The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week said it should within a couple weeks issue a formal procurement notice for environmental remediation at multiple locations in its St. Louis, Mo., District under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
The Army Corps intends to issue a cost-plus-fixed-fee award for cleanup of hazardous, toxic, and radioactive wastes, according to a notice Monday om the FedBizOpps federal contracting website. A single award is anticipated.
“The work encompasses any and all remediation work for remedial actions including general conditions, field engineering, radiological/safety support services, remediation of contaminated soil, and management services,” the notice says. “The work anticipated under this contract is primarily for, but not limited to, low level radioactive contaminated material removal. Radiological contaminates are primarily thorium, radium and uranium, with co-located non-radiological contamination such as cadmium and arsenic.”
The notice does not provide any detail regarding the potential value or length of the contract; an Army Corps spokesperson on Tuesday said that information might not be released until the actual award. The official solicitation is scheduled to be issued during the week of April 8.
Established in 1974, FUSRAP identifies, evaluates, and remediates sites that were radioactively contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by nuclear-weapon and energy operations of the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission. The Army Corps assumed management in 1997 from the Department of Energy, but the Trump administration wants to return it to DOE in the upcoming federal budget year.
The contracted remediation operations would cover two primary locations:
- The St. Louis Downtown Site, used by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works under federal contract from 1942 to 1957 for uranium-compound processing, machining, and uranium metal recovery. The work left behind process chemicals, radium, thorium, uranium, and other contaminants.
- The St. Louis North County Sites, encompassing the St. Louis Airport Site (SLAPS) and SLAPS Vicinity Properties. SLAPS and nearby properties were used for decades to store various residues generated by Mallinckrodt uranium processing.
In its latest update on FUSRAP operations, the Army Corps said ongoing remediation at the sites in 2018 took 12,872 cubic yards of contaminated material from the Downtown Site for off-site disposal. Remediation activities continued on a number of facilities.
Niagara Falls Storage Site
Separately, the Army Corps of Engineers has decided to dig up and remove roughly 280,000 cubic yards of radioactively contaminated soil and debris at the Niagara Falls Storage Site at Lewiston, N.Y.
The Army Corps announced the record of decision Tuesday, going with most ambitious and expensive — $490.6 million — of four options that were studied under FUSRAP.
The Manhattan Project began using the 191-acre Niagara Falls Storage Site in 1944 to hold radioactive waste and residue generated by uranium ore processing. The material was shipped to the site until 1952, and in the 1980s was consolidated and covered by soil in a 10-acre area dubbed the Interim Waste Containment Structure.
The residue is laced with radium, uranium, thorium, and cesium. The major contaminant is radium-226, a byproduct of processing uranium ore. Radium-226 decays radioactively to produce radon gas. The Interim Waste Containment Structure is designed to slow radon gas emissions and prevent rainwater from carrying radioactive fluids to the groundwater.
The 10-acre site is divided into three sections — Subunit A, Subunit B, and Subunit C.
- Subunit A holds highly radioactive uranium ore processing residues, plus contaminated soil and rubble. This subunit holds roughly 28,440 cubic yards of contaminated material.
- Subunit B holds contaminated soil and rubble, with some radioactive ore processing residue. This subunit holds roughly 63,130 cubic yards of contaminated material.
- Subunit C holds contains uranium ore residue and contaminated debris with a wide range of radioactivity. It holds roughly 186,502 cubic yards.
The four studied cleanup options were: keeping wastes in all three subunits; two approaches of digging out some wastes and keeping the rest in place; and digging out, partially treating, and shipping off-site all the wastes. The Army Corps chose digging out and removing all three subunits. The record of decision does not cite the final destination for the material.
“The selected remedy provides the best overall protection of human health and the environment,” said Army Corps Buffalo District Commander Lt. Col. Jason A. Toth in a press release. “It is responsive to the feedback and input received from the community and stakeholders over the years.”
The Army branch did not set a timetable for the excavations and removal. However, the $490.6 million price tag indicates the project will likely take several years.
