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Re: Envirocare - latest information
I take some small comfort in the fact that Mr. Anderson is neither a member
of the Health Physics Society nor of the American Academy of Health Physics.
Ron Kathren, CHP, DEE
> Here is the latest information coming out about the Envirocare
> "scandal."
>
> Steven D. Rima, CHP
> steven.rima@doegjpo.com
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
> Thursday, January 9, 1997
>
>
> ENVIROCARE GOT BREAKS AND STATE KNEW IT
>
> '90 Probe Sheds Light On Waste
> Scandal
>
> BY JIM WOOLF
> Copyright 1997, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
>
> New concerns about the relationship between former state
> radiation-control director Larry F. Anderson and
> Envirocare of Utah owner Khosrow Semnani are revealed in a 1990
> internal state memorandum obtained this
> week by The Salt Lake Tribune.
>
> ``Our conclusion is that Mr. Anderson has not retained
> objectivity concerning Envirocare,'' said the memo
> prepared for the then-Utah Division of Environmental Health.
> ``Our investigation has not revealed the cause of this
> lack of objectivity.''
>
> The cause now is clear: Anderson was receiving secret payments
> from Semnani. The businessman said he paid
> Anderson $600,000 in cash, gold and real estate over eight years
> to keep the state regulator from causing
> problems for his Tooele County disposal site for low-level
> radioactive waste. Anderson contends he had a valid
> consulting contract with Semnani and recently sued for more than
> $5 million in unpaid compensation.
>
> Issues raised in the 1990 investigation include:
>
> -- Anderson's efforts in 1987 to ensure that Semnani was able
> to purchase 543 acres of state-owned land for
> the disposal facility. Anderson told investigators that he and
> other state regulators were ``advocates for
> Envirocare because of the nation's need for a place to dispose of
> low-level radioactive waste.''
>
> -- Anderson's assistance to Semnani in purchasing a
> state-owned railroad-car-unloading device. A 1992
> legislative audit said this purchase appeared to bypass normal
> state surplus-property regulations, but the 1990
> investigation provides more details. For example, Anderson
> apparently hand-carried Semnani's purchase forms to
> the state surplus-property office.
>
> -- When another Tooele County disposal company -- USPCI Inc.
> -- complained about not being given a
> chance to bid on the railroad-car-unloading device, Semnani paid
> that company $100,000 to avoid legal action,
> said the memo.
>
> Semnani said Wednesday that the $100,000 payment was to settle
> ``a number of outstanding issues'' between
> Envirocare and USPCI. The railroad-car dumper was just one of
> them.
>
> -- Anderson's lax enforcement of state rules affecting
> Envirocare. ``If there is a choice between treating
> Envirocare strictly or leniently, he will treat the organization
> leniently,'' said the memo.
>
> -- Semnani's special treatment of radiation-control staff.
> ``On one occasion, Mr. Semnani bought pizza for the
> entire Bureau of Radiation Control. On another occasion, he took
> the bureau to lunch at Cafe Pierpont [in
> downtown Salt Lake City]. He buys Christmas presents for members
> of the bureau. Last year [1989], it was ties
> for the men, perfume for the women,'' said the memo.
>
> -- Anderson's efforts to block disposal projects in Utah and
> Colorado that could have competed with
> Envirocare. For example, he objected to Nuclear Fuel Service's
> (NFS) plans to move material similar to
> uranium-mill tailings to a closed-down uranium mill at Ticaboo in
> Garfield County because it was ``difficult to find
> a corporate structure'' for NFS and the company appeared to be
> ``based out of the Cayman Islands or
> somewhere.''
>
> ``He's lying through his teeth,'' Paul Schutt, chief executive
> officer for NFS, said Wednesday. ``For 30 years
> we've been providing nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy. If we were
> based in the Cayman Islands, the Navy would put
> me in jail.'' The company is based in Delaware.
>
> Anderson's attorney, James C. Haskins, declined Wednesday to
> discuss these issues. Anderson declined to be
> interviewed by a Tribune reporter who visited his home in
> Mesquite, Nev.
>
> Despite the long list of concerns turned up by the
> investigators in 1990, they could find no concrete evidence
> of wrongdoing by Anderson. Rather than launch further
> investigations that might have uncovered the secret
> arrangement between Anderson and Semnani, the issue was dropped.
>
> ``In hindsight, I wish we would have continued to
> investigate,'' said Ken Alkema, who then was director of the
> Division of Environmental Health. ``But it [the investigation]
> didn't give us the basis for pursuing it any farther.''
>
> Alkema, who now is director of governmental relations for
> Envirocare, said immediately after the investigation
> ended, he ordered all copies of the report destroyed to protect
> the anonymity of the staff members raising
> concerns about Anderson. As a result, criminal investigators who
> have spent the past couple of months looking
> into ties between Anderson and Semnani believed the document was
> gone.
>
> However, at least one copy survived and was provided to The
> Tribune. It is a draft of the memo that has
> editing marks correcting spelling and other errors.
>
>