[CPEO-BIF] "EPA to remove radioactive material from Portsmouth [VA] property that housed scrap metal facility"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

EPA to remove radioactive material from Portsmouth property that housed scrap metal facility

By Natalie Anderson
Virginian-Pilot
August 29, 2022 

PORTSMOUTH — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is cleaning up the former site of a Portsmouth scrap metal facility that’s contaminated with radioactive material.

Peck Iron and Metal, which closed in 1999, would obtain scrap metal from military bases, electric power businesses and rail companies and process it so the metal could be used again. The 34-acre property was declared a superfund site in 2009 and was placed on the National Priorities List after heavy metals and radioactive material like lead, arsenic and radium were discovered.

The site is still owned by The Peck Company, Inc., which purchased the property in the late 1940s, according to the EPA. Also affected by the contaminants is an adjacent property that has a 3-acre paint manufacturing facility.

The EPA began surveying the Peck property and adjacent ones in 2013 to prepare for drilling and excavation. The EPA says radium-226 was used for wrist watch faces and dials, for example, while batteries and naval vessel equipment contained lead.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.dailypress.com/cities/portsmouth/vp-nw-portsmouth-epa-superfund-cleanup-20220829-zg3bvph45rdf7kqace5boipsdq-story.html

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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