Officials in southern Ohio met Thursday to narrow the list of potential third-party contractors to sample for potential radioactive contamination at a middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site.
The Pike County General Health District said Tuesday it is working with DOE, along with local and state agencies, to establish a procedure outlining “when and where to collect samples,” and the number of samples needed.
As of Friday morning, officials have yet to say what exactly will be analyzed, although it could involve air and water samples. The Energy Department has said the additional sampling should be done in a “scientifically-sound, and disciplined manner.”
“We are aware of the time sensitive nature of this project” and plan to quickly select a contractor with the necessary experience, according to the statement issued through Pike County Health Commissioner Matt Brewster. The health district and the Scioto Valley Local School District are drafting a memorandum of understanding with the Energy Department about the planned sampling, which will be paid for by the federal agency.
Brewster also said local, state, and federal government agencies are drafting a “data quality objectives process,” which stresses the scientific method for the sampling.
Neither Brewster nor officials at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency could be reached for additional comment Friday morning on the contractor selection process. Officials want the samples taken and analyzed prior to start of the 2019-2020 school year.
The school district on May 13 said Zahn’s Corner Middle School would start summer break immediately, following detection of traces of enriched uranium within the building and neptunium-237 by a nearby Energy Department air monitor. The school, 2 miles from the former gaseous diffusion plant, halted classes after Northern Arizona University researchers analyzed air and water samples collected by local residents.
The university study said evidence of radioactive contaminants beyond background levels came from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, including the construction of an on-site waste disposal cell.
Energy Department Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White has taken a keen interest in the Pike County situation, meeting with local residents about the issue. Several sources said prior to press time that White is resigning her office, after a disagreement with Undersecretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar on her handling of the situation. The Energy Department has not confirmed White’s departure.
In a letter Monday to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), Energy Secretary Rick Perry said his agency will release “raw air monitoring data” for the Portsmouth Site for 2015 through the first quarter of 2019. The level of radionuclides in the vicinity is far below a level posing risk to human health, DOE says.
The agency’s sampling data has already been shared with the Ohio EPA and the state Department of Health, Perry said.
In the letter, Perry said funding for the third-party sampling and analysis near Zahn’s Corner Middle School will come through an existing DOE grant to Ohio University. Since 2010, the university has received more than $4 million to run a research program to support cleanup and reuse of property in and around the Portsmouth Site.
