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National Governors Association (NGA) Federal Facilities Task Force In an effort to move forward on large scale cleanup of nuclear weapons production sites, Congress passed the 1992 Federal Facilities Compliance Act, which brought Governors and their state regulatory staff into a new and mutually beneficial relationship with the US Department of Energy (DOE). To help achieve this coordination, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices established a forum allowing them to work collaboratively with the Department of Energy on a wide array of technical, economic, and political challenges including budget and regulatory issues, waste treatment and disposal options, and equitable decisions on waste management. The Governors are represented in this forum by the NGA Federal Facilities Task Force, a group comprised of Governor-appointed policy and technical representatives from 13 states. Background on the Nuclear Weapons Complex The U.S. Department of Energy is the federal agency charged with designing, building, and maintaining nuclear weapons for the U.S. military. To carry out this mission, DOE and its predecessor agencies built a network of industrial facilities and laboratories collectively known as the “nuclear weapons complex.” At its peak, the complex consisted of more than 16 major federal facilities in 13 states. Uranium mining and other smaller industrial sites were located in at least 12 additional states. (click here for a map of the complex) In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the end of the Cold War caused many nuclear weapons production sites to shut down, bringing to light a variety of environmental and safety concerns. Almost every site in the complex was contaminated to some extent with radioactive or other hazardous materials such as solvents or heavy metals. The contamination was found not only in buildings but also in the soil, groundwater, and surface water. Most sites had considerable and complicated problems that were compounded over several decades and are thus still being cleaned up. This effort is currently the largest single environmental management program in the world. Contact: Tara Butler | NGA Center for Best Practices home page NGA Policies:
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Represented States and Respective Sites
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