Crews digging up, cleaning up radioactive waste at mouth of Saginaw River
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
By JEFF KART BAY CITY TIMES WRITER

 If you've seen men in white suits at the Saginaw River mouth, don't be alarmed.

They've been digging out hundreds of tons of radioactive waste and contaminated soil from an old Dow Chemical Co. site across from the Consumers Energy's Karn-Weadock power plant.

The waste, called thorium slag, is being loaded into air-tight rail cars and shipped to a landfill in Utah.

''We began in early June,'' said Garret Geer, a Dow spokesman. ''It's scheduled to run through mid-July to the end of July.''

The slag is a byproduct of castings made at a magnesium foundry that Dow operated in Bay City from the 1940s through the 1960s. It's been buried by the Saginaw Bay for decades.

So far, about 80 rail cars have been loaded with the gray, powdery slag and contaminated dirt from the site, which takes up more than 9 acres.

Geer said about 105 rail cars will be needed to take away all the material.

When all is said and done, more than 11,000 tons of slag and dirt will have gone west, said Dave Wojtkowiak, radiation safety officer for Babcock Services Inc. of Rhode Island, a contractor.

Dow is working with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the cleanup. Thorium is known to cause cancer, but NRC officials have said the work poses no danger to the public.

Wojtkowiak said the cleanup will make the site safer.

He said the level of radioactivity in the slag and excavated soil is less than a dental X-ray.

But the site still doesn't meet federal ''unrestricted release criteria'' meant to protect public health.

''The potential for someone, over a span of a year, to be exposed above the legal minimums means its necessary we take the steps to remediate,'' Geer said.

The site was surveyed prior to the dig, to find the most contaminated areas and bring the radioactivity there to acceptable levels.

Workers who excavated the site dressed in white Tyvek suits and transported the slag and dirt to nearby tracks, where it's now being loaded into rail cars. The slag and dirt is sprayed with water during the process to reduce dust.

Wojtkowiak said the slag has been covered for years by 6 inches to 2 feet of topsoil and vegetation.

Six inches of fresh topsoil is being put down to cover the excavated area and the site is being revegetated. Geer said the property could be redeveloped in the future.

Wojtkowiak said groundwater is being monitored there to make sure the contamination isn't spreading. So far, it hasn't, he said.

The rail cars are going to EnergySolutions in Clive, Utah, which operates a radioactive landfill.

Wojtkowiak said the slag and dirt will be used as cover for more radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.

- Jeff Kart covers the environment and politics for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9639 or by e-mail at jkart@bc-times.com.

©2006 Bay City Times

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