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Massive radioactive air pollution from Savannah River Nuclear Site.

Group calls for air pollution investigation at SRS http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20130821/AIK0101/130829945/1004/group-calls-for-air-pollution-investigation-at-srs Derrek Asberry, August 21, 2013  A nonprofit environmental group is challenging a government study of air pollutants by calling for an investigation of toxic air pollution from Savannah River Site.

The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a letter with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, criticizing the toxic agency’s evaluation of SRS.

“The amount of airborne radioactive pollution from SRS is massive,” said Luis Zeller, the director of the environmental group, in a recent press release. “It is greater than the liquid releases to streams and groundwater by at least an order of magnitude. How could the ATSDR miss this?”

The group cited the toxic agency’s July 1 public health evaluation of the Site, which concluded that airborne emissions of radioactive materials and most chemical pollutants from SRS were below levels that could potentially cause harmful health effects.

“The ATSDR’s study is contradictory and inconclusive,” said Charles Utley in the press release.

Utley is the environmental justice campaign coordinator for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. He conducted separate field investigations around SRS and followed up with a report entitled “Sow the Wind.”

“The League’s own investigations centered on the air toxics emitted from hundreds of large and small smokestacks at SRS and how they interact to raise downwind pollution levels in Jackson, New Ellenton, Williston and other communities,” the group stated in the release.

The group continued by recommending the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry take one of two actions: conduct an analysis and produce conclusive results on radioactive air pollutions, or require the Department of Energy to determine the public health impact of radioactive air pollutants in the Central Savannah River Area.

“Our report indicates that operations at SRS have had, and will continue to have, a negative impact on the health of residents in the Central Savannah River Area,” Utley added in the press release.

SRS did not issue a comment on the issue.

August 28, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA