EPA FINES CONTRACTORS OVER ASBESTOS
WC Monitor
4/04/2014
Two Hanford contractors will pay more than $175,000 in fines after an Environmental Protection Agency investigation found alleged violations of federal asbestos handling regulations, the EPA announced this week. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. will pay $131,594 and Washington Closure Hanford will pay $44,000 in settlement agreements reached with EPA, the federal agency said. The Department of Energy also was a party to the settlement agreements, but the fines will be paid by its contractors. The alleged violations were discovered during an August 2012 inspection by EPA. EPA said buildings were torn down with asbestos still in siding or paint, that information provided to the Benton Clean Air Authority was inaccurate and that some asbestos waste was improperly stored. “Asbestos was poorly managed here from start to finish,” said Ed Kowalski, director of EPA’s enforcement office in Seattle. “EPA requires all building owners and contractors to remove asbestos before starting any regulated demolition activity which can crush or pulverize asbestos and release dust.” The penalties announced this week were related to clean air regulations. The same August 2012 inspection also resulted in previously announced fines of $115,000 related to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act regulations.
CH2M Hill used heavy equipment to tear down seven industrial buildings in the 200 West Area, according to the settlement agreement. The building exteriors had panels of transite, or cement asbestos board, that were not removed before demolition began, even though there was a high probability they would be crumbled, pulverized or reduced to powder, according to the agreement. CH2M Hill notified the Benton Clean Air Authority that the waste containing asbestos from the seven buildings would be taken to Basin Disposal, but Basin Disposal was hired to haul the waste, according to EPA. The waste was disposed of at an Oregon landfill that accepts waste that contains asbestos, said John Pavitt, an EPA asbestos compliance inspector.
CH2M Hill also told the Benton Clean Air Authority that waste from abandoned central Hanford steam lines, which had insulation that contained asbestos, was being transported by CH2M Hill. However, it had hired MP Environmental Services to haul the waste to a landfill, according to the agreement. EPA tracks asbestos waste through notifications to the Benton Clean Air Authority and the errors were more than a paperwork issue, Pavitt said. “We rely on it being accurate so we know where to go for our inspections,” he said. Inspectors want to be able to watch when waste comes out of the trucks to make sure it is appropriately packaged and sprayed with water to keep down dust, he said.
CH2M Hill Says It Has Made Improvements
CH2M Hill also was accused of improper storage of waste from the steam lines. Pavitt found one bag of the waste in a waste storage trailer that had many small tears, and the material was not being kept wet as required, he said. Further inspection by CH2M Hill found another bag in a similar condition, he said. “We recognize the basis for this action regarding our asbestos controls and we take it very seriously,” CH2M Hill said in a statement. Over the last two years it has made improvements to asbestos procedures, including training workers and forming a working group to resolve asbestos issues. A national expert in asbestos regulation also was hired to provide training to Hanford leadership and advise CH2M Hill during work planning and execution.
Wash. Closure Says No Workers Exposed
Washington Closure was accused of demolishing a water tower that still had some asbestos paint. No worker was exposed to contamination or was at risk during the demolition of the water tower or the disposal of waste from it, Washington Closure said in a statement. “While WCH may disagree with the legal conclusion reached in this case, what we do agree on is the importance of ensuring worker safety,” it said. DOE began taking steps to improve worker safety on demolition work involving asbestos at Hanford two years ago when it learned of EPA concerns, DOE said in a statement.
IG EXAMINES CAPSULE STORAGE
WC Monitor
4/04/2014
The Department of Energy should pursue plans to move cesium and strontium capsules to dry storage as soon as possible, in part because of the potential risk posed by a severe earthquake, according to a Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report released this week. The 1,936 capsules are stored underwater at Hanford’s Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) in central Hanford, which has been operated nearly a decade longer than its design life. It also is DOE’s facility that is at the greatest risk in the case of a natural disaster that is beyond its design capacity to sustain, according to the IG memo issued to the Richland Operations Office. A severe earthquake could result in the loss of power or water in the pool, it said. However, the memo stopped short of making a formal recommendation. “We acknowledge the budgetary challenges facing the department and its impact on moving the capsules into dry storage,” the IG said. “However we suggest that the manager (of the) Richland Operations Office expeditiously proceed with its plans to pursue a dry storage alternative to support transfer of the capsules out of WESF at the earliest possible time frame.”
The cesium and strontium was recovered from Hanford’s underground waste tanks from 1974 to 1985, packed in corrosion-resistant capsules and placed in underwater storage at WESF. The capsules, which are about 22 inches long, hold material with 106 million curies of radioactivity, or 32 percent of the total radioactivity at Hanford. The 13 feet of water covering them helps cool the capsules and shields workers from radiation. WESF has been operating for almost 40 years and the concrete in the cells of its underwater pool has begun to deteriorate from radiation exposure. “Weakened concrete in the walls of the pool increases the risk that a beyond-design earthquake would breach the walls, resulting in the loss of fluid, and thus, loss of shielding for the capsules,” the IG memo said. However, the memo also noted that an earthquake or other disaster more severe than WESF was designed for is “extremely improbable.”
After the Fukushima disaster, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. rearranged about 800 of the underwater capsules to better distribute their heat. The work was done in 2012, which was the first major relocation of the capsules in about 20 years. A loss of water or cooling in the pool could cause the capsules to corrode or be breached. The metal of some of the capsules previously was damaged in a former program that had some of them being taken in and out of water for a program that rented hundreds of them out for research and industrial use. CH2M Hill has plans to add water to the pool using tanker trucks in an emergency and has conducted emergency drills.
More Pressing Needs
DOE had planned to start repackaging and then putting the capsules in dry storage in Hanford’s T Plant in late 2005, and former contractor Fluor Hanford had requested bids for the project in 2003. However, the work was canceled as DOE decided it had more pressing environmental cleanup concerns. Now removing the capsules to dry storage is crucial because a national repository for them will not be available until 2048, according to the IG memo. The capsules had been planned to be sent to the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., national repository, but now the capsules could be stored at Hanford until 2048, when DOE plans to open a repository at a location yet to be determined. DOE has asked CH2M Hill to prepare a Mission Needs Statement to fully document the need for interim dry storage, and CH2M Hill continues to work on that report. CH2M Hill also issued a request for information to engineering firms in August to help it better estimate the cost and feasibility of dry storage.
DOE Hanford officials would like to move the capsules to dry storage, but have other pressing needs, according to the IG memo. The administration’s budget proposal for fiscal 2015 would cut spending for projects under the Hanford Richland Operations Office by almost $100 million. “The department has taken the steps needed to ensure safety of the material until funding is available to transfer the capsules into dry storage,” said Ray Corey, DOE assistant manager for Hanford river and plateau work. The IG memo said that given funding issues, that perspective is not unreasonable. The existing structure is safe and can still withstand the emergencies considered when it was designed, DOE told the Office of Inspector General.
Dry Storage Could Save Money Over Long-Term
If DOE can find the money to move the capsules to dry storage, it would save money long term, according to the IG memo. Moving the capsules to dry storage would cost an estimated $83 million to $136 million. But the cost of storing them would drop to $1 million a year compared to the current cost of $7.2 million annually for underwater storage. DOE eventually must move the capsules to dry storage, so the sooner that is done, the more money can be saved in reduced operating costs, the memo said. DOE agrees that moving the capsules to dry storage would reduce operating costs and improve safety, Corey said. The Office of Inspector General previously has suggested that DOE assign funds to projects nationwide based on risk rather than focusing on work to meet legal milestones such as those in Hanford’s Tri-Party Agreement, and it repeated that advice in the memo on the capsules. That strategy would make moving the capsules to dry storage a high priority given WESF’s standing as DOE’s largest “beyond design threat” facility.
