Group items tagged

When the EPA evacuates your town for Superfund cleanup, what happens to the people left behind? After decades of uranium mining turned the tiny town of Church Rock, New Mexico, into a Superfund site, in August the EPA moved seven resident Navajo families to Gallup apartments, where they'll wait for five months while the EPA scrubs their town of radioactive waste. But as the EPA hauls away the uranium tailings and radium-infused topsoils that have been permanent fixtures since mining ceased in the 1980s, Church Rock's remaining residents are asking why they have been left behind. In 1979, the largest spill of radioactive waste in US history occurred in Church Rock when 94 million gallons of mine waste were accidentally released into a stream. Children swam in open pit mines and the community drank water from local wells as recently as the '90s. (Now they haul in drinking water.) Cancer rates and livestock deaths remain higher than they should be. As for the families who remain, Church Rock evacuee and local activist Teddy Nez says the agency "drew an imaginary line in the sand" that excludes a residential area half a mile west of the Superfund site.

When the EPA evacuates your town for Superfund cleanup, what happens to the people left behind? After decades of uranium mining turned the tiny town of Church Rock, New Mexico, into a Superfund site, in August the EPA moved seven resident Navajo families to Gallup apartments, where they'll wait for five months while the EPA scrubs their town of radioactive waste. But as the EPA hauls away the uranium tailings and radium-infused topsoils that have been permanent fixtures since mining ceased in the 1980s, Church Rock's remaining residents are asking why they have been left behind. In 1979, the largest spill of radioactive waste in US history occurred in Church Rock when 94 million gallons of mine waste were accidentally released into a stream. Children swam in open pit mines and the community drank water from local wells as recently as the '90s. (Now they haul in drinking water.) Cancer rates and livestock deaths remain higher than they should be. As for the families who remain, Church Rock evacuee and local activist Teddy Nez says the agency "drew an imaginary line in the sand" that excludes a residential area half a mile west of the Superfund site.

Jan. 21 -- On Jan. 15, in his second to last full day in office, outgoing EPA Acting Administrator Marcus Peacock signed off on new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radioactive releases. They would permit radioactive concentrations in drinking water hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions of times higher than EPA's longstanding standards. Because it takes a few days after approval for such matters to be published in the Federal Register and be official, publication wasn't achieved before the Inauguration. Unless the Obama acts quickly, however, they will be published in the next few days. The Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today called on the new Obama Administration to pull back the PAGs before they are published in the Federal Register. Read the CBG-PEER news release. A detailed report by Committee to Bridge the Gap reveals, radionuclide by radionuclide, the astronomical concentrations of radioactive contamination in drinking water proposed, which are orders of magnitude higher than EPA's longstanding drinking water limits. Scores of organizations and individuals in October sent a letter to then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson strenuously objecting to plans to greatly increase permissible public exposures from a wide range of events resulting in release of radioactivity. The last-minute Bush Administration action would publish for public review and comment only about a third of the actual PAG text (see pre-publication draft here). The full, unexpurgated internal confidential EPA draft can be read here. Both were initially obtained by the trade publication Inside EPA. Previous correspondence criticizing the related Dept. of Homeland Security's "Dirty Bomb" Protective Action Guides - Relaxed Cleanup Standards can be viewed here and here. For more information, contact Dan Hirsch at 831-336-8003 or email: contact.cbg@gmail.com

EPA Issues Final Yucca Mountain Radiation Standards (9/30/08) EPA has established radiation standards for the proposed spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. EPA is required to set standards consistent with the findings and recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and satisfy a July 2004 court decision to extend the standards' duration. The Yucca Mountain standards are in line with approaches used in the international radioactive waste management community. The final standards will: * Retain the dose limit of 15 millirem per year for the first 10,000 years after disposal; * Establish a dose limit of 100 millirem annual exposure per year between 10,000 years and 1 million years; * Require the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider the effects of climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, and corrosion of the waste packages to safely contain the waste during the 1 million-year period; and * Be consistent with the recommendations of the NAS by establishing a radiological protection standard for this facility at the time of peak dose up to 1 million years after disposal.

"Radiation is expected to continue spewing for months from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that suffered a meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami in March, but despite grim reports from Japan, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly stopped running extra tests for radioactive material in America's milk, rain and drinking water. The EPA initially ramped up nationwide testing in the weeks following the disaster in Japan, and radioactive materials like cesium and iodine-131 were detected on US soil. Citing declining levels of radiation, the EPA has abandoned the extra tests, even as reports from Japan indicate that the Fukushima plant continues to emit radiation and the disaster is one of the worst in world history."

n a last-ditch effort to avoid regulating widespread perchlorate contamination of drinking water, the Bush Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for yet another blue-ribbon study of the toxic rocket fuel component and widespread pollutant. While the work of the National Academy of Sciences is highly respected, the EPA leadership's attempt to have NAS conduct a new review of perchlorate has to be seen as nothing more than an effort to dodge the issue and buy time for the defense, aerospace and chemical industries, which have been lobbying aggressively to avoid millions in perchlorate clean-up costs. "We know enough about perchlorate's thyroid-disrupting properties to understand that our government has to address this danger immediately," said Dr. Anila Jacob, Senior Scientist with Environmental Working Group (EWG). "EPA has fought every call for a safety standard for perchlorate in drinking water, prompting Congress to introduce measures compelling the agency to do so. Now, with less than two weeks left in power, the Bush team has come up with a last-minute ploy - another study that will amount to a delaying action."

Frustrated with a lack of transparency in the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab, the U.S. EPA has fired off a harsh letter to the Energy Department threatening to pull out of a long-awaited radiation study at the former nuclear research site. In a July 2 letter, EPA Site Cleanup Branch Chief Michael Montgomery warned that "recent events demonstrate a significant lack of transparency in DOE's interactions with EPA and the public."

Over 25 people attended a two-hour meeting Tuesday night to discuss a planned evaporation capping project and other issues of concern to residents regarding the Yerington Mine. Advertisement The meeting was called by the Yerington Community Action Group and featured U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and a pair of EPA consultants who gave presentations on the mine's evaporation pond removal project. Nadia Hollan Burke, Remedial Project Manager with EPA Region 9 (Superfund) over the Yerington Mine remediation project, was joined by her superior, Roberta Blank, as EPA representatives. Also giving a presentation was Victor Early, senior engineering geologist wih Tetra Tech, a consultant for EPA, who was joined by Tetra Tech's Doug Herlocker, an air quality specialist/environmental project manager.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson today announced $600 million in new funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the cleanup of hazardous waste (Superfund) sites across the nation. In most cases, this recovery act funding will accelerate the hazardous waste cleanup already underway at the sites and fund new clean-up projects. It will also jumpstart the local economy by creating jobs in the site areas. "EPA has an answer to these challenging economic times," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Under the Recovery Act, we're getting harmful pollutants and dangerous chemicals out of these communities and putting jobs and investment back in."

ctivists claim that the Environmental Protection Agency is working behind closed doors to draft permit rules for a first-of-its-kind uranium mine in northern Colorado. An EPA spokesman says the agency has consulted with Powertech USA, which wants to build the mine, but hasn't drafted any policy or rules for the permit. Attorney Jeff Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project says documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the EPA is developing rules in violation of federal laws requiring public involvement. Powertech USA wants to mine uranium about 70 miles north of Denver by injecting a solution underground to dissolve and extract the mineral.

ctivists claim that the Environmental Protection Agency is working behind closed doors to draft permit rules for a first-of-its-kind uranium mine in northern Colorado. An EPA spokesman says the agency has consulted with Powertech USA, which wants to build the mine, but hasn't drafted any policy or rules for the permit. Attorney Jeff Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project says documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the EPA is developing rules in violation of federal laws requiring public involvement. Powertech USA wants to mine uranium about 70 miles north of Denver by injecting a solution underground to dissolve and extract the mineral.

Title of article now represents the minimum percentage that the radiation found in Hawaii is over EPA standards. New EPA milk samples in Hawaii show radiation in milk at 800% above limits for Cs-134, 633% above limits for Cs-137 and 600% above EPA maximum for I-131 for a total of 2033%, or 20.33 times, above the federal drinking water limits. New readings have also been posted for Phoenix AZ with milk being above the federal limit and Los Angeles with milk being slightly below the limit for Iodine. Montpelier VT milk has tested positive for radioactive CS-137, above about 2/3rds the EPA maximum and Spokane WA milk testing less than half the limit for i-131.

"The Navajo Nation is going to greatly benefit from that," she said. Among other programs the Navajo EPA is working on with federal funding is: * Drinking Water - $3 million for phase 1 for Sweetwater-to-Shiprock drinking water. This will serve 93 homes without piped water near three unregulated water sources that have been contaminated with uranium, 845 homes served by public water systems that exceed the arsenic drinking water standard, and 982 homes with inadequate water supply. * Waste Water - $9.7 million through the global Interagency Agreement through HIS. * Tribal Drinking Water Set Aside Funding Projects: Dennehotso New Water System - $2 million from U.S. EPA and $2 million from HUD to construct a new 50-mile water system to serve 102 homes without piped water, near 2 unregulated water sources contaminated with Uranium. * Water Hauling Feasibility Study/Pilot Project to serve 4,000 homes without piped water. USEPA is expected to soon provide funding to the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources to develop a water hauling feasibility study and pilot project to serve residents in uranium-impacted areas, and to develop safe water hauling guidelines and conduct outreach. * Black Falls Water Line Extension - U.S. EPA provided $830,000 to construct a water line and safe water hauling point to serves 40 homes without piped water near four unregulated water sources contaminated with uranium. * Clean Water Act/Wastewater Tribal Set Aside Projects: $1.75 million award - $1 million will be in a direct grant to NTUA's Stimulus proposal submitted for Window Rock Wastewater Treatment plant upgrades; $752,867 into inter-agency agreement with IHS to fund other wastewater treatment facility projects.

Public employees have filed a lawsuit demanding documents related to the U.S. EPA's plans made "in secrecy" to allow public exposure to increased levels of radioactivity following nuclear accidents or attacks. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility under the Freedom of Information Act claims that the agency "wrongfully withheld" comments submitted by EPA and other federal and state agency officials and by representatives of private corporations or trade associations to the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air as it prepared its updated Protective Action Guides. The radiation guides are protocols for responding to incidents ranging from nuclear power plant accidents to transportation spills to dirty bombs.

Public employees have filed a lawsuit demanding documents related to the U.S. EPA's plans made "in secrecy" to allow public exposure to increased levels of radioactivity following nuclear accidents or attacks. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility under the Freedom of Information Act claims that the agency "wrongfully withheld" comments submitted by EPA and other federal and state agency officials and by representatives of private corporations or trade associations to the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air as it prepared its updated Protective Action Guides. The radiation guides are protocols for responding to incidents ranging from nuclear power plant accidents to transportation spills to dirty bombs.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) told a Senate oversight committee Sept. 16 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ignored recommendations from an advisory committee established to assist the agency in creating policies to protect children's health. For example, in developing three recent air quality standards on particulate matter, ozone, and lead, EPA either rejected the committee's recommendations or treated them as one of many public comments, according to GAO.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A uranium mining company contends a U.S Environmental Protection Agency ruling is stalling its plans to begin operations in northwest New Mexico. The EPA ruled last year that a 160-acre parcel near Church Rock is part of a dependent Indian community, therefore requiring that Hydro Resources Inc. obtain an underground injection control permit with the EPA, not the state of New Mexico.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to re-evaluate the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate, once made near Lake Mead, because of its potential health impacts on infants and children. Under the Bush administration, the EPA made a preliminary decision not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. In the 1990s scientists discovered perchlorate from two chemical plants in Henderson in Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead waters. Lake Mead supplies 90 percent of Las Vegas Valley's drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to re-evaluate the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate, once made near Lake Mead, because of its potential health impacts on infants and children. Under the Bush administration, the EPA made a preliminary decision not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. In the 1990s scientists discovered perchlorate from two chemical plants in Henderson in Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead waters. Lake Mead supplies 90 percent of Las Vegas Valley's drinking water.

Intent To Evaluate Whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Continues To Comply With the Disposal Regulations and Compliance Criteria AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of availability; official opening of public comment period. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to evaluate and recertify whether or not the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) continues to comply with EPA's environmental radiation protection standards for the disposal of radioactive waste. Pursuant to the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act (LWA), as amended, the U.S.

Some nuclear utilities, like Duke, also have major investments in coal-fired plants uncorkedThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uncorked its long expected policy statement that formally declares carbon dioxide and five other green house gases to be pollutants that are a threat to public health and the environment. The action comes in response to an April 2007 Supreme Court ruling related to pollution from cars and trucks. Government scientists have long been unanimous that these gases caused harm, but the Bush administration bottled up their findings and took no action. According to the New York Times, EPA said the science supporting the proposed endangerment finding was "compelling and overwhelming."

"A plan awaiting approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after "radiological incidents" is drawing vigorous objections from agency experts, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue is the acceptable level of public health risk following a radiation release, whether an accidental spill or a "dirty bomb" attack. The radiation arm of EPA, called the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), has prepared an update of the 1992 "Protective Action Guides" (PAG) governing radiation protection decisions for both short-term and long-term cleanup standards. Other divisions within EPA contend the ORIA plan geometrically raises allowable exposure to the public. For example, as Charles Openchowski of EPA's Office of General Counsel wrote in a January 23, 2009 e-mail to ORIA:"

During the public subcommittee meetings of the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board at the Endeavor Center concerning cleanup and possible future uses for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, a definition clarification led to a volatile exchange between an EPA worker and the survivor of a plant worker. Joni Fearing, whose parents died from plant related contamination, objected to the Portsmouth/Piketon site not technically qualifying as a "superfund" cleanup site, which in the determination of certain attorneys triggers certain benefits to survivors. After challenging criteria for "superfund" classification, Brian Blair, Ohio EPA Division of Emergency and Remedial Response, attempted to explain the process. Sites designated under superfund qualify for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law. The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is on the list in Kentucky.

During the public subcommittee meetings of the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board at the Endeavor Center concerning cleanup and possible future uses for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, a definition clarification led to a volatile exchange between an EPA worker and the survivor of a plant worker. Joni Fearing, whose parents died from plant related contamination, objected to the Portsmouth/Piketon site not technically qualifying as a "superfund" cleanup site, which in the determination of certain attorneys triggers certain benefits to survivors. After challenging criteria for "superfund" classification, Brian Blair, Ohio EPA Division of Emergency and Remedial Response, attempted to explain the process. Sites designated under superfund qualify for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law. The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is on the list in Kentucky.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has notified the Department of Energy that they must immediately resume cleanup activities at its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., or face escalating penalties. A federal facilities agreement was signed between EPA, DOE and California state agencies in June 1988. The agreement outlines DOE's responsibilities and milestones for addressing site contamination. DOE has failed to operate numerous groundwater and soil vapor treatment facilities and associated wells -- an integral part of cleanup activities at the site. While pump-and-treat systems have been shutdown, site contamination has spread laterally and vertically, resulting in a larger volume of contaminated groundwater and increasing timeframes for completing the overall cleanup.