Carolina Peace - Chem Nuclear's Unsafe Dumping Practices

Chem Nuclear's Unsafe Dumping Practices

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 10 February 2005

On Re-licensure of Barnwell Dump

The South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club is challenging the re-licensing of the Barnwell Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility by the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) in court next week.

After months of legal maneuvering by Chem-Nuclear, the operators of the radioactive waste site, the trial will begin on February 16 before a State Administrative Law Judge. Also included in the suit and opposing the license, is Environmentalist, Inc. of Columbia, SC. The two non-profit citizen groups have requested a review of DHEC's decision and a rejection of the license renewal. Without the license the Barnwell facility would have to close.

This trial marks the first time in the nation that a low-level waste operator has been required to testify under oath regarding its disposal practices. Chem-Nuclear has claimed that many of their practices are trade secrets, while attorney's for the Sierra Club say that Chem-Nuclear is actually trying to hide their unsophisticated and potentially dangerous methods of crude shallow trench burial of radio-active waste.

"Much safer technologies for managing these dangerous wastes are now available, and Chem-Nuclear itself agreed to the safer procedures for a proposed facility in North Carolina," noted Ruth Thomas, president of Environmentalist, Inc.

The petition by Sierra Club and Environmentalist, Inc. requesting the trail states that "measurable amounts of radiation continue to escape from the poorly designed and operated burial trenches at the facility, contaminating the groundwater and the surface waters of the state, including Mary's Branch which flows into the Savannah River." The Savannah River is a source of drinking water for several water systems downstream in South Carolina and Georgia.

Dell Isham, Director of the South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he was "disappointed in the lax regulatory attitude of DHEC. They should be demanding no less than legally required state-of-the-art measures to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public."

The attorneys representing the Sierra Club and Environmentalist, Inc. are James Chandler of the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and Columbia attorney Robert Guild. Representing Chem-Nuclear is the McNair Law Firm.

The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m., February 16, in Suite 224 of the Edgar Brown Building, 1205 Pendleton Street, Columbia. The trial is open to the public.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."