Tonawanda News 01/10/01

State seeks control over disposal of Linde toxins 

BY CHERYL A.KRAJNA
STAFF WRITER 

The federal government should take responsibility for cleanup of the nuclear 
waste at the Town of Tonawanda's Linde site. 

So says James Rauch and the citizens' environmental group For a Clean 
Tonawanda Site. Rauch spoke on behalf of FACTS at a public hearing Tuesday 
afternoon at the Holiday Inn in Amherst hosted by the New York State 
Department of Environmental Conservation. 

The DEC, called the hearing to receive comments about a proposed amendment
to state environmental law, which would give the DEC control of the disposal
in state landfills of radioactive wastes created before Nov. 8, 1978, said 
Barbara Youngberg, chief of the radiation section for the DEC's Division of 
Solid and Hazardous Materials. 

"This is to fill a regulatory gap," she said. 

In 1974, the U.S. Department of Energy established the Formerly Utilized 
Sites Remedial Action Program "to investigate those sites,"  she explained. 
In October 1977, FUSRAP was transferred from the DOE to the Army Corps of 
Engineers. On April 5 last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Committee issued a 
director's decision asserting that it has no authority over the pre-1978 
wastes, she said. Therefore, the NRC will not regulate FUSRAP wastes in New 
York.
 
Without the proposed amendment, "landfills could accept radioactive wastes at 
hundreds of times of background levels," Youngberg said. 

The state's efforts are appreciated, Rauch said, even though the state is not 
blameless, but the federal government must take the responsibility. 

"The state should sue the federal government to regulate this material," he 
said. "These materials must be regulated. Federal action is needed."

"For over two decades, the NRC has failed to take action to protect people 
from the damaging effects of the millions of tons of radioactive uranium 
mill tailings that were generated prior to 1978, predominantly as a result 
of the Manhattan Project and subsequent early A-Bomb production activities," 
Rauch wrote on the FACTS web site. "NRC's lack of action ... is in direct 
violation of federal law and NRC's own regulations." 

The former Linde Air Products, where Praxair now stands in the 
Sheridan-East Park drives area, processed uranium ores at its ceramics plant 
from 1940-48 under contract to Manhattan Engineer District, a predecessor of 
the Department of Energy, according to information prepared by the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineer. 

Soils at the facility became contaminated as a result of Manhattan Project 
activities involving the separation of uranium ores. Contaminants of concern 
include radium, thorium and uranium. 

Remediation has begun there, as well as at the Ashland sites, where 
radioactive residues from uranium processing were taken.

"I don't understand what the emergency is," said Dennis Conroy, speaking on 
behalf of Praxair. "Progress is being made. Over the last 12 months, 
thousands of containers of contaminated materials have been taken out. 
Praxair, a major employer, has disrupted operations to accommodate the 
cleanup. We are getting things done." 

In April, an article in the Washington Post alleged that the U.S. Army Corps 
of Engineers was mismanaging the cleanup of nuclear materials on the site. 
The article said the Environmental Protection Agency had launched a criminal 
investigation into the Corps to determine "whether contractors hired by the 
Corps mishandled waste."