Steve Wilkinson
Bechtel National, Inc.

Several sites in the New York District are being remediated under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). Cleanup progress during fiscal year 1997 included completing pile removal at the government-owned storage site in Maywood and cleanup of several Maywood vicinity properties; completing cleanup of the process building and drainage ditch at the Middlesex Sampling Plant; and continuing pile removal at the Wayne site. Plans for 1998 at FUSRAP sites in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District include continuation of cleanup activities at Maywood, Wayne, and Middlesex. This progress report highlights cost savings achieved through innovative contracting strategies, cleanup/disposal approaches, and treatment technologies. Topics discussed include (1) cost savings achieved through use of a turnkey remediation subcontract in storage pile removal at the Wayne site;

(2) definition of final remediation plans for the Wayne site; (3) Maywood residential vicinity property cleanups, including the use of underpinning of structures during remediation; (4) use of alternate disposal options for very low level uranium and thorium wastes at the Middlesex Sampling Plant and Maywood vicinity properties, thereby saving millions of dollars in disposal costs; (5) results of segmented gate system and soil washing demonstration tests for soils from Maywood and Middlesex; (6) procedures followed when unexploded ordnance was encountered during remediation activities at Middlesex; (7) innovative methods used during decontamination, demolition, and recycling of the process building at the Middlesex Sampling Plant; and (8) planned remediation of the Colonie site grounds, including excavation, treatment, and disposal of soils that contain both radioactive and chemical contamination, including depleted uranium, thorium, and lead and other metals.

Cleanup progress at the New York District sites managed under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) during the last few years has been characterized by high efficiency and significant cost savings achieved through the application of innovative cleanup technologies, disposal methods, and subcontracting strategies. Formerly a Department of Energy (DOE) program, FUSRAP is now managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

More than $3 million was saved by using a turnkey subcontract for removing a storage pile from the Wayne site in New Jersey. Located on DOE-owned property, the pile contained approximately 31,000 cubic meters of soil with low levels of radioactivity. The soil came from 17 nearby properties cleaned up from 1985 through 1987.

The turnkey approach to subcontracting for all phases of excavation, transportation, and disposal of pile materials transferred much of the risk to the subcontractor but also provided significant flexibility in defining the details of performance. The subcontractor was responsible for engineering/design, regulatory compliance, safety and health, excavation, transportation, and disposal. The pile removal portion of this subcontract was for a lump sum with risks and liability assumed by the subcontractor. The subcontract also provided for time-phased funding based on projected DOE funding levels for the Wayne site. Pile removal operations began during fall 1995 and were completed during fall 1997. The total subcontract cost for removal of the pile was approximately $15.9 million, compared with the estimated cost of $19 million.

About 43,600 cubic meters of material containing thorium-232, radium-226, and uranium-226 residues remains at the Wayne site. An engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA) has been prepared to address the removal and commercial disposal of 15,300 to 30,600 cubic meters of the more highly contaminated material from suspected burial pits. The EE/CA was issued for public comment, and the excavation of subsurface material is expected to begin during spring 1998.

At the thorium-contaminated Maywood site in northeastern New Jersey, the phase I (residences and parks) cleanup of vicinity properties is nearing completion. Fiscal year 1997 work included three properties that were not originally designated but were added when contamination from a designated adjacent park was found to extend onto them. This discovery illustrates the uncertainty of contamination boundaries interpolated over large areas from relatively few data points. Of the remaining 23 phase I properties, 10 will require underpinning and occupant relocation.

Two remaining properties adjoin a property found in 1996 to be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a result of illegal dumping; the designated properties are expected to be PCB contaminated as well. Efforts to dispose of the PCB-contaminated soil led to an "alternate disposal" strategy that could potentially save the program millions of dollars.

During the 1940s, the Middlesex Sampling Plant in New Jersey was used for handling uranium, thorium, and beryllium ores. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission later used the site for storing and sampling thorium residues. FUSRAP cleanup work during fiscal year 1997 included the demolition of two brick buildings and a soil treatment demonstration using the Segmented Gate System (SGS). The building demolition was accomplished through an innovative subcontract that called for maximizing the recycling and reuse of materials that were below radioactive material release limits. The use of a wood chipper to shred the wooden beams and other material resulted in the free release of the material by application of volumetric criteria. The use of mechanical means to crush brick and other masonry materials allowed free release by similar criteria. In all, more than 900 metric tons of brick and masonry, about 646 cubic meters of shredded wood, and more than 90 metric tons of contaminated steel (to be smelted and reused under a separate contract) were diverted from disposal in landfills. The results of the SGS demonstration are addressed later in this paper.

During the SGS demonstration, an SGS operator found an unexpended 20-mm TPT round on the conveyor belt. The round had passed through the hammer mill and was slightly bent. Operations were immediately halted, and an unexploded ordnance disposal (UOD) expert was consulted. Project personnel received unexploded ordnance awareness training, the site health and safety plan was revised, UOD experts were positioned to monitor the soil, and operations were continued. No additional ordnance was found.

The Atomic Energy Act (AEA) gave DOE the authority to classify its material for disposal. DOE classified soil containing very low concentrations of radioactive material as outside the parameters of the AEA and regulated under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). But under 10 CFR 40.13(a), Unimportant Quantities of Source Material, soil with less than 156 pCi/g of uranium-238 and less than 55 pCi/g of thorium-232 at sites in Middlesex and Maywood are classified as unimportant quantities of source material.

According to Environmental Protection Agency guidance, this type of waste may be disposed of in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle C facilities if the soil is not incompatible with the RCRA waste. Savings from this disposal method can be as much as 50 percent of the cost of using a low-level waste repository.

The Thermo NUtech SGS is a technology that has been successfully used to separate contaminated material from clean soil. However, a pilot demonstration at the Middlesex site on approximately 510 cubic meters of soil contaminated with natural uranium, daughter products, and lead resulted in almost no volume reduction because of the homogeneity of the soil contamination.

At the Maywood vicinity properties, approximately 765 cubic meters of soil was treated using a six-stage soil washing treatment train developed by Alternative Remedial Technologies, Inc. The wet screening, hydrocyclone separation, sand dewatering, density separation, flocculation, and fines dewatering treatment train promises to greatly reduce the volume of soil that contains radium-226 and thorium-232 and requires offsite disposal.

At the Colonie Interim Storage Site in New York, buildings contaminated with uranium and thorium residues, lead and other metals, asbestos, and PCBs have been demolished, and waste segregation and volume reduction techniques have been used to effectively manage and dispose of the resulting waste streams. Plans for future remedial action include excavation of material containing greater than 100 pCi/g of uranium-238 or greater than 15 pCi/g of thorium-232. This material will be transported to a licensed disposal facility and will require treatment for metals contamination to meet RCRA Land Disposal Restrictions. Materials containing uranium-238 concentrations between 35 and 100 pCi/g will be consolidated in a former onsite landfill and capped, and the remainder of the site will be available for commercial, industrial, or recreational use.

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