Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/5/2015
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) initiated the final phase of the Maxey Flats Disposal Site cleanup project this week in a symbolic ceremony meant to kick off the construction of a $35.2 million permanent protective cap over the site. Maxey Flats previously served as a disposal site for the nation’s low-level radioactive waste, but due to poor burial practices, the site had to shut down its operations in 1977 after the state regulators discovered leakage. Kentucky plans to place a protective cap on the site, which should cost an estimated $35.2 million and take 18 months to complete.
Beshear, joined by state and local officials and representatives from Walker Construction and other team members involved with the final cap construction, shoveled the first load of dirt onto the synthetic liner. “This is a good day for Kentucky as one of our biggest environmental challenges is being properly dealt with, keeping our citizens and our environment safe from the radioactive disposal done here in the past,” Beshear said in a statement. “This action is being taken to ensure the safety of our citizens and our environment near the disposal site.” The final phase of closure also includes the purchase of property that will allow for the increased distance between the restricted areas of the site and the public, and reduce potential for public exposure, the state said. The Maxey Flats site will then undergo a 100 year period of maintenance and monitoring as part of the Institutional Control Period.
The state chose the Walker Company as the lead contractor to construct the cap while AECOM completed the design and will oversee its construction, Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesman Tim Hubbard said. Work had already begun at the site prior to this week’s ceremony. “The Walker Company mobilized to the site in January, 2015,” Hubbard said in an email. “They begin preparing the site for construction of the cap and working on preliminary activities, including: clearing (cutting down trees and brush) to access soil borrow areas and making way for construction of the haul road and surface water management features.”
The decision to construct a cap for the site dates back to the 1991 record of decision for the site, Hubbard said. “Natural stabilization and placement of an interim cap followed by a permanent vegetative cap was selected as the remedy for the Maxey Flats site as part of the 1991 Record of Decision and Consent Decree which was entered into in 1996,” Hubbard said in an email. “The selection was based on its overall effectiveness, implementability and cost in comparison to the other alternatives.” The Superfund Branch of the Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Division of Waste Management has had primary oversight of the previous remediation measures that have allowed the site to be safely brought to the point of final closure, the state said. Funding for the effort split between two areas within the state—$17 million in General Fund-supported bonds and the rest from the state’s Capital and Emergency trust accounts.
