Comment period open on uranium cleanup plan

Benjamin Joe, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read

Aug. 2—A virtual public input session last week on the Guterl Steel Site in Lockport, organized by the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), drew some questions about the cleanup that's proposed for an old job site of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

More than 25 million pounds of uranium steel billets were rolled into rods between 1948 and 1952, in nine buildings occupied by the Simonds Saw and Steel Company along Ohio Street, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The uranium metal billets were received on the site by rail car, were rolled to contract specifications, and then were transported back off-site by rail car," FUSRAP representative Natalia Watson said. "In 1984, Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, now ATI Specialty Materials, purchased Guterl Specialty Steel Corporation's assets. An approximate nine-acre portion of property, which is now known as the excised area, was removed from the sale. Equipment used during the time Simonds conducted work for the Atomic Energy Commission was also excluded from the sale."

The Army Corps of Engineers preferred plan for remediating the excised area calls for demolition of the long abandoned buildings, removal of 58,000 cubic yards of soil and setup of a groundwater treatment system.

The estimated price tag is $200 million — and the timetable for reducing uranium concentrations in groundwater to an acceptable level (the maximum tolerable level for a community drinking water source) is 30 years.

City resident Jean Kiene noted that recent flash flooding put a lot of water into the ground, and wondered whether contaminated groundwater would affect the Erie Canal.

"We have been monitoring the groundwater actively every year for the last 10 years and we sample anywhere between 20 and 30 wells. We also sample groundwater seeping out of the cliff," FUSRAP hydrogeologist Bill Frederick said. "So, we actually sample water coming down the canal, and the canal water near the seeps, and the water near the emergency intake for the town."

Frederick said the amount of water in the canal is so great that the contamination is immediately diluted to "background levels" of radiation. This is true even when the ground is soaked, as the groundwater is held by the soil, he said.

"There is no gross movement of material from rain water on and off the site. Anything that could get into the groundwater during a time of heavy rain would have residence in the groundwater for a couple of years," Frederick said.

Shovels in the ground for a Guterl site cleanup is still a long way off. Remediation is not slated to begin until 2032.

"We're limited by how much money the program gets each year, so there is a possibility that that timeline could be moved up, but as of right now that is the current timeline," Watson said.

In response to Kiene's question, how can citizens help speed things up, Watson said: "Speak to your congresspeople, because they're the ones who put together the bills that create our funding."

FUSRAP is accepting public comments on the Guterl Steel Site plan until Sept. 10. Contacts are: fusrap@usace.army.mil; 1-800-833-6390, extension 4; and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District, Attn: Environmental Project Management Section, 1776 Niagara St., Buffalo, NY 14207.

FUSRAP was established in 1974 to identify, investigate and clean up job sites contaminated through work on the Manhattan Project and post-World War II atomic energy and weapons production.