The UMTRA groundwater PEIS: A tool for program implementation and management

Former uranium processing activities at inactive uranium mill processing sites have resulted in contamination of groundwater beneath and, in some cases, downgradient of the sites. The purpose of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Groundwater Project is to protect human health and the environment by meeting the proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards in areas where groundwater contamination has resulted from the uranium-processing activities. The first step in the UNITRA groundwater project is preparation of the programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS). The PEIS is a planning document that provides a framework for conducting the groundwater project, assesses the potential programmatic impacts of conducting the groundwater project, provides a method for determining the site-specific groundwater compliance strategies, and provides data and information that can be used to prepare site-specific environmental impact analyses more efficiently.