New Lab Nuke Waste Treatment Plant

[marylia@earthlink.net (marylia)]

Hi. This article is for all those who care about state environmental laws
and/or nuclear weapons facilities. Happy reading...

Lab to Build Nuclear Waste Complex Without Environmental Review

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

Despite Livermore Lab's long history of toxic and radioactive spills,
leaks, accidents and releases, the state of California has just given the
Lab a green light to build a huge, new nuclear waste treatment complex in
Livermore.

Further, the state regulatory agency, called the Dept. of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC), rebuffed Tri-Valley CAREs' request that it undertake a
stringent, independent environmental review of the Livermore Lab's
hazardous waste practices before making its decision. Our goal was
two-fold: to ensure that the affected community had ample opportunity to be
heard in the decision, and, equally important, to improve conditions at the
Lab in order to protect workers, the public and the environment from
additional contamination.

Instead, DTSC approved a permit for Livermore Lab to construct and operate
a new hazardous and radioactive waste treatment complex, and to do it
without undergoing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the appropriate
review procedure for this type of state-level decision.

Specifically, on May 27, 1999, DTSC issued a final "Hazardous Waste
Facility Permit," also referred to as a Part B permit, in essence giving
its blessing to the nuclear waste facility, after conducting only a
preliminary "Initial Study" on Livermore  Lab's permit application.
According to DTSC records, the Initial Study relied on an old 1992 Lab
report - which had been done by the Dept. of Energy, the Lab's parent
agency. On that flimsy, and hardly independent, basis, DTSC issued a
"negative declaration," certifying that a new nuclear waste facility at the
Lab could not possibly have a negative impact. The permit is a "federal
equivalent," meaning DTSC, as the state agency, has the final authority.

                        Our "watchdog" efforts

Tri-Valley CAREs has been active on this issue since 1985, when we offered
comments to the state at the first public meeting ever held on hazardous
waste at Livermore Lab. Since that time, our research has uncovered
numerous volumes' worth of evidence- showing the dangers, contamination
incidents and worker injuries that have happened as a result of the Lab's
waste treatment and storage operations. While our monitoring efforts have
led Livermore to curtail certain practices, such as the use of a
semi-trailer for dumping "unknown chemicals," many problems remain
unresolved. These present and future health threats are why we must
continue to insist that a comprehensive, independent review be performed
before a new waste complex is built.

In 1997, Tri-Valley CAREs, with 40 of its members and friends, commented
extensively on the Lab's proposed new waste facility. DTSC has now released
its "Response to Comments" from that public hearing and comment period. We
are in the process of studying the 170-page response document carefully,
but some things stand out immediately. Nearly every member of the public
offered clear and compelling reasons why DTSC should do an Environmental
Impact Report before making a permit decision.

Shockingly, this DTSC response, found on page 7, is typical: "An EIR is not
appropriate where an Initial Study has determined no significant impacts to
the environment. It is speculative to assume that the management of
hazardous waste in storage and treatment units will be a potential source
of releases..."

Hardly. Tri-Valley CAREs members presented ample evidence that DTSC should
consider just such a situation. Our testimonies listed dozens of recent
accidents involving hazardous or radioactive wastes, including: an
underground tank leak sending radioactive tritium into the soil and
groundwater; a worker who lost part of his thumb when doctors extracted a
sliver of plutonium; two workers who were contaminated with tritium while
packaging radioactive wastes; three workers contaminated during a filter
shredding operation, including one who received internal contamination;
twenty five workers who had to be evacuated when a waste bulking operation
resulted in reddish fumes filling the room; fourteen hazardous releases
above wastewater permit levels to the City's sewage treatment plant over a
one year period, and on and on.

DTSC responded that, "these accidents do not support a fair argument that
significant impacts to the environment may occur from the permitting of the
specific hazardous waste management facilities covered by the Part B
Permit" (page 69). The state comes very close to saying the accidents would
have had to occur in a facility that hasn't been built yet in order for
them to be deemed relevant.

Specifically regarding the filter shredding accident, DTSC says: "The
shredder involved in this occurrence has been taken out of service because
it was heavily contaminated with radioactivity. A new shredder will be
installed  as part of the Project." (page 73). DTSC misses the point, here.

In the end, DTSC made only a few changes in the permit language to address
what are truly major problems.

                        What the Permit Allows

According the "Hazardous Waste Facility Permit" signed by DTSC, Livermore
Lab will be able to store up to 808,000 gallons of hazardous and
radioactive mixed waste on-site at any given time (page 12). Further,
Livermore would be allowed to build new facilities and "treat" about
300,000 pounds of solid and 400,000 gallons of liquid hazardous and
radioactive mixed waste each year of operation (Table 1).

The permit's Table 2, "Typical Waste Streams," includes: radioactive acidic
rinse waters, radioactive halogenated solvents, scrap metals with
transuranic (plutonium) activity, highly dissolved solids from cleanup of
chemical spills and leaky drums, and so on in a list that goes on for 13
pages.

Typical treatment facilities, according to the permit, will include such
things as: Solidification Unit, Shredding Unit, Centrifuge Unit, Freezer
Unit, Roll-Off Bin, Tank Farm, Reactive Waste Processing, Pressure Reactor,
Water Reactor, Amalgamation Reactor and Uranium Bleaching Unit, among
others.

The new Waste Treatment Facility will be built just north of the National
Ignition Facility construction site, near Greenville Road, and will involve
about a dozen buildings, storage pads etc.

The DTSC permit covers hazardous and mixed radioactive wastes caused by Lab
operations. Livermore  Lab also generates "purely" radioactive wastes that
are not counted in the numbers listed above because they are regulated by
the Dept. of Energy, and not by the state. DTSC, in its public statement,
notes that the Lab has been generating these wastes for years. While true,
the state again begs the point.

The Lab's history of problems, combined with the continuing dangers, should
compel DTSC to conduct additional environmental review, not reward bad
practice with a permit!

Tri-Valley CAREs is evaluating its next course of action. If you are
interested in helping - whether you can hand out leaflets, use a law
library or offer financial support - call Marylia at (925) 443-7148.



++ Please note that my email address has changed to <marylia@earthlink.net>
on 3/1/99 ++

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!
Our web site will remain at this location. Only my email address has
changed on 3/1/99.

(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.