From: Carol_Snyder_Halberstadt@Dragonsys.com (by way of Robert
Dorman
<redorman@theofficenet.com>)
(moderator's note: the attachment is not included with this
post. I will
try to get it on my web site later)
By Donna Bassett
Carol,
The attachment (below) is photographic evidence of the radioactive
contamination
at the site and the obvious lack of clean-up.
The Geiger counter reading taken outside the school house at
the relocation
site
by the makers of the documentary "Vanishing Prayer"
(1999) was 700 rads per
minute.
Here is the material I have put together from the DOE thus
far about the
cleanup
project. Note the specific mention of "Tribal lands."
Also, note the
following:
"Tailings remediation and groundwater restoration of each
site include a
Remedial Action Plan approved by the State or Tribe and the Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission (NRC); Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental
Impact
Statement (EIS); design/engineering, construction, surveillance,
and
maintenance; and licensing by the NRC."
============================================================================
====
SOURCE: "Environmental Restoration and Waste Management
Five-Year Plan Fiscal
Years 1993-1997" by the United States Department of Energy,
published August
1991.
Environmental restoration of the region is being run out of
the Albuquerque
Field Office of the DOE. This falls under the "Uranium Mill
Tailings Remedial
Action (UMTRA) and the Uranium Mill Tailings Groundwater Restoration
(UMTGR)"
which are listed as "two Major System Acquisition Projects
treated as an
installation under the nondefense Environmental Restoration (ER)
Program. Work
on both projects was authorized in 1978 when Congress passed the
Uranium Mill
Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) (Public Law 95-604), which
directed
DOE
to provide for stabilization and control of the uranium mill tailings
from
inactive sites in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The
UMTRCA provides
for the States to pay 10 percent of remedial action (RA) costs
at sites within
the States, while DOE ER pays the remaining cost. The sandlike
tailings,
located
at 24 sites and 5,000 vicinity properties in 10 States and on
Tribal lands,
are
the result of uranium production from the early 1950s until the
early 1970s.
Tailings remediation and groundwater restoration of each site
include a
Remedial
Action Plan approved by the State or Tribe and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
(NRC); Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS);
design/engineering, construction, surveillance, and maintenance;
and licensing
by the NRC.
Restoration was to have begun in 1992 and was scheduled to
be finished as
of FY
2000. All surface sites to be certified by FY 2002. All groundwater
contamination was to have been cleaned up by FY2033. NRC licensing
of all
surface sites was scheduled for FY2003.
HEALTH RISKS (as cited by the DOE, this volume)
The hazards that UMTRA is remediating include over 30 million
yd3 of tailings
and ~ 5,000 vicinity properties where tailings were used in the
foundations of
inhabited or commercial buildings or where tailings blew into
open land from
mill sites. Hazards result from radon gas, gamma radiation decay
products (214
Pb and 214 Bi), asbestos, other hazardous and mixed organic wastes
at mill
sites, and RCRA-listed hazardous constituents in groundwater plus
molybdenum,
radium, uranium, selenium, and nitrates.
* Unstable piles will continue to emanate radon gas and allow
dispersal of
windblown contamination.
* Unremediated vicinity properties can expose occupants of
residential and
commercial structures to unacceptable levels of radon gas.
* Unstabilized tailings piles will continue to contaminate
groundwater through
infiltration of water.
REGULATORY DRIVERS (as cited by the DOE, this volume)
* PL 95-604, UMTRCA.
* 40 CFR 192: Due to Federal Court remand, the EPA has revised
the portion of
its UMTRA standards dealing with groundwater protection and restoration.
Though
these standards have not been promulgated in final form, DOE must
comply with
the proposed standard until they become final.
* PL 100-616 UMTRA's authorizing legislation, as amended in
1988, requires
that
RA for tailings be completed by September 1994 and provides unlimited
time for
groundwater restoration.
* State regulations where they are applicable.
* RCRA.
* DOE Orders.
(See attached file: BefPea.htm)
--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------
GET A NEXTCARD VISA, in 30 seconds. Get rates as low as 0.0
percent
Intro or 9.9 percent Fixed APR and no hidden fees. Apply NOW.
<a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/NextcardCreative5CL
">Click Here</a>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a BIGMTLIST post.
Email addresses---
To Post message: BIGMTLIST@onelist.com
To Subscribe: BIGMTLIST-subscribe@onelist.com
To Unsubscribe: BIGMTLIST-unsubscribe@onelist.com
For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the
United States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm