Please critique this fact sheet!

[karav@bnlux1.bnl.gov (Kara Villamil)]

To the Radsafe list:

I'm a new subscriber, from the Public Affairs Office at Brookhaven National
Laboratory, a DOE basic (non-defense) research lab on Long Island, New
York. Apologies in advance for making my first post such a long one!

The issue is tritium in the groundwater and surface/ground water. We're
going through a public uproar over an effort to upgrade our sewage
treatment plant by building underground aeration tanks.

Because our water table is only a few feet below the ground here, the
construction project requires temporary dewatering, or groundwater pumping.
Most of the water will be pumped up and into sand filter beds nearby. But
as a contingency, we had to apply for a permit to put some of the
groundwater into the Peconic River's dry bed, where our treated effluent
usually goes. This would only be done at a rate of a million gallons a day
for a max of 2 months, and the water would recharge to groundwater through
the riverbed before it reached the flowing river. The state department of
environmental conservation has given us a permit to go ahead.

Here's the thing: Because the groundwater under the lab contains trace
amounts of tritium from our research reactor, a community activist has been
able to whip up public sentiment and media attention to the point that we
have announced we'll stop work on the project, step back and re-evaluate,
and risk losing the funding for the upgrade forever.

The tritium level is well within the state drinking water standard. But
there are other factors to consider:
  1. Several years ago, the local public killed the Shoreham Nuclear Power
Plant _after_ it was built but not yet commissioned;
  2. Breast cancer rates on the Island are perceived by the population to
be abnormally high, and some spurious studies have attempted to link BNL
with this (other studies have shown our rates aren't much higher than those
of any other affluent suburban community);
  3. Long Island has an affluent population with a history of environmental
activism; and
  4. The Peconic River and the Peconic Bay into which it flows are home to
a once-thriving shellfishing and fishing industry that has hit hard times
because of algae blooms known as brown tide.

So, it's an interesting atmosphere in which to be handling these issues.

The activist, from Fish Unlimited, has put out the following "fact sheet"
(below) about the project. I apologize again for posting something so long
to a listserv, but we'd really appreciate any health-physics-based critique
of his claims that any of you can offer.

Our health physicists and safety folks have helped tremendously in this
situation, but those who oppose the project have expressed a severe lack of
any faith in what we say or even in the state's experts. That's why we've
turned to this list's subscribers.

Thank you for any help you can give,
Kara Villamil
BNL Public Affairs
karav@bnl.gov

_____________________________________________________________
Fish Unlimited
Brookhaven National Laboratory "Dewatering" Project Fact Sheet

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has been issued a permit by the New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to discharge up
to 936,000,000 gallons of ground water contaminated with the following
contaminants into the Peconic River:

Copper, lead, nickel, silver, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite, 1-1-1
trichloroethane, methylene chloride, toluene, cyanids, tritium, gross
alpha, gross beta, strontium-90, ph range to be within 5.8-9.0.

BNL states that the levels of above all meet drinking water standards
however low "acceptable" levels of tritium, have been proven to cause
cancer, and specifically breast cancer.

Tritium has a half life of 12.5 years. At this rate it will be in our
waters and food chain (shellfish and finfish) for approx. 250 years.

Strontium-90 is defined in Webster's Dictionary has "a deadly radioactive
isotope of strontium" with a half life of 30 years, it will be in our
waters and food chain for 600 years.

This water is being discharged to dewater an area adjacent to the sewage
treatment plant at BNL so that the plant can be upgraded to secondary
treatment. Specifically so that 2 concrete aeration tanks can be built
below ground in the contaminated area.

These tanks can be built above ground at less cost, accomplishing the same
objective and at no risk to the Peconic Estuary, its life, or human health.


Tritium not only causes excessively high mortality rates in juvenile shell
and finfish, but destroys the immune system of those that survive.

Those finfish and shellfish that do survive also become contaminated with
the Tritium, thus causing humans who consume them to also suffer
contamination.

There is a strong and proven correlation with regard to cancer levels,
specifically breast cancer, and "acceptable" levels of radioactive
contamination.

BNL has a history of poor safety practices and nuclear accidents as
verified in a Newsday article dated August 20th, 1995.

The highest rates of breast cancer in Suffolk County occur now in an area
15 miles around BNL.

Water can be pumped from the ground at a much greater rate than the ground
will absorb (perk) it.

At the rate BNL is allowed to discharge water, the 2 areas set aside for
perking will become saturated in less than 3 days. After this occurs these
areas will become pond-like, and all additional water pumped will enter the
Peconic River and eventually the Peconic Bay.

Gross Alpha emitted from heavy elements such as uranium, plutonium and
other radioactive elements that are a result of activities at BNL.

Gross Beta particles are emitted from fission products which are found in
radioactive elements produced by BNL.

Evaporation from contaminated ground water pumped will result in airborne
radioactive contamination for up to a 100 mile radius thus causing not only
the contamination of our waters but our air as well. This will result in
radioactive fallout.

Heavier elements such as Gross alpha and beta directly destroy DNA and cell
membranes.


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If you've read this far, thanks!