RE: Ramp Update

[VERNIG.PETER@FORUM.VA.GOV]

John DeLaHunt gave an informative update, which I appreciate.
I passed on to other VA facilities but neglected to tell the 
general radsafe people, that our "waste in" listing was inflated
by about 40%.  It is easy to see how it could happen.  I received
about 2 inches of paper which included many internal worksheets and
basically anything that had our name on it.
 
I went to the manifests from us to Ramp and used a spread sheet to
total the material and came up with about 60% of the total attributed
to us.  No material to my knowledge ever left here without a manifest.
The EPA Enforcement Specilist, Ms. Pokorny, seemed pleased that I had
done this and receptive to my contention that the lower number repre-
sents the volume of waste we actually shipped to Ramp.
 
One of our environmental law specialists seemed to indicate that another
way to reduce the volume is to document what left Ramp.  That is manifests
from Ramp to disposal sites and notices of receipt.
 
THE IMPORTANT THING HERE IS that total waste volume has in the past
and MAY in this case be used to determine what share of the clean up
costs will be requested/demanded from each facility.  There are of
course no guarantees.  But I think it behooves any of you  who have not
scrutinized the material they sent you to do so and challenge the volume
attributed to you if you have a basis to do so.  I am not sure, at all
if showing waste left Ramp helps or not and I can not call the specialist
I mentioned because virtually every VA Lawyer has been furloughed.
 
I think the deadline applies to responding fo the questions possed and 
hopefully you may still challenge the volume.
 
Peter G. Vernig VA Medical Center
Involuntary servitude- Requiring someone to work without compensation.
500,000 government workers meet that definition and have for 20 days.