DEC issues new directive to CWM for radioactive testing

by Terry Duffy
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, September 1, 2007

Coming off of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s veto last month of legislation aimed at preventing the future siting of hazardous waste facilities along the Great Lakes (Sentinel, Aug. 18), news comes of a directive issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for CWM Chemical Services, the focus of the aforementioned bill according to Spitzer, to conduct a series of tests to further determine the presence of radioactive contamination on its Porter landfill property.

According to DEC, the new directive comes off public comments it has received in past years as part CWM’s application process for long-term operating permits as well as future expansion. Among the many criticisms it received, was radioactive contamination said to exist on the central and western portions of CWM’s 730-acre Balmer Road facility.

Those concerns stem from activities on the former massive 7,500-acre Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site, which CWM partially occupies, and are related to the World War II era Manhattan Project and federal government dumping which occurred on portions of LOOW from the 1940s to the early 1970s.

CWM, which has operated on Balmer Road since the mid-1980s, does not accept radioactive wastes as part of its hazardous waste land filling operations. According to Mike Mahar, CWM operations manger, the radioactive contaminated areas in question are considered vicinity properties and are not used whatsoever in its land filling activities. “Those vicinity properties were not cleared in 1992 by the Department of Energy, due to inaccessibility issues,” he said.

Further, Mahar said the company has and continues to abide by DEC directives issued in 2005 as a condition of its permit renewal, regarding the radioactive waste concerns. The company has worked in recent years with URS Corp., a Buffalo engineering firm, both to determine the presence of the radioactive waste residues as well as track any movements within the facility. And it has installed monitoring stations to further determine any radioactive presence in its active land filling areas. Mahar pointed out that CWM did this prior to any DEC directives and added it cost the company more than $300,000.

URS, which did both scanning work and radon testing of the soils found a few areas which had readings “above background” according to Mahar. But he added, “There are no findings that we feel are of concern to the public safety.”

DEC’s latest directive calls on CWM to further implement radioactive testing on the Blamer Road property. In specific, it will be required to periodically collect and analyze samples for radioactivity for submission to DEC. And it will be required to take radiation measurements during any excavation project necessary as part of its land filling operations and maintenance. Further, it will be required to utilize detection devices to measure ground surface radiation levels in order to detect any elevated radiation.

DEC states the approved plans include measures that CWM must take to provide for worker safety protect the soil and ensure that any excavated soils found to be contaminated are properly handled.

Mahar says CWM has been this doing on its own over the past two years, as they were outlined in the 2005 permit, and that the company has been diligently following DEC directives.

He closed by pointing out the company has and continues to be mindful of its presence in the community. “One of the benefits of having a facility such as this here, is that we are responsible,” he said. “There were plenty of operations over the years on those 7,500 acres which were not.”