Letters to US EPA Region 5 Re: IEL Toxic Gasses & 5 Year Review Requirements
Read MoreGiven significant public pressure, after EPA had played down the content of what might be found in the IEL gases, repeatedly claiming back then, (in the mid 80s), it was just good old garbage dump methane, Region 5 miraculously chose to reverse a decision it had made prior to not conduct VOC testing/ chemical analysis on IEL’s gases, (during Superfund reauthorization when funding was tight they had claimed), and the Region decided to test for other constituents besides methane due to public/media pressure. From that testing, EPA indeed learned that at least 24 VOCs accompanied the methane, including Phosgene nerve gas. Yet, initially, an outside gas contractor US EPA had hired from Lorton, Va. in attending one of our many public meetings, trivialized the VOC’s concentration.…However, years later, he returned to Ohio and our TIC meeting, in approx. 1992, and in a stunning reversal of sorts, he informed us that the IEL landfills gases were ranging 8 – 9 % for Volatile Organic Chemicals, whereas, he told us that at a “typical” landfill, they would expect to only see VOC concentrations in a landfill gas at around .1 % . ( His name was Jim Walsh, if you have trouble finding the file, I believe his firm was called SES).
7/26/10 to Sherrod Brown
Read MoreYour public statements to the media and your constituents concerning accountability of the British Petroleum Corporation is laudable. I hope they intensify to include issues of corporate rule or governance.
A somewhat similar environmental and political disaster exists closer to home in connection to the Industrial Excess Landfill (IEL) in Uniontown, Ohio. The corporate polluters here have also been put in charge of the so-called “cleanup.” The regulatory agency here, the EPA, has been compliant to the wishes of the corporate polluters. A real cleanup of IEL has not take place. Those responsible and accountability for the damages, cost and liability have not been brought to justice.
03/19/09 Press Release
Read MoreThe US EPA and Department of Justice want to sell off for potential re-use one of the nation’s worst toxic waste dumps, the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill, despite the fact that NO clean-up has ever taken place of the hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous substances and radiation, including deadly Plutonium, reported in test results of groundwater declared valid by US EPA.
1/10/09 to Caroline Markworth, Ohio EPA Public Relations Dept.
January 10th, 2009 SENT VIA E-MAIL
Third letter of request for information re. OEPA written response to the Nimishillen Creek Report & IEL Superfund Site
Read More6/10/08 to James Wolford, EPA Superfund Director
June 10th, 2008 SENT VIA FAX
US EPA Headquarters
Mr. James Wolford – Director, Office of Superfund Remediation and Technological Innovations
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT: Reform of US EPA Radiation Testing Methods at Superfund Sites
Dear Director Wolford:
After several years researching and consulting with various radiation experts around the country, both governmental and independent academic professionals, we believe that it is imperative that US EPA immediately reform its radiation testing at Superfund Sites by abandoning the current usage of the EPA Finished Drinking Water 900 Method,(meant for treated public water systems and not raw toxic dump water) and adopting the practices that are routinely used by the Dept. of Energy, including lower detection limits – 0.01 pico curies per liter for Plutonium, to increase certainty levels and accuracy.
Read More05/18/08 Chris Korleski, Ohio EPA Director
Ohio EPA Director May 18th, 2008
Mr. Chris Korleski
Re: OEPA Director’s response to CCLT dated May 15th rejecting concerns re: IEL radiation testing / fraudulent science
Dear Director Korleski:
This is to acknowledge CCLT’s receipt of your letter written to our citizens’ group dated May 15th. When you were newly appointed by Governor Ted Strickland last year, you were quoted as saying that you desired obtaining “the best available science” and that you wanted to focus on protection of Ohio’s water sources. After waiting some 15 years for a change in Ohio leadership, we took heart at those words, and have since sought a meeting here with you here at our Stark Commisioner’s office through numerous requests made by Commissioner Bosley since last spring.
Read MoreBennett and Williams Report 09-14-06
Read More“As we have discussed in earlier reports on the IEL site, there are basically three major water systems that can carry contamination away from the IEL site. These systems as surface water; starting on the east side of the site with Metzgers Ditch; regional subsurface ground water flow of dissolved volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semivolatile organic compounds (SemiVOCs); and the deep, top of bedrock ground water flow of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) which flow by gravity along the top of bedrock in the direction(s) of bedrock drainage. This third mechanism is controlled by gravity and may or may not have anything to do with the general direction of the two other systems.”
9/2/06 to Michael Cook, EPA Superfund Remediation Director
Sent Via Fax: 2 page letter
9/2/06
US EPA Headquarters
Mr. Michael B. Cook – Director, Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Cook:
Region 5’s Richard Karls’s letter dated August 10th to CCLT written on behalf of EPA Administrator Steve Johnson appears to primarily rely upon your letter to our citizens’ group dated April 26th, 2006, to dismiss all our concerns. We are extremely frustrated by your depending upon a 13 years old report written by an ad hoc SAB panel, especially now that a journalist has learned that the majority of that committee has reportedly admitted that they were not even qualified to discuss radiation testing methods and procedures, which should clearly now render this report null and void. Much is at stake, given that IEL was used as the example for all other Superfund Sites in the country suspected of containing radiation, reinforcing the bad policy of using the Finished Drinking Water Method on raw, untreated water. It is believed this method can mask man-made nuclear materials leaking from sites given several inherent loopholes within the method. Those biases are central to the Uniontown IEL case.
Read More1/23/06 IEL Public Informational Meeting with Experts
IEL PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETING WITH EXPERTS – MAY 23RD, 2006
Thank you for attending tonight’s forum to report to the public the findings of the four experts hired with a $50,000 grant awarded to Concerned Citizens of Lake Twp. by the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund. This Fund was established as a result of a 1998 settlement agreement between 39 environmental plantiffs and the Dept. of Energy. While the Uniontown IEL is not currently listed as a Federal site, the national panel with the MTA Fund believed that there was enough evidence of man-made radiation to make this award to our group.
PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE TO REVIEW THE REPORTS DISCUSSED TONIGHT IN THEIR ENTIRETY AND OTHER RELATED MATERIALS TO THE IEL:
http://www.northcanton.com/iel/index.htm
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Write state and Federal officials asking that they support the list of recommendations put forth by CCLT/ experts on pages 25 & 26 of the 3/27/06 Baskaran/Ketterer report. IMPORTANT NOTE: This list is currently being updated to include additional investigations regarding previous requests made by Ohio EPA to include trenching of areas shown on Fig. 7 of the GPR report for metal containers, soil and water testing of the “lagoon” area and gamma borehole studies. Also, write US EPA Administrator Steve Johnson with same requests FAX #: 202-501-1450
TONIGHT’S SPEAKERS
DR. MICHAEL E. KETTERER
Dr. . Ketterer is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Arizona University. His research work specializes in studies of environmental radioactivity and studies of radioactivity from human causes. He does extensive work with “fingerprinting” of the sources of uranium and plutonium using isotope analysis procedures. Ketterer received his B.S. in Chemistry at Notre Dame and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Colorado. He worked as a chemist at US EPA’s forensic laboratory from 1987 to 1993, and conducted many studies of contamination at Superfund Sites. From 1993 – 1998 he was Assistant Professsor of Chemistry at John Carroll University; since `1998 he has been NAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. Dr. Ketterer has published 40 peer-review papers including 12 dealing with environmental radioactivity. He recently completed studies of plutonium “fingerprinting” from Chernobyl in eastern Europe and in Spain from the 1966 Palomares accident.
DR. MARK BASKARAN
Dr. Baskaran holds a PhD in Geochemistry and has worked extensively in the field of Environmental Radioactivity over the past 27 years. He is currently an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. He has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, boo-chapters, over a dozen articles as Reports and Proceedings in National and International Meetings, and over 65 published abstracts presented at those meetings.Dr. Baskaran has given over 30 invited talks at various institutions around the globe, including academic institutions and National DOE Laboratories. Some of the major research projects conducted in the past 15 years pertaining to Environmental Radioativity include the following: a) Assessing the impact of Chernobyl accident in the Alaskan Arctic; b) To determine the sources of Plutonium and other anthropogenic radionuclides in the marginal seas of the Russian Arctic; and c) To assess if there is leakage of Plutonium and other radionuclides from the Amchitka nuclear tests to the adjoining Bering Sea. In addition, Dr. Baskaran was a consultant for a Citizens Advisory Group to evaluate the threat of the Mixed Landfill Site adjacent to Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
DR. JULIE WEATHERINGTON RICE
Dr. Julie Rice is a Senior Scientist at Bennett and Williams Environmental Consulting Firm of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Rice is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University Dept. of Food, Agriculture and Biological Engineering. Dr. Rice serves as the c0-coordinator of the Ohio Fracture Flow Working Group, member of the Ohio Academy of Sciences. She is a certified soil scientist and certified professional geologist.. Dr. Rice has published numerous papers related to her field. Her fields of special competence include: Geomorphology, stratigraphy and hydrogeology and mapping (both soils and geologic ) with special emphasis on Pleistocene geomorphology, physical and chemical properties of materials (both soils and parent) and ground water movement investigations with GIS systems applications; Ground Water Protection; Aquifer Characterization and Modeling; Wellfield Development; Solid, Hazardous, and Radioactive Waste Landfill Siting studies and several additional areas as well.
LINDA ALLER
Linda Aller is Principal Geologist with Bennett and Williams Environmental Consultants, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio. Ms. Aller is a Registered Sanitarian and a certified hydro geologist with the National Ground Water Association. Ms. Aller has published state-of the art documents on evaluating ground-water pollution that are being used extensively by federal, state and local governments and private concerns to prioritize clean-up, monitoring and capital expenditures. Additonal state-of-the art publications include design and construction practices for ground water monitoring wells, ways to locate abandoned wells and methods to ensure mechanical integrity of injection wells. She has been involved extensively with a group that is compiling and publishing state-of-the art research on fracture flow. Ms. Aller has conducted field investigations to troubleshoot soil and ground-water contamination incidences and to evaluate clean-up otions fro brownfields.She is also involved with well design and wellhead protection.
THE FERNALD SITE IN CINCINNATI RECEIVED $300 MILLION EACH YEAR FOR ITS CLEAN UP. WHY MUST IEL SETTLE FOR BIRD FEEDERS, SUBSTANDARD TESTING AND A NON-CLEAN -UP THAT ALLOWS THE CONTINUED FLUSHING OF TOXINS INTO THE AREA’S AQUIFER? Article from AP 2/02
Read More7/16/06 to Steve Johnson, US EPA
Sent Via Fax : 2 page letter with 1 page attachment
July 17th, 2006
Mr. Steve Johnson – US EPA Administrator
c/o Ms. Lori Dnbriel
Washington, D.C.
Dear Administrator Johnson:
Since last October, we have written to you seeking your personal involvement regarding our site, Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill Superfund Site, raising serious questions that we strongly believe have national policy implications concerning radiation and Cold War waste material. To date, we have yet to receive from EPA responses that are scientifically supportable. Rather, you have allowed Region 5 and NAREL, which are hardly considered to be impartial or objective regarding IEL, to “recycle” old, outdated opinions that are not consistent with good science found within either DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, your own agency’s R&D department or the MARLAP Manual.. Moreover, a reporter learned by making a few phone calls, that the majority of the panel members from the EPA IEL Science Advisory Board (SAB) didn’t even believe that they were qualified to discuss radiation testing methods. Yet, inexplicably, Mr. Mike Cook, head of EPA Superfund, recycled this same SAB report’s conclusions back at us on your behalf, (even though it is now clear it should be considered null and void) – ignoring this concern about the SAB usage when it was also expressed by national organizations, POGO and AFSC in the joint letter they sent to you dated 4/12/06 concerning IEL radiation. Administrator Johnson, given the very serious nature of our case and the recent findings of experts hired with a $50,000 grant ( please see our web site provided on the cover page) we are compelled to again seek scientifically supportable answers that can be peer reviewed. Please respond in writing to the following key issues:
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