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In a message dated 6/24/99 8:53:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time, AOL News writes:

<< Wildlife Thrive in Bad Environment
 
 .c The Associated Press
 
  By H. JOSEF HEBERT
 
 NEW ELLENTON, S.C. (AP) - The wide-mouth bass are monsters. The deer are 
fatter and the alligators longer. And the ponds, wetlands and rich bottomland 
brim with snakes, turtles, and salamanders - a bounty of biological diversity.
 
 But the Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile expanse of longleaf pine 
forest and marshland along the river that divides South Carolina from 
Georgia, is an ecological paradox.
 
 For four decades one of the government's top-secret nuclear bomb factories 
where five reactors produced plutonium and tritium for nuclear warheads, it 
also is an ecological treasure chest full of wildlife and one of the hottest 
spots for biological research in the country, including long-term studies on 
the movement of contamination - nuclear and otherwise - through the 
environment.
 
 In a sign of the sites' ecological importance, the Energy Department today 
transferred management of a 10,000-acre sliver of the Savannah River site 
over to management by the South Carolina Natural Resource Department.
 
 ``This will further protect a unique habitat that for almost 50 years has 
been spared from development,'' Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said, in 
marking the management transfer.
 
 ``It is absolutely a paradox. From the outside, people see it as a nuclear 
site,'' says Whit Gibbons, a senior scientist at the Savannah River Ecology 
Laboratory, whose 35 faculty scientists and dozens of other researchers and 
students have been closely studying the place for years.
 
 The nuclear complex, mostly mothballed reactors and structures devoted to 
cleaning up the mess they made over decades of nuclear weapons production, 
covers only about l0 percent of the Energy Department's property.
 
 The rest is largely pristine wilderness undisturbed by development for a 
half century - vast expanses of longleaf pine forests, Cypress swamps, 
Carolina bay wetlands and a creek that boasts the highest number of different 
aquatic insect species - 650 - of any river in North America.
 
 There are also more than 100 species of reptiles and amphibians, 79 species 
of freshwater fish, more than 1,500 vascular plants, 7,000 whitetail deer, 
turtles, several hundred alligators, thousands of migratory birds, bobcats, 
and a number of endangered or threatened species including the red-cockaded 
woodpecker, wood stork, smooth purple cone flower and bald eagle.
 
 ``People think it has to be an awful place,'' says Gibbons, an ecology 
professor at the University of Georgia who has scrutinized the Savannah River 
Site for 32 years. ``But it's not. Ninety percent of it is better protected 
than the rest of the region around us.'' And thanks to 50 years of isolation 
from development, the wildlife has thrived.
 
 In the heart of the complex sits Par Pond, a meandering 2,300-acre lake that 
gets its name from two reactors - P and R - that are its neighbors. Once it 
served as the cooling pond for the reactors, and despite its beauty, it also 
contains highly radioactive cesium-137, plutonium-237 and strontium-90.
 
 Now the lake is full of fat largemouth bass as well as more than 200 
alligators, some of which have grown old and big. Some of the alligators have 
been measured at more than 12 feet.
 
 ``This is one of the world-class bass fisheries,'' says Tom Hinton, a 
scientist at the laboratory, who has been studying how radiation migrates 
through the environment. Or it would be, if fishing were allowed.
 
 The fish, says Hinton, are all slightly radioactive, contaminated with 
cesium-137. The alligators are contaminated, too, as are many of the other 
wildlife and plants. Hinton says the contamination is generally at low levels.
 
 It is a reminder that even while taking in the isolated beauty of Par Pond, 
this, indeed, was where the government over four decades produced plutonium 
and tritium for the nation's nuclear arsenal. And often it cared little about 
dumping the wastes onto the environment. Not far from Par Pond are the 
canyons that still hold 35 million gallons of radioactive sludge and liquid 
awaiting disposal.
 
 But Hinton winces when a visitor suggests that to some the thought of a 
nuclear bomb factory and wildlife conjures up deformed deer, or amphibians 
with two heads. He has heard that before.
 
 The radiation levels in the fish and in the deer are slight. While the 
Savannah River complex is off limits to outsiders, a few times each year 
controlled deer hunts are conducted to reduce the herd. Hunters are selected 
by lottery. Tissue samples are taken from each dead deer to make sure 
radiation levels are within acceptable levels.
 
 There's no such lottery for fishermen, although Hinton says he's heard the 
stories about people climbing the fence and trekking 3 miles to Par Pond to 
fish on the sly. According to one tale, someone once landed a float plane on 
the pond to get at the bass.
 
 What is clear is that wildlife is thriving.
 
 ``There's a very simple answer,'' says Hinton, 45, who has been at Savannah 
River for six years. ``The lack of human disturbance. Period. It's ironic 
that a contaminated environment that has kept things out, is doing so much 
for the environment.''
 
 AP-NY-06-24-99 0852EDT >>



Wildlife Thrive in Bad Environment

.c The Associated Press

 By H. JOSEF HEBERT

NEW ELLENTON, S.C. (AP) - The wide-mouth bass are monsters. The deer are 
fatter and the alligators longer. And the ponds, wetlands and rich bottomland 
brim with snakes, turtles, and salamanders - a bounty of biological diversity.

But the Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile expanse of longleaf pine 
forest and marshland along the river that divides South Carolina from 
Georgia, is an ecological paradox.

For four decades one of the government's top-secret nuclear bomb factories 
where five reactors produced plutonium and tritium for nuclear warheads, it 
also is an ecological treasure chest full of wildlife and one of the hottest 
spots for biological research in the country, including long-term studies on 
the movement of contamination - nuclear and otherwise - through the 
environment.

In a sign of the sites' ecological importance, the Energy Department today 
transferred management of a 10,000-acre sliver of the Savannah River site 
over to management by the South Carolina Natural Resource Department.

``This will further protect a unique habitat that for almost 50 years has 
been spared from development,'' Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said, in 
marking the management transfer.

``It is absolutely a paradox. From the outside, people see it as a nuclear 
site,'' says Whit Gibbons, a senior scientist at the Savannah River Ecology 
Laboratory, whose 35 faculty scientists and dozens of other researchers and 
students have been closely studying the place for years.

The nuclear complex, mostly mothballed reactors and structures devoted to 
cleaning up the mess they made over decades of nuclear weapons production, 
covers only about l0 percent of the Energy Department's property.

The rest is largely pristine wilderness undisturbed by development for a half 
century - vast expanses of longleaf pine forests, Cypress swamps, Carolina 
bay wetlands and a creek that boasts the highest number of different aquatic 
insect species - 650 - of any river in North America.

There are also more than 100 species of reptiles and amphibians, 79 species 
of freshwater fish, more than 1,500 vascular plants, 7,000 whitetail deer, 
turtles, several hundred alligators, thousands of migratory birds, bobcats, 
and a number of endangered or threatened species including the red-cockaded 
woodpecker, wood stork, smooth purple cone flower and bald eagle.

``People think it has to be an awful place,'' says Gibbons, an ecology 
professor at the University of Georgia who has scrutinized the Savannah River 
Site for 32 years. ``But it's not. Ninety percent of it is better protected 
than the rest of the region around us.'' And thanks to 50 years of isolation 
from development, the wildlife has thrived.

In the heart of the complex sits Par Pond, a meandering 2,300-acre lake that 
gets its name from two reactors - P and R - that are its neighbors. Once it 
served as the cooling pond for the reactors, and despite its beauty, it also 
contains highly radioactive cesium-137, plutonium-237 and strontium-90.

Now the lake is full of fat largemouth bass as well as more than 200 
alligators, some of which have grown old and big. Some of the alligators have 
been measured at more than 12 feet.

``This is one of the world-class bass fisheries,'' says Tom Hinton, a 
scientist at the laboratory, who has been studying how radiation migrates 
through the environment. Or it would be, if fishing were allowed.

The fish, says Hinton, are all slightly radioactive, contaminated with 
cesium-137. The alligators are contaminated, too, as are many of the other 
wildlife and plants. Hinton says the contamination is generally at low levels.

It is a reminder that even while taking in the isolated beauty of Par Pond, 
this, indeed, was where the government over four decades produced plutonium 
and tritium for the nation's nuclear arsenal. And often it cared little about 
dumping the wastes onto the environment. Not far from Par Pond are the 
canyons that still hold 35 million gallons of radioactive sludge and liquid 
awaiting disposal.

But Hinton winces when a visitor suggests that to some the thought of a 
nuclear bomb factory and wildlife conjures up deformed deer, or amphibians 
with two heads. He has heard that before.

The radiation levels in the fish and in the deer are slight. While the 
Savannah River complex is off limits to outsiders, a few times each year 
controlled deer hunts are conducted to reduce the herd. Hunters are selected 
by lottery. Tissue samples are taken from each dead deer to make sure 
radiation levels are within acceptable levels.

There's no such lottery for fishermen, although Hinton says he's heard the 
stories about people climbing the fence and trekking 3 miles to Par Pond to 
fish on the sly. According to one tale, someone once landed a float plane on 
the pond to get at the bass.

What is clear is that wildlife is thriving.

``There's a very simple answer,'' says Hinton, 45, who has been at Savannah 
River for six years. ``The lack of human disturbance. Period. It's ironic 
that a contaminated environment that has kept things out, is doing so much 
for the environment.''

AP-NY-06-24-99 0852EDT

 Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in the AP 
news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or otherwise 
distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated Press. 

 

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