Mr. Steven B. Feinberg, Project Manager (SPRU)
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
2401 River Road
Niskayuna, NY 12309

Dear Mr. Feinberg:

I found the Daily Gazette article titled "Cleanup begins at Knolls lab site used in 1950’s" to be very interesting. I recall that shortly after the KAPL Peek Street Site was destroyed by fire in 1999, a letter appeared in the Gazette identifying that facility as a weapons factory and recommending that a similar, but much larger, unit at KAPL be immediately dismantled. Hence, I agree that it is excellent strategy by the Department of Energy to take such action at this time.

As a former mayor and councilman in Schenectady, I have had considerable dealings with environmental matters, which in my own neighborhood included the DOE-FUSRAP cleanup of radioactivity at the abandoned Peek Street Site, the N.Y. state cleanup of toxic waste at the Schenectady Plating Company on Foster Ave., and the problem of toxic waste and radioactive contaminants at a closed public landfill on Maxon Road. I certainly appreciate the offer by KAPL to open lines of communication with the neighborhood and community, as evidenced by the tour given the Gazette reporter and the contact made with the Niskayuna supervisor. However, this first step is far from adequate.

The inadequacy arises because the information provided in the Gazette article is not at all consistent with what was encountered at the Peek Street site. In response to my 1988 request to KAPL to investigate whether the Peek Street weapons factory might still contain radioactive contamination (50 years after it was abandoned), KAPL was totally uncooperative, repeatedly insisting that the facility was clean. Since a soil sample taken along the adjacent bike path showed radiation levels 700% above accepted limits, I was forced to contact Governor Mario Cuomo. As a result, the N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Department of Energy were on the site within two days. To make a long story short, the Peek Street weapons factory did, in fact, contain excessive levels of radioactive contamination which were subsequently removed. Hence, I do not find it credible that SPRU cleanup, of a much larger weapons complex, will not encounter levels of radiation that can significantly effect the quality of the human environment.

From my environmental experience, I believe that you are obligated to provide the public more substantive information about this project than has occurred to date. For example, a number of public informational meetings would seem to be in order. In addition, it is my understanding that major Federal actions, such this 14 year, $200 million project for the SPRU weapons factory cleanup, which by any measure is a major action, require an Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed actions. I am hereby requesting a copy of that EIS.

Sincerely yours,

Frank Duci