Livermore Pu

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

The following is a cross-post from the Center for Public Environmental
Oversight.  Obviously there are concerned citizens who believe the level
of Pu in the park is potentially dangerous to their children.  Any
comments?

Subject: 
        More plutonium at Livermore park
   Date: 
        Wed, 17 Feb 1999 10:53:10 -0800
   From: 
        marylia@igc.org (marylia)
     To: 
        cpeo-military@igc.org




Hi. There is an address for your written or email comments at the end,
along with public meeting info.

More Plutonium Found in Park: Lab Says No Action Needed

by Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' February 1999 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

Three times, soil samples have been collected from a city park
near Livermore Lab and tested for plutonium.

Three times, the test results have come back positive. High levels of
plutonium have been found - in the loose dirt in the park, along a
baseball
diamond that sits between the park and the adjacent elementary school
and
in a picnic area nearby.

And, three times, Lab officials have rushed to assert that there is no
harm
to human health or the environment from the plutonium, and that no
cleanup
or follow up action  is warranted.

Plutonium is a man-made, radioactive metal used to create the atomic
explosion that is at the core of a modern nuclear weapon. Plutonium 239,
the bomb-grade isotope found in the park, has a radioactive half-life of
24,000 years. A material's hazardous life is generally calculated to be
10
times its half-life. Thus, plutonium is, in human terms, forever. The
Lab
has around 880 pounds of it on hand, enough for nearly 100 modern
nuclear
weapons.

There is no safe level of plutonium exposure. A microscopic particle, if
inhaled, can cause cancer and other diseases.

A problem is discovered

Plutonium pollution was first discovered in  Big Trees Park when the EPA
analyzed a single dirt sample there. The EPA also took one sample each
from
two other Livermore parks. The agency expected all three to be at
"background," and to use them as a comparison for known plutonium

contamination at the Lab.

All 3 samples came up dirty, and the one from Big Trees Park contained
the
highest level of plutonium. Big Trees is about one-half mile west of
Livermore Lab.

EPA uses a "background" range (representing global fallout levels from
nuclear testing) of .001 to .01 picocuries of plutonium per gram of
soil.
The initial sample taken from Big Trees Park measured .164, between 16
and
160 times "background."

Amidst pressure from Tri-Valley CAREs and others, the Lab conducted a
limited number of soil tests at Big Trees Park in 1995. Those test
results
turned up even higher levels of plutonium,  including a finding of 1.02
picocuries per gram, up to 1,000 times higher than attributable to
global
fallout. The highest levels of plutonium were found in the top two
inches
of dirt in the park.

The EPA's "screening level" for plutonium in residential soil is
2.5 picocuries per gram. So, while elevated levels of plutonium have
been
found atop park soils in which children run, dig and play, the community
has no regulatory mechanism to enforce cleanup. And, we still have
questions about how the plutonium traveled to the parks and what the
potential might be that other,  undiscovered, "hot spots" are lurking
within the community.

Health agencies come to town

Because the Lab is on the EPA's list of worst contaminated sites in the
nation (the Superfund), the federal ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances
Disease Registry) came to town to conduct a public health assessment.
Working through a cooperative agreement, the California Department of
Health Services and ATSDR together set up a "site team"  to guide their
assessment (which includes Tri-Valley CAREs' Stephanie Ericson), held
public meetings and undertook to write a health consultation on
plutonium
in Livermore.

We shared our files with the agencies. In addition to data on plutonium
in
the parks, we had information about plutonium accidents at the Lab,
including several where the radioactive metal had been washed down Lab
drains and carried to the city sewage treatment plant. In a 1967
accident,
the Lab estimated it sent a half-gram of plutonium  to the sewage plant.
>From '67 until the early '70s that plutonium-laden sludge was given to
unknowing residents to use as fertilizer in their lawns and gardens.

The draft plutonium health consultation, released in 1998, discussed the
sludge problem, pointing out that the Lab may have systematically
underestimated the amount of plutonium in the sludge by failing to
analyze
the solids where it would likely concentrate. The consult also covered
the
plutonium pollution in Big Trees Park. Whether the health agencies will
make final recommendations, and what those recommendations will be is
the
subject of a crucial public meeting on February 17. Your voice is
needed.
(See Citizen's Alerts on page 3.)

A third round of soil tests

Last year, again under pressure, Livermore Lab decided to undertake
another, more thorough, series of soil tests at Big Trees Park. The
sampling goal was two-fold: to find out whether there was more plutonium
and to shed some light on how it got there.


Wind, water and contaminated sludge formed the three basic theories on
how
the plutonium got to the park. Airborne emissions from the Lab (due to
accidents and/or routine operations) could have transported it there. If
this is so, it is likely that other "hot spots" exist around Livermore.
A
second possibility is via the  creek that cuts through the Lab before
going
past the park. Plutonium may have entered the creek as storm run-off and
been tracked by kids and machines up into the park. Third, the Lab
hypothesized, plutonium contaminated sludge could have been used on the
ornamental trees when they were planted in the early 1970s. This was
repeatedly denied by the sewage treatment plant and the parks district.

The results

Late last month, Livermore Lab released the sampling results. High
levels
of plutonium were found at numerous sites in the park, near (but not in)
the creek, along the ball field and by a little grassy hill between the
park and the sidewalk.  Somewhat elevated levels of plutonium were also
found behind an apartment complex between the Lab and the park. The
highest
concentration of plutonium found was .774 picocuries per gram, up to 700
times "background," but below the EPA's screening level. Once again,
most
of the plutonium was found in the top two inches of dirt.

The Lab took samples in tree wells. No plutonium was found in samples
about
twenty inches deep, around the roots. So, the city was correct, and no
contaminated sludge was used in their planting. The Lab took samples in
the
historic creek bed, covered over when the park was created and the creek
was rechanneled. Again, no findings. The way the plutonium is
distributed
suggests that it may have traveled by air to the park. The hottest spots
somewhat follow a line from the Lab's plutonium facility to the park,
and
in some cases, but not all, the highest concentrations fall out about
forty
inches or so away from the trees - which may have "captured" the
airborne
plutonium particles that then washed down when it rained.

Livermore Lab, however, is aggressively pushing a new sludge theory:
Namely that an unknown resident had an unknown amount of contaminated
sludge which he or she put  around the trees at an unknown time after
they
were planted, for an assumed reason - to be helpful. The closer one
looks
at the Lab's "evidence" the more unlikely it seems. For example, the Lab
found lower concentrations of other metals than you would expect to find
if
sewer sludge had been put on the trees. The Lab theorizes that the other
metals washed away. One could go on. It's all possible, but not likely.
In
fact, the motivation seems political, not scientific. The Lab appears
unwilling to consider that the pollution source may be the still-active
plutonium facility and not a single, discrete occurrence from the
distant
past.

Recommendations

1. Sampling should be done of other likely "hot spots," including east
of
the Lab where plutonium has been found in off site air monitors. Samples
should be analyzed for particle size to help determine the amounts of
plutonium escaping through the filtering system. (More on filter
problems

in an upcoming issue.)

2. "Hot spots" should be cleaned up. There is no excuse for the Lab
leaving
elevated levels of plutonium in a park.

3. The Lab should institute changes in its filter maintenance and
operational procedures in the plutonium facility to help minimize
further
releases.

4. The plutonium facility should rapidly be phased out of operation.

5. The California Dept. of Health Services should head up an
investigation
into where the contaminated sludge ended up. The Lab should pay for
sampling on demand for any area residents who think they may have gotten
plutonium-laden sludge for their home use.

(Please attend a public meeting on Wednesday, February 17 at 6 PM. The
meeting will be held at the Marriott Hotel at 2600 Bishop Dr. in San
Ramon,
and is sponsored by the federal health agency ATSDR. If you cannot
attend,
send your comments and recommendations to: Paul Charp, mail stop E-56,
ATSDR, 1600 Clifton Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA 30333. Paul's phone is (404)
639-6004. His email is <PAC4@cdc.gov>)

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983,
Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of
the
international Abolition 2000 network for the elimination of nuclear
weapons.

[end cross-post]

-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net
VISIT OUR UPDATED WEB SITE:  http://www.local-oversight.org
==================================================
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