technical College to provide training to state and local emergency response staff, and
• Improving interagency cooperation.

Oversight was established because legislators felt people in Idaho didn't know enough about the INL and did not trust the information they received. Every activity Oversight engages in has a public information component: environmental surveillance to explain how the INL affects Idaho's environment; impact assessment to let people know if activities at the site pose risks to people or the environment, and emergency planning and response to ensure the public receives accurate, timely information that can be understood and used.

Oversight addresses issues of interest to the public and provides information when and where needed. We try to provide objective information and let people make their own informed decisions. And for those who have confidence in our independent scientific judgment, we provide our best interpretation of health risks based on our results.

Policy-makers are key audiences, as they need independent data to make good decisions. We also target local governments and emergency responders who rely on our expertise. Oversight also works to develop credibility within the scientific community. Our most important audience, however, remains the people for whom the program was created: the citizens of the state of Idaho.

Oversight’s public information goals include the following:

• Maintaining and improving our Web pages
• Providing information related to high-profile issues
• Developing new tools to share information, and
• Exploring new communication venues and increasing staff interaction with the public.

 Administration

Administration includes the nuts-and-bolts activities that keep INL Oversight running—like making sure staff have the tools they need to get their jobs done, evaluating our efforts, and making long-term plans for the program.

Administrative goals include the following:

• Negotiating a new 5-year agreement with DOE that outlines program activities and goals and provides for program funding (completed)
• Updating our strategic plan, and
• Integrating administrative functions with those of DEQ. Oversight became part of DEQ on July 1, 2000, when both DEQ and Oversight were separated from the Department of Health and Welfare and Oversight became a division of DEQ. The change doesn’t affect how Oversight functions or relates to the public, but it does allow Oversight to take advantage of DEQ’s administrative functions like purchasing and fleet management.