Sludge Watch ==> Radioactive waste in Ontario Landfills - 119 alarms last year

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The problem is that the radioactive waste doesn't just stay in the landfill. 
  The radioactive material is also in the landfill leachate which is then 
often pumped to a sewage treatment plant. And then the radioactive sludge is 
land applied.

There is the case of a Big Trees public park in Livermore California that 
has radioactive hot spots due to the use of sewage sludge with plutonium as 
a soil ammendment.


see the story:
http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/summaryfactsheet62905.pdf

Here in Ontario, White Rose Nurseries wanted to use Port Hope sewage sludge 
to fertilizer their nursery operations.  Concerns were raised about the 
levels of radioactive waste in Port Hope's sewage sludge.  Many tons of Port 
Hope radioactive sewage sludge sit in storage at the sewage treatment plant 
waiting for the finalization of a plan to impound it in 500 year storage as 
low level radioactive waste.

(We need to rethink that 'beneficial use' language, don't we?)
If you want to see a photograph of Port Hope's radioactive sewage sludge 
storage piles go to:
http://www.davidjwidmann.ca/category/port-hope-evening-guide/
..................................

HazMat Magazine

More radioactive waste in Ontario landfills



According to a CBC news report, the Ontario government must do more to 
monitor the disposal of radioactive waste because it's turning up more often 
in landfills.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said alerts about radioactive waste 
went off 119 times across the country last year, up from 13 in 2005-06.

The majority of those alerts came from southern Ontario landfills.

The report says the bulk of the alerts are from small quantities of 
radioactive substances that have a medical origin "which pose little or no 
risk."

Ontario environmental commissioner Gord Miller is concerned about the lack 
of details in the report.

The province's Environment Ministry said the increase in alarms is simply a 
reflection of increased monitoring and doesn't signify a growing problem.


http://www.hazmatmag.com/issues/isarticle.asp?id=76005&issue=11062007&PC=HM&story_id=&link_targ=DailyNews&link_source=aypr_HM
......................
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnerGu7GN0tBpSGdLXH6haizy_zw

Canadian Press
Radioactive alarm bells increasingly ring at Canadian waste sites
Nov 4, 2007

OTTAWA - Alarms are literally ringing at a soaring number of Canadian 
landfills as radioactive waste is detected in loads of trash.

Alerts went off 119 times in the last fiscal year, up from 13 in 2005-06 and 
just three the year before, Canada's nuclear regulator reports.

More than 75 per cent of the alarms were triggered by small quantities of 
short-lived radioactive substances of medical origin "which pose little or 
no risk," says the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in its annual report. 
The document offers no details on the remaining cases.

But records obtained by The Canadian Press show several radioactive devices 
have accidentally wound up in landfill sites or in the hands of scrap metal 
dealers in the last five years.

The incidents highlight growing concern about the disposal of potentially 
harmful nuclear materials, and raise questions about gaps in the patchwork 
of systems at landfills across the country that monitor and detect such 
waste from hospitals, laboratories and industrial plants.

There's simply no way of knowing how often such materials end up in the 
trash by accident or otherwise.

Some municipal landfills have radiation alarms, others do not.

British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick, for instance, lack regulations 
requiring radiation-detection devices at landfills or transfer stations, 
where loads of solid waste are temporarily stored before being trucked to 
dumps or recycling depots. Quebec plans to have such requirements fully in 
place by January 2009.

The gaps are symptomatic of a hit-or-miss regime: low-level radioactive 
garbage that can be legally dumped might set off an alarm, while a genuinely 
dangerous device could go undetected.

One southern Ontario landfill owner suggests it's easy to get around the 
monitors.

"Supposedly, if you have any radiation stuff, what you've been instructed to 
do - and you never heard this from me - is go somewhere else and dump it," 
said the owner, who asked not to be identified.

"Dump it in another dump that doesn't have those detection devices because 
they don't want to deal with it."

Medical facilities, research labs and construction firms across Canada use 
thousands of licensed radioactive tools to carry out every-day tasks, from 
measuring soil density and checking for pipeline cracks to eliminating 
static and battling cancer.

In February 2004, a gas chromatograph containing radioactive nickel was 
found to be missing from the University of Saskatchewan's neuropsychiatric 
research unit. Two years earlier it had been sent to a scrap metal dealer, 
who in turn dispatched it to a Saskatoon landfill.

The radioactive source was considered low-risk, in no danger of leaking, and 
by that time was covered in layers of debris. Otherwise, university 
radiation safety officer Debbie Frattinger says, she would have headed to 
the dump and started looking for it herself.

"There were no health consequences so we did not go digging for it," 
Frattinger said.

"But regardless of how big it is, you should not misplace them. No, 
definitely."

During an April 2005 inventory check, the McGill University Health Centre in 
Montreal discovered a measuring device containing radioactive cesium was 
missing, concluding it "likely went to landfill."

A radioactivity monitor sounded at a landfill in Ile des Chenes, Man., in 
June 2004. Officials determined the load of trash came from St. Boniface 
General Hospital, and a subsequent inventory check revealed a device 
containing radioactive barium was missing.

The item was retrieved from the landfill and returned to the hospital.

Once radioactive substances are detected, a waste site operator is supposed 
to inform the nuclear safety commission. In the event of a high-level 
radiation alarm, an inspector will visit the site to investigate.

The nuclear safety commission says a key reason for last year's increase in 
waste alarms, the majority of which originated in southern Ontario, was 
greater awareness due to a commission poster and pamphlet campaign.

In addition, an increased number of municipal waste facilities and transfer 
stations, especially in the Toronto area, have installed sensitive 
monitoring systems that detect radioactive substances inside trucks and 
other vehicles.

There has also been an improvement in the quality and detection ability of 
the systems.

It's important to take a leadership role, said Wes Muir, spokesman for Waste 
Management of Canada, operator of 18 landfills across the country.

"We really monitor what's going in our waste," he said. "We've made that 
investment in that material because it's an issue, and we're very 
conscientious and rigorous with the way our landfills are operated."

Health physicist Stephane Jean-Francois said landfills are not able to 
police everything that comes their way.

Jean-Francois, president of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association, 
stressed the importance of regulations intended to control the movement and 
disposal of radioactive materials that do pose health risks.

Once a landfill alarm goes off, the horse has left the barn.

"In my personal opinion it's already late," Jean-Francois said. "It's very 
late."

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnerGu7GN0tBpSGdLXH6haizy_zw

.................................................




http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/summaryfactsheet62905.pdf




Page 1


Investigations of Plutonium-Contaminated Sewage Sludge:

A Summary DRAFT (6/29/05) In 1987, the Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory (LLNL) was designated a Superfund site by U.S. EPA due to 
groundwater contamination.

As a result, the federal government was required to conduct a public health 
assessment (PHA) at LLNL. The PHA includes review of available environmental 
data, identification of how community members could be exposed to 
contaminants from the site, and whether human health has been impacted.

Important elements of the PHA process are the gathering of community 
concerns and community participation in the process. In 1997, the California 
Department of Health Services (CDHS) began health assessment activities at 
LLNL with the federal health agency (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease 
Registry, or ATSDR). The community requested that CDHS look into potential 
ways (routes) that plutonium (Pu) contamination reached Big Trees Park. (Pu 
has been found at levels above “background” that would be expected due to 
global fallout).

What is plutonium (Pu)? Plutonium is a man-made, long-lived, radioactive and 
hazardous metal. Pu was produced for use in nuclear weapons. There are a 
number of types, or isotopes, of plutonium.

Pu 239 is the primary isotope handled at the LLNL.In May 1999, the state and 
federal health agencies released a report titled, “Plutonium Contamination 
in Big Trees Park.”

The report evaluated potential routes for Pu 239 contamination found in Big 
Trees Park (1). Pu-contaminated sewage sludge from the city’s treatment 
plant was recognized as one potential route for the Pu 239 found in Big 
Trees Park because it was available to the public and/or local agencies for 
use as a soil amendment from 1958 through1976. The report recommended the 
following: 1) Historic distribution of sewage sludge from the Livermore 
Water Reclamation Plant (2) should be investigated; 2) Community concerns 
regarding LLNL should be studied/surveyed and; 3) A review of health studies 
should be conducted relative to LLNL (4). In November 2002, as follow-up to 
these recommendations, CDHS released a report titled, “Proposed Process to 
Address the Historic Distribution of Sewage Sludge Containing Plutonium 
Released from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory” (2).

The report was written in collaboration with the Alameda County 
Environmental Health Services, City of Livermore, Western Sates Legal 
Foundation, Tri-Valley CAREs, and San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for 
Social Responsibility. What is sewage sludge? Sludge is the end 
product(solids) of the sewage treatmentprocess. Sludge from the Livermore 
Water Reclamation Plant has not been given to the public since 1975. The 
main findings of the report are as follows: (Continues on page 2) 1) Sewage 
sludge was available to the public and/or local agencies from 1958-1975; 1
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Page 2
2) There were unintentional releases of Pu 239 from LLNL to the sewage 
treatment facility for the entire period sludge was available to the public; 
3) There is a lack of data available to adequately evaluate the potential 
health hazard from exposure to the contaminated sludge to the public. As a 
result, the exact amount of sludge and concentration of the radioactivity in 
the sludge available to the public and agencies is uncertain; 4) Locations 
where sludge was placed are unknown and; 5) Residents were unaware that the 
sludge could have contained Pu 239.

Based on these findings, the report proposed a process that includes public 
participation, environmental sampling, interpretation of potential health 
risks, and community outreach and education. The responsible party (LLNL, 
run by the U.S. Department of Energy) was identified as the most appropriate 
funder of the suggested process. As of 2005, the process recommended in the 
Department of Health Services November 2002 report had not been funded.

In August 2003, ATSDR released a public health assessment titled, Plutonium 
239 in Sewage Sludge as a Soil Amendment in the Livermore Community (5). 
ATSDR uses available data to estimate potential exposure to the community. 
ATSDR concludes the estimated radiological doses are below levels of health 
concern, thus public awareness/outreach and additional sampling in the 
community where sludge may be present would not be necessary.Given the data 
gaps and associated uncertainties, CDHS, Alameda County Department of Health 
Services, City of Livermore, Western Sates Legal Foundation, Tri-Valley 
CAREs, and San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility 
believe the community based process outlined in the November 2002 CDHS 
report should be implemented.

References:

1. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Health consultation: 
Plutonium contamination in Big Trees Park, Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 1999 May 17.

Available online: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/region_9.html#california 
2. California Department of Health Services. Report: Proposed process to 
address the historic distribution of sewage sludge containing plutonium 
releases from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Oakland, CA: 
California Department of Health Services; 2002 November.

Available online:http://www.ehib.org/projects 3. Agency for Toxic Substances 
and Disease Registry. Health consultation: Lawrence Livermore 
NationalLaboratory: Community Health Concerns. U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services; 2003 April 25.

Available online: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/region_9.html#california 
4. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Health consultation: Review of health studies relevant toLawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory and the surrounding community. U.S. Department of Health 
and Human Services; 2003 April 25. Available 
online:http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/region_9.html#california5. Agency 
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Public Health Assessment: 
Plutonium 239 in Sewage Sludge as a Soil Amendment in the Livermore 
Community. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;2003 August 26. 
Available online: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/region_9.html#california 
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