The Honorable Elliot Spitzer
Attorney General, State of New York
State Capital
Albany, NY 12224

Subject: KAPL Falsification of CERCLA Hazard Ranking of the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area

References:

Attachment:

[1] Summary of KAPL CERCLA Falsifications

Dear Sir:

This letter submits information to your office concerning falsification of a 1988 CERCLA submittal on the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area by the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL), located in Niskayuna, New York. As a result of gross misrepresentations in the submittal, the reported Hazard Ranking score of 19.3 for this Disposal Area is well below the 28.5 threshold that mandates listing of a site on the National Priority List for remedial action. However, a legitimate hazard analysis will show the true score is in the range of 40 to 50, or well above the threshold for the National Priority List. By this deception, KAPL has succeeded in circumventing state and federal environmental regulations pertaining to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Reference [1] is an internal Laboratory document that details widespread contamination of the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area with both hazardous waste and radioactivity that is moving in the groundwater to the Mohawk river. Reference [2], submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reports only a small amount of hazardous waste, no radioactivity, and no groundwater flow. Then, using the fabrications of Reference [2], KAPL performs a Hazard Ranking analysis showing that the Knolls Site does not qualify for further action under CERCLA. Attachment 1 summarizes the major falsifications perpetrated, as evidenced by the wholesale contradictions between these two KAPL documents. The alterations in Reference [2] consistently lessen the severity of the earlier Reference [1] information, even where this requires disregarding measured data from ground water testholes and soil samples. Even more telling are several major self-contradictions contained within Reference [2] itself. It seems that in the rush to totally eradicate the damaging information of Reference [1], some important truths were overlooked and survived.

KAPL's abuse of CERCLA is made possible by an underlying uncertainty of major proportions regarding the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area. In Reference [1] KAPL states that:

"In general, available records are insufficient to identify the specific substances and quantities involved or to accurately define the boundaries of disposal areas."

This is an admission by KAPL that it did not keep records of landfill dumping that began in 1948. KAPL does not know what, how much , or where contaminants are in the landfill. Reference [2] verifies this lack of knowledge by stating that the estimated 76 tons dumped covers 27 years of waste disposal for which records do not exist prior to 1977. These 27 years just happen to constitute the entire period being evaluated. With this admitted lack of records about a landfill used for more than ten years to store and dump deadly nuclear weapons factory waste, it might be expected that a CERCLA rating, if possible to calculate at all, would tend toward conservatism and caution because of the deadly mix of waste involved. However, quite the opposite has occurred here, with KAPL taking advantage of the lack of records to fabricate a CERCLA exclusion.

The numerical Hazard Ranking analysis was contorted so as to create a score lower than what would result from correct scoring. The direct correlation between the falsifications in Reference [2] text and the Hazard Ranking manipulation provides strong evidence that the CERCLA submittal was improperly used for the self interest of KAPL in keeping the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area out of the CERCLA program. Such irresponsible action with regard to a landfill that contains nuclear weapons factory waste, including deadly bone-seeking cancer-producing Strontium-90, extremely toxic Plutonium-239, and highly dangerous mixed (radioactive and hazardous) waste, creates unconscionable risk to public health and safety, and to the environment.

One disturbing measure of the quality of the 1988 CERCLA submittal now exists. In addition to the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area, Reference [2] stated that, "Based on its historical review, KAPL concludes that it is highly unlikely that there is any chemically hazardous waste present at the Peek Street Site which may present a threat to public health and the environment. Consequently, it was not necessary to rate this site using the Hazard Ranking System." This judgment, as with that on the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area, was rendered in the absence of important historical records and involved a facility that also contained a nuclear weapons factory pilot plant. In the thirty-five years after abandoning the Peek Street Site, KAPL was unable to locate the close-out records that would establish that the site had been radioactively decontaminated. In September 1988, scarcely four months after the KAPL CERCLA submittal, soil samples along an adjacent children's bike path were found to measure 1169 pCi/g, or 700% above the state limit, and to contain Plutonium-239. Subsequently, a joint DOE - NY State investigation found significant radioactive contamination at the site, both indoors and outdoors, and a major DOE "cleanup" followed. Thus, the 1988 CERCLA submittal has been proven totally incorrect in a very important test of site evaluation, which should raise serious doubt as to its validity concerning the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area.

We the undersigned respectfully request that your office initiate an immediate investigation into this matter.

John P. Shannon
Physicist, Nuclear Engineer
262 Jones Rd. Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 12866

Robert G. Stater
Nuclear Engineer, P.E.
105 Pashley Rd. Scotia, N.Y. 12302

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Beginning in 1948 and continuing for more than 10 years, KAPL generated large volumes of radioactive waste from its Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU), a weapons factory pilot plant for separation of plutonium-239 from spent reactor fuel. The rate of waste generation from SPRU challenged KAPL's disposal capabilities to such an extent that the Laboratory resorted to dumping radioactivity into the Mohawk river, storing SPRU waste on the Knolls Site landfill, burying SPRU waste in the Knolls Site landfill, and shipping SPRU waste to off-site disposal areas. As a result of this and other operations that followed, the 120 acre Knolls Site Land Disposal Area, which consists of several large and separate dumping locations, now contains a widespread mix of hazardous waste and radioactive contamination, as documented in Reference [1]. The major contradictions between References 1 and 2 are apparent from the following comparison of content.

Hazardous Waste in the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area

Reference [1] indicates that:

• a total of seven locations within the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area were used for dumping hazardous waste - the Current landfill area, the North Field, the Abandoned landfill, the Slurry Drum Station, the West Field, the Red Pines, and the Incinerator area.



• visual inspections found the Knolls Site landfill littered with every conceivable type of debris indicative of widespread dumping, including protruding drums, empty reagent chemical bottles, disturbed soil, earthen mounds, discolored runoff and locations devoid of vegetation
• approximately 1600 pounds of pyrophoric zirconium powder and 1700 assorted containers of zirconium chips or powder were disposed of in one location by either burning the metal or by burial
• on one occasion while dumping waste of an unspecified nature, a chemical reaction caused an explosion and fire
• drums of waste oil surfaced in 1984 from the steep slope descending to the East Boundary Stream
• a metal detection survey carried out in part of the North Field in 1980 located metallic objects on or near the surface in more than half of the sections surveyed
• ground water testhole data detected several contaminants at levels in excess of the NYS Groundwater Quality Standard, including cyanide, arsenic, phenols, PCB's, cadmium, mercury, lead, selenium, and iron. In 1979, cyanide was detected in the several landfill test holes for a period of eight months at levels as high as 1400 ppb, far above the groundwater standard of 200 ppb. In 1980 seven groundwater test holes and a well suddenly showed arsenic at levels as high as 4147 ppb, far above the groundwater standard of 50 ppb

Reference [2] indicates that:

• during the early years of KAPL's operation, small amounts of chemical materials and radioactive materials were deposited on the site as a result of Laboratory operations, a period when no records were kept, but then identifies the same seven locations given in Reference [1]
• 76 estimated tons of hazardous waste were dumped into the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area during the 27 years prior to 1977, for which records do not exist
• ground water testhole data detected several contaminants at levels in excess of the NYS Groundwater Quality Standard (exactly as reported in Reference [1])

Radioactive Contamination in the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area

Reference [1] indicates that:

• radioactivity exists in at least 4 of the 7 locations contaminated with hazardous waste, including the North Field, the former Slurry Drum Station, the Current Landfill, and the Red Pines
• areas contaminated with Cs-137 may also contain low levels of chemical contaminants (this constitutes "mixed radioactive waste" for which there is no national disposal facility)
• unknown quantities and types of radioactive materials may be deeply buried in the present landfill, the abandoned landfill, and/or the Red Pines area; more than one-hundred 55-gallon drums were reportedly buried, some number of which were affixed with radioactive labels
• measured Cs-137 soil sample levels of radioactivity contamination in the North Field were 400 pCi/g, in the Slurry Drum Station were 400 pCi/g, and in the Red Pines were 280 pCi/g. The KAPL soil release limit for Cs-137 is 20 pCi/g

Reference [2] indicates that:

• only a small amount of residual radioactivity from past KAPL operations, principally SPRU, exists on a small portion of the land disposal area called the Slurry Drum Station, where drums of radioactive wastes were accumulated prior to shipment off-site (which contradicts the soil sample measurements given in Reference [1])
• KAPL does not dispose of radioactive materials at the Knolls Site, nor has KAPL ever used the site as a burial ground for radioactive wastes
• ground water monitoring wells have indicated the presence of low levels of radioactivity
• radioactivity is not a contaminant of the Knolls Site landfill. Appendix A to Reference [2], which is the basis for the Hazard Ranking analysis in Reference [2], does not once mention radioactive contamination of the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area. The Appendix B Documentation Records for Hazard Ranking System all mark the radioactive waste characteristic as "not applicable."

Ground Water Use and Migration on the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area

Reference [1] indicates that:

• ground water on the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area moves to the Mohawk river; test hole sampling of groundwater verifies this movement
• test hole data indicate the possible presence and migration of hazardous chemicals within the current landfill, with a significant increase in down gradient chemical contaminant concentrations in groundwater (down gradient is toward the river)
• sediment analysis data indicate chemicals are potentially migrating out of the landfill area

Reference [2] indicates that:

• there has been no evidence of off-site migration based on the results of down gradient samples
• the surface (migration) route is far more important because of very little ground water movement and because downstream drinking water wells are fed by infiltration of surface water from the Mohawk River
• the groundwater most likely drains in the same direction as the Midline stream, with the surface and groundwater route characteristics being basically the same for all locations
• if available in sufficient quantity, groundwater's best projected use would be for commercial or industrial purposes
• the Mohawk is the nearest downslope surface water to the Knolls Site, that the Mohawk is classified by New York State as a Class A stream, for which the best usage is as a water supply for drinking, culinary, or food processing purposes
• the river feeds infiltration wells that serve as public water supply for an estimated 6700 residents of Niskayuna, New York.

Hazard Ranking System Analysis of Knolls Site Landfill

After setting the stage by attempting to eradicate all Reference [1] information that would adversely effect the hazard ranking score, a botched revision that created the multitude of contradictions between References [1] and [2], KAPL then performs the hazard ranking calculation for the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area in Reference [2]. Not too surprisingly, the falsified score of 19.3 is well below the score of 28.5 that would have caused the site to be listed for remedial action on the National Priority List. Based on this manipulated ranking calculation, KAPL "concluded" that the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area poses no undue risk to health, safety and the environment and states that no further work needs to be performed pursuant to the remaining phases of the DOE CERCLA program.

A review of the Hazard Ranking System work sheets and documentation records reveals three significant flaws in the analysis, each of which cause the 19.3 score to be less than what would result from correct scoring. The misapplications used in the analysis are as follows:

• Waste Quantity: The method used to estimate the quantity and type of hazardous waste dumped into the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area over the 27 years from 1948 through 1976 is totally unrealistic. In the first ten years of Knolls Site landfill use, large volumes of hazardous waste were from SPRU weapons factory work. The KAPL records for waste generation between 1981 and 1985, as used for the estimation, involve waste generated from Naval Reactors activities, which bears no relationship in either quantity or type of waste generated by the SPRU weapons factory. As a result, the 76 tons of estimated waste is almost assuredly a gross understatement. A more representative quantity of hazardous waste on both the Ground Water and Surface Water Route Work Sheets raises the score above 19.3.

• Radioactive Contamination: No scoring was included for the radioactivity present in the Knoll Site Land Disposal Area, as documented in Reference [1] and deleted in Reference [2]. If the presence of radioactivity had been accounted for on both the Ground Water and Surface Water Route Work Sheets, the score could easily be above 19.3.

• Ground Water Use and Flow Path: The Ground Water Route Work Sheet does not account for the correct use or migration path for ground water from the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area. In fact, the Reference [2] analysis incorrectly treats the ground water as having no flow path whatsoever from the landfill. Ground water is incorrectly treated as being geologically blocked by discontinuities from ever reaching nearby municipal wells. Both References [1] and [2] indicate that ground water takes the same flow path as surface water. Surface water migration is correctly scored as flowing to the Mohawk river and being carried downstream to the Niskayuna municipal wells. Accounting only for correct use and flow path on the Ground Water Route Work Sheet more than doubles the rating score, from 19.3 to 41.8, which would place the Knolls Site Land Disposal Area on the National Priority List for remedial action. Inclusion of a realistic quantity of waste, of the known radioactive contamination, and of a correct flow path further elevates the score of 19.3 to somewhere between 40 and 50.