The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (DOE OREM) is evaluating whether to construct a new on-site disposal facility to facilitate continued cleanup activities on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Design, construction and subsequent operation of the new waste disposal facility will have a significant impact on both the regional and state economies. While the impacts will be concentrated in the Anderson, Roane, and Knox counties region, equipment rental, materials acquisition, and payroll spending will create economic ripples that will extend into other Tennessee communities. The analysis focuses on related activities, as forecasted in the draft Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study for Oak Ridge Reservation waste disposal, from 2012 to 2047, when cleanup of the Oak Ridge Reservation will be complete. However, this analysis extends through 2055 to include the first eight years of post-closure monitoring and maintenance at the facility.
Projected economic impacts of the environmental cleanup program that account for the design, construction, operation and closure of a new on-site disposal facility include a significant increase in state output or state gross domestic product (state GDP), personal income (which accrues to residents of the state), sales and use tax revenue, and employment for the duration of the project. Expenditures incurred to support construction, materials and equipment procurement, and overhead will lead to dispersion of these impacts across a significant portion of the state economy. Highly-skilled management, engineers, operators, laborers, foremen, security, and professional employees of DOE-OREM and its contractors will spend disposable income in a manner that will create additional jobs and income. The same will be true of workers employed by vendors supplying materials and equipment. Increased business activity and worker spending will boost sales and use tax revenues for state and local governments.