Report says EPA should update drinking water radioactivity rule
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August 03, 2005
Report says EPA should update drinking water radioactivity rule
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency should revise its standard for radioactive materials in drinking water, according to a report released Wednesday that raises concerns about contamination near the Nevada Test Site.
In general, the nation's drinking water is safe from radioactive contamination, said the report's author, Arjun Makhijani, president of the Takoma Park, Md.-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
But radioactive materials could endanger water sources near former government nuclear weapons facilities, including groundwater near the Nevada Test Site, Makhijani said.
An EPA spokesman said the agency reviews its standard every six years.
"Unless someone has significant information not previously available, there is not a compelling case to change the rule," EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said in Washington, D.C.
Other water sources at risk, according to the report, include the Savannah River between South Carolina and Georgia, the Snake River plain aquifer in southern Idaho and the Columbia River in Washington state.
The report calls for "an urgent revision" of maximum contaminant levels for alpha-emitting, long-lived transuranic radionuclides.
Makhijani told the Las Vegas Sun he was concerned about plutonium dispersed during above- and below-ground nuclear weapons testing, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, at the Nevada Test Site. Testing ended in 1992.
The 29-year-old federal drinking water standard for allowable levels of materials like plutonium-239, an atomic bomb ingredient, is too lax, Makhijani said. The report recommends the EPA set a standard that is 100 times more strict as the government continues clean-up at former nuclear weapon sites.
Clean-up efforts include enclosing radioactive waste, including plutonium, in tanks, but the waste is still left near vital water sources, Makhijani said.
Makhijani also is a critic of a federal plan to build an underground nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. He recommended a stricter standard be applied to that project, where the government plans to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive commercial, military and industrial waste for tens of thousands of years.
Nevada officials argue the site cannot meet current EPA standards limiting the release of radiation into the environment.
Waste that would be permanently stored in casks in the repository tunnels would contain long-lived radionuclides like plutonium and neptunium that could ultimately seep into groundwater if the repository fails in the future, said Joe Egan, a Vienna, Va.-based lawyer for the state.
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On the Net:
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research: http://www.ieer.org
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Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com
--"
August 03, 2005
Report says EPA should update drinking water radioactivity rule
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency should revise its standard for radioactive materials in drinking water, according to a report released Wednesday that raises concerns about contamination near the Nevada Test Site.
In general, the nation's drinking water is safe from radioactive contamination, said the report's author, Arjun Makhijani, president of the Takoma Park, Md.-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
But radioactive materials could endanger water sources near former government nuclear weapons facilities, including groundwater near the Nevada Test Site, Makhijani said.
An EPA spokesman said the agency reviews its standard every six years.
"Unless someone has significant information not previously available, there is not a compelling case to change the rule," EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said in Washington, D.C.
Other water sources at risk, according to the report, include the Savannah River between South Carolina and Georgia, the Snake River plain aquifer in southern Idaho and the Columbia River in Washington state.
The report calls for "an urgent revision" of maximum contaminant levels for alpha-emitting, long-lived transuranic radionuclides.
Makhijani told the Las Vegas Sun he was concerned about plutonium dispersed during above- and below-ground nuclear weapons testing, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, at the Nevada Test Site. Testing ended in 1992.
The 29-year-old federal drinking water standard for allowable levels of materials like plutonium-239, an atomic bomb ingredient, is too lax, Makhijani said. The report recommends the EPA set a standard that is 100 times more strict as the government continues clean-up at former nuclear weapon sites.
Clean-up efforts include enclosing radioactive waste, including plutonium, in tanks, but the waste is still left near vital water sources, Makhijani said.
Makhijani also is a critic of a federal plan to build an underground nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. He recommended a stricter standard be applied to that project, where the government plans to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive commercial, military and industrial waste for tens of thousands of years.
Nevada officials argue the site cannot meet current EPA standards limiting the release of radiation into the environment.
Waste that would be permanently stored in casks in the repository tunnels would contain long-lived radionuclides like plutonium and neptunium that could ultimately seep into groundwater if the repository fails in the future, said Joe Egan, a Vienna, Va.-based lawyer for the state.
---
On the Net:
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research: http://www.ieer.org
---
Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com
--"
posted by Greta Jane at Friday, August 05, 2005
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