I've written previously in the Zephyr of the problems and makeup of the hazardous nuclear waste coming to the White Mesa dump site. I'll not dwell on the details of these now except to point out that these mixed wastes are indeed extremely hazardous. [For copies of articles and additional information write me at the Zephyr or by e-mail at "ksleight@lasal.net"]
We are faced with new and growing threats to our environment and to our health. We as citizens have allowed a national nuclear waste dump to rise right under our noses while our many government officials did little to stop it.
There may be no end in sight since International Uranium Corporation (IUC) can continue to amend its license to gain additional "alternate feed material" and bloated contracts. Our very lives and environment will continue to be in danger if we allow such devastation to continue.
The corporation previously acquired the Ashland wastes from Tonawanda, New York and received an amendment approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the St. Louis waste. And just recently this hazardous waste company applied for the Linde wastes from New York and the W. R. Grace wastes from Tennessee.
Combined, these approvals or pending approvals constitute a great amount of hazardous waste. Sufficient capacity may not be available in the existing tailings' system. Its disposal cells 2 and 3 are rapidly filling. To make room for the prospective new wastes, the corporation has now asked the NRC for approval to expand its area at White Mesa.
In making its projections, IUC finds it will have a shortfall of about 230,000 tons of capacity. The corporation desires a modification of the Reclamation Plan to allow storage of 325,000 tons of material in another cell impoundment area that would cover about nine acres.
IUC desires not to revise its Reclamation Plan at this time as it would be costly for them to do so. With the request for ever more "amendments" International Uranium has leaped far ahead of proper planning stages, wanting to shortcut the environmental and health studies that are desperately needed.
But in so doing, it places the people who live here in the canyon country at great risk. Our health and lives are at stake. Already we feel the impact of this hazardous "alternate feed" and chemical waste as truck after truck hauls the dangerous cargo through our towns en route to White Mesa. And this is just the beginning if we don't stop it now.
The situation is most crucial at this time. For many years we have been exposed to high levels of radiation in its many forms. Evidence may be mounting that cancer rates are on the increase in our region. With increasing radiation exposure, will cancer rates continue to rise? The evidence is clear. There is no "safe dose" of radiation. What we are doing is layering one dose upon other past doses. And the more we're subjected to increasing doses, though small, our health will continue to decrease as cancer rates increase.
We don't have to look very far to discover the causes. Our region is beset with a basic background radiation, naturally much higher than other areas. Add to this, the worldwide threats. There was the initial atomic bomb blast in New Mexico, the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the follow-up tests in Nevada and the South Pacific,
Radioactive fallout covered the planet, but it was especially hard on us as we lived and worked directly downwind from the Nevada tests. I recently read the biography of Dr. Alice Stewart [The Woman Who Knew Too Much, by Gayle Greene] who was the first to show that the unborn child was extremely sensitive to X-rays. She showed that radiation fallout increased infant mortality worldwide. There was a time where fallout shelters were highly recommended. I remember well the exercises we had in school in which we clamored under desks.
Then came extensive uranium mining in our region--the opening up of hundreds of mines and the building of many mills to process the uranium. Just how much radioactive material might be dispersed into the atmosphere from windblown dust due to the many years of ground contamination is an added threat.
During this time, there was little concern for the workers or for the public. However, as the effects of low-level radiation exposure became more evident that concern grew.
I feel, that upon scanning the obituaries, there is a cancer epidemic raging here now. The years of fallout are affecting us, and the built-in lag time is up. The many years of absorbing plutonium and strontium in our bodies, the time for worry is now. Our genes have been affected, and there's no place to run.
There is another worry. Our governments are doing so little to stem or reduce the incidence of cancers in our region. They tell us that radiation is kept within set standards and that our bodies can withstand the bombardment. The fact, born out by the National Radiological Protection Board in 1995, is that there is no safe dose of radioactivity. Long succession of small doses can be just as deadly as zapped by one of high level.
The Department of Energy for many years turned its back on workers in the nuclear industry. It continually challenged and opposed many workers' claims for compensation. Their illnesses always resulted from "other causes," not from the hazards associated with the building of nuclear weapons. What deception!
But the reality was that many men and women did indeed develop illnesses from exposure to dangerous chemicals and radiation while working to build America's nuclear defenses.
On April 12, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced an initiative reversing the decades-old government practice of opposing workers' claims. The proposal, if enacted into law by Congress, would compensate more than 3,000 workers with a broad range of work-related illnesses throughout the Energy Department's nuclear weapons complex. The legislation would give a lump sum financial benefit to workers with pulmonary diseases caused from breathing particles of beryllium, workers with cancers caused by workplace radiation exposure.
The proposal, though it rectifies some past wrongs, is not sufficient to cover all workers in the industry. Also in desperate need is the amendment of the 1990 RECA that covers uranium miners, millers and transporters. That Act too is not enough.
We need a bill that covers all sick workers--nuclear plant workers, down winders, uranium miners and millers. All need fair treatment liberally and equitably. Sure, it is gratifying that the government now admits past mistakes that it covered up for these many years. Richardson acknowledged that people "labored under difficult and dangerous conditions...with some of the most hazardous materials known to mankind." I wish that our San Juan commissioners would admit that fact and do something about it.
Our two San Juan County commissioners, Ty Lewis and Bill Redd, continue to flaunt the rights of people. On May 1, I addressed the San Juan County Commission concerning the White Mesa mill. I had discovered that International Uranium Corporation had possibly violated their license agreement, and so I asked the commission members whether any information or report of problems had come to them. They said they had received none - the only problem they had ever received was the previous year's serious "chloroform-in-the- well" problem. I doubt that's all the information they received over the years.
Previously, wanting to know if the report I heard was true, I reported the possible infractions to Bill Sinclair, the director of the Utah Radiation Control Board. He said there had been some problems along this line.
I had heard by the grapevine that International Uranium in late February 2000 was required to send loads of imported Tonawanda waste back to Tonawanda because on inspection it was too heavy with chemicals. Regarding this, Sinclair responded that some vehicles were found "externally contaminated upon arrival at Tonawanda." The whole story needs to be told.
But troubling indeed was the reference from Sinclair that International Uranium had received a shipment of hazardous waste from Boston, Massachusetts which was co-mingled with a pile of Tonawanda waste. The EPA has taken the matter under advisement or action. I don't know what the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste has done other than ordering International Uranium "to segregate and remove the hazardous waste component from the pile." Has this been accomplished? And has the waste been shipped back to Boston? How hazardous was it? And what threat was this occurrence to the community? We still don't know.
Other matters need looking into. A citizen reported that radiation may have been spilled along the roadway leading from the White Mesa mill - surmising that this probably was due to spillage or from the water residue coming from trucks after faulty washing at the mill.
Also it is reputed that some truck drivers have been used that are not officially authorized or properly or fully trained to haul the waste. And just recently another report came to me that trucks carrying these dangerous cargos have often been parked on the streets of Moab while the drivers ate or slept. The question remains: have untrained truck drivers been recruited to handle this dangerous cargo? For whatever reason, a serious accident on a roadway has already occurred.
The bottom line is that we're not getting the full information we need from these government agencies--federal, state or local. And International Uranium Corporation itself has a duty to inform the citizenry of problems it has. Its problems are the citizens' problems too when public and worker safety matters are concerned.
The Utah Radiation Control Board met in Salt Lake City on April 7. At that meeting it announced that the state would not appeal an adverse Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ruling regarding the Tonawanda waste coming to White Mesa. Which side are they on anyway? It seemed at one time the state Board strove to control the waste from coming into White Mesa; it seems now that it has flipped-flopped from its earlier protective positions.
Much of this material stored at the Manhattan Project complexes across the country, seems now destined for White Mesa and the state seems powerless to do anything about it. Indeed, it appears a policy of appeasement or even surrender. Lots of growling, a paper tiger.
A license was originally issued by NRC to the White Mesa Mill in 1979 for the milling of domestic uranium, based on an incomplete and ill-prepared environmental document. But now that the NRC is allowing International Uranium to bring other materials - complete with toxic minerals, metals and chemicals a new set of studies is in order. Health and environmental matters are being neglected.
Just whose responsibility is this? Several occurrences were not reported to the public. If there is a threat, any threat, the public should be continually advised.
Is it the county's responsibility? The San Juan Commission [except Commissioner Maryboy] seemed unconcerned. It either didn't know any thing or didn't want to discuss the problems. . Both are serious transgressions.
Is it the State's responsibility? The Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies were set up precisely to serve its citizens but officials have not acted there with dispatch either.
Is it the federal's job? There is an obligation of the government through its collective power, to step in and protect its citizens and especially to protect those that can't protect themselves due to age, condition, or illness.
Is it International Uranium Corporation's responsibility? I feel that the company should have immediately reported these serious mistakes to the public and to the Radiation Control Board. The track record of this company needs to be known. Public disclosure would certainly increase the company's accountability, and there would likely be fewer mistakes. A good neighbor policy would be the ideal, but it is lacking in performance.
Ultimately society pays the price for injuries and deaths. And there is the tragic loss of those victims' contribution to society, the cost of treating injuries, and the cost of supporting victims' families. Compensation should be readily available.
We need to push county, state and federal officials to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerning this urgent matter. None has yet been prepared. Commissioners Lewis and Redd refused to even ask for any environmental or health studies. Passing the buck, they said the state and federal agencies could handle the problems.
We need to push for more studies concerning the incidence and prevalence of cancer in our communities. There are far too many persons being inflicted. We need an epidemiological cancer study to be conducted by an independent entity. We need to know just what relationship radiation has to the occurrence of these cancers. The cumulative effect of so much radiation, I fear, is taking its toll on our people.
Our cultural and spiritual heritage plays a great part toward our happiness and welfare. So often this is overlooked, especially as it relates to our Native American peoples. The White Mesa mill is located on aboriginal lands and in an archeological zone in which there are many Indian burials. Several sacred sites have already been disturbed. New cultural and archeological studies need to be accomplished with Native American ideas.
An Engineering Report accomplished with the W.R. Grace amendment request was contracted to Harold Roberts, P.E., a former employee and a head officer of IUC. The study should have been accomplished by an independent engineering firm not associated in any way with IUC. Mr. Roberts however does admit that "in the past, calculations have been done utilizing undocumented or sometimes inaccurate data and assumptions, resulting in conflicting answers and uncertainty in the reliability of the final information." Critics of IUC have been saying this for years.
He further writes: "Efforts have been taken in preparing this report to ensure that historical records and references were verified for accuracy, instances of conflicting information were resolved, and the basis of the conclusions in this report is documented with calculations, assumptions and references."
We hope such efforts were taken, but doubt creeps in. His report was far from complete. For instance, nothing was said of the need for the extensive and costly cultural and archeological reports that will need be done. Nothing was said of the need for or the preparation and cost of a new Reclamation Plan or Final Decommissioning Plan. At the very least, no additional toxic and radiological materials should be accepted at the White Mesa mill until all of the proper environmental and health studies have been accomplished. Better still, let's keep it out!