Recent Projects
Below are descriptions of several of the projects that RWMA has recently assisted with. For more information about our experience, also see our list of recent clients.
URAVAN
For several years, RWMA has worked with other experts to determine radiation doses that residents received in the mining and milling town of Uravan, CO. The mill in Uravan had operated for over four decades and uranium used in the Manhattan Project was refined in that town. The mill had initially been built to refine radium. Later in the ‘30’s vanadium was refined at Uravan and the uranium-rich tailings were disposed in the town. After World War II, the ore in the area was mined for uranium extraction. A new mill started operation in 1956. Over the course of a total of six decades, effluents, tailings, raffinates and other forms of contaminated materials were released to the surrounding environment. Due to the high levels of radioactive contaminants, the Colorado Department of Health closed down the town in 1985. Residents, injured by radiation, have sued the former operator, Union Carbide. Residents are represented by the law firms, BeasleyAllen and The Spence Law Firm. RWMA searched through several hundred thousand pages of historical information and environmental data to create a database of concentrations of radioactive materials in various media. The database was then used in the reconstruction of doses to Uravan residents, mostly spouses and children of miners and millers. RWMA also calculated the fugitive dust emissions from highways.
NORM and Pipe Cleaning Operations
Since 1993, RWMA has been examining the health impact of cleaning oil and gas pipes and valves. In the course of oil production, radioactive scale and sludge will deposit in the interiors of pipes and valves. Depending on the geographic location of the production operation, the concentrations of this NORM, or Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials, can be quite high. In several of the cases in which RWMA has been involved, workers who cleaned these pipes and valves were not warned of the dangers of working with these contaminated pipes and valves and were not given adequate protective clothing and safety equipment. The law firm, SmithStag, represented workers and former landowners in MS and LA. The Henry Dart and Andry law firms and also the Watts Law Firm are presently representing residents in Harvey, LA. In another case in McAllen, TX, ranchers unknowingly used contaminated pipes for fencing and have suffered health effects. RWMA is also working on several NORM land contamination cases in Louisiana and Kentucky.
Honolulu Food Irradiator
Pa’ina Hawai’i has applied for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to operate a food irradiator. Using very high concentrations of cobalt-60, papayas would be irradiated to increase shelf life. On behalf of Earthjustice and local environmental groups, RWMA is examining the impact of locating this facility directly adjacent to two Honolulu airport runways. RWMA calculated the probability and consequences of an airplane crash, and also investigated the consequences of sabotage. A hearing on these issues has not yet been scheduled.
Other Projects
RWMA is assisting Niagara County in assessing radiation contamination at the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site in Lewiston and the implications for expanding the adjacent CWM hazardous waste landfill. RWMA has done extensive work for Lander and Churchill Counties in Nevada and Inyo County in California in assessing the impact of transporting high-level radioactive waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. We are presently assisting the State of Nevada on transportation impacts regarding Yucca Mountain. RWMA is also working for ArcEcology on radioactive contamination at the Hunters Point ship yard in San Francisco and Greenpeace in Canada regarding a proposed intermediate waste repository under Lake Huron, Canada.