Uranium in Eastern , WA

[Kfedka]

Interesting article from Seattle Times about a uranium mine in Eastern, WA. Link

A couple more Links: Link, Link

It mentions about how the mine polluted the Blue Creek River which follows in to Spokane River, which runs into Lake Roosevelt. Interesting yet scary at the same time.

I read in some of the pdf files from the biologist studies from WDFW about walleye and other fish having a hight amount of either lead or another contaminate in them and at one point were not recommended to be eaten much.

[Bodofish]

Interesting article from Seattle Times about a uranium mine in Eastern, WA. Link

A couple more Links: Link, Link

It mentions about how the mine polluted the Blue Creek River which follows in to Spokane River, which runs into Lake Roosevelt. Interesting yet scary at the same time.

I read in some of the pdf files from the biologist studies from WDFW about walleye and other fish having a hight amount of either lead or another contaminate in them and at one point were not recommended to be eaten much.

Roosevelt fish are known for high levels of arsenic from the gold, silver and uranium mines. I would shy away from bottom feeders.

[Marc Martyn]

Whoa!! That's why my hair is falling out![scared]

[Bodofish]

I've got another theory.........

[Anonymous]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_w ... abbit.html

RICHLAND, Wash. -- A radioactive rabbit was trapped on the Hanford nuclear reservation, but there is no sign any people were exposed to the animal.

Washington state Health Department workers with the Office of Radiation Protection have been searching for contaminated rabbit droppings. None have been found in areas accessible to the public, regional director Earl Fordham said Thursday.

Officials suspect the rabbit sipped some water left from the recent demolition of a Cold War-era building used in the production of nuclear weapons, the Tri-City Herald reported Friday.

Contaminated animals occasionally are found at the nuclear reservation, but more often they are in the center of Hanford, far from town.

The rabbit trapped at the 300 Area caught the Health Department's attention because it was close enough to the site's boundaries to potentially come in contact with people - if it had been caught by a dog or if its droppings were deposited in an area open to the public.

Workers first found contaminated rabbit droppings last week in the 300 Area, said Todd Nelson, spokesman for Washington Closure Hanford, the Department of Energy contractor cleaning up Hanford.

Several rabbits were trapped and the one was found to be highly contaminated with radioactive cesium. It was killed and disposed as radioactive waste, he said Friday. Routine monitoring for radioactive droppings continues.

Washington Closure has narrowed the area of possible contamination to the 327 Building. It was used during the Cold War for testing highly radioactive materials, particularly fuel elements and cladding that were irradiated at Hanford reactors as part of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

The aboveground hot cells were pulled out of the building and demolition began on the structure about a month ago. One theory is that the rabbit might have been sipping water that collected in the building's basement after water was sprayed during demolition to suppress dust.

Washington Closure has taken steps to keep other animals from getting near the building. Workers have put up a chain-link fence and removed any vegetation that might provide a rabbit snack.

They also scented the perimeter of the building with fox urine to deter animals that might burrow. Gravel and steel plates have been used to cover places that have been identified as potential sources of the contamination.

Hanford has an extensive program to check for contaminated animals. In 2009, 33 contaminated animals or animal materials such as droppings were found on the site, the Tri-City Herald reported.

In Hanford's earlier years, contaminated animals were more common.

Liquid waste with radioactive salts was discharged into the ground near central Hanford during the Cold War. Rabbits and other animals were attracted to the salts and spread radioactive droppings across as much as 13.7 square miles of sage-covered land before the waste sites were sealed to keep out animals in 1969.

Federal economic stimulus money has been used to survey for the radioactive hot spots that remain four decades later.

In a more recent case, so many radioactive wasp nests were found spread across six acres by H Reactor in northern Hanford that up to a foot of soil was dug up to remove the nests.

The nests were built by mud dauber wasps in 2003. Water was sprayed to control dust during demolition of a basin attached to the reactor, and the mud created was collected by the wasps to build nests under straw that had been spread nearby to protect newly planted sagebrush seedlings.

There have been a couple of cases in the past two decades of contaminated animals in areas where they potentially could come in contact with the public.

In 1996, a contaminated mouse apparently crawled into a box of food collected by an employee food drive in central Hanford. It was trapped and tested in an abandoned Hanford building previously used by the Tri-Cities Food Bank.

Two years later, gnats and flies were suspected of eating a sugary coating used to fix some radioactive contamination. They then spread the contamination to waste left by workers in offices, such as banana peels and apple cores.

That required 35 tons of trash that could contain the office waste to be dug up from the Richland landfill and returned to Hanford.

[Lotech Joe]

I think I read somewhere that a lot of the problems with the Columbia River are caused by toxins that have leeched into or have been dumped into the river by the mining company Cominco American, just north of the Washington / Canadian border. I can't verify this, as it may just be a rumor perpetrated by a disgruntled ecologist.

[Anglinarcher]

I find myself walking a picket fence, with one side being disgust at the fear mongers that claim to be environmentalist, the other side being real dangers, and the fence, too sharp to fall or sit on, is the need to recreate and enjoy the outside world.

First, if the articles are coming from the Seattle Times, then you already know that you have the philosophy of liberals, mingled with truth, so that we are expected to believe there is a BIG problem, when perhaps there is none. THEY MUST SELL OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

Second, it is possible that a real problem exist, but lacking the scientific data and objective analysis, I have no way to know for sure.

I grew up in southern Utah, downwind of a lot of the nuclear test. We also had uranium deposits in the area, and some small mines - I use to play in them as a kid. We read the paper's accounts, heard the fear mongers, even believed them, but in the end, an objective analysis determined that the rate of cancer in the area was no higher, even less, then the rest of the country. Still, for years, the papers sold to the public and the media made money, the fear mongers got grant money............... Every once in a while, it starts up again and history repeats itself.

In my early 40's, I worked at a DOE nuclear site, doing clean-up and containment construction. My first act was to receive a full body count where they put me in a shielded test facility and counted the amount and type of radioactivity my body put out. The technicians were able to point to a map and tell me where I grew up, to within a few miles. Now that was weird. I, of course, was concerned. They laughed and told me that I received more radiation each time I flew in an airplane then I did from a decade of my constant exposure to my own radioactivity.

So, now the question, just how much radioactivity were the people exposed to? The mine was not pure uranium, and even pure uranium is not all highly radioactive (depends on the isotope). The raw material takes a lot of refining to be useful, or dangerous. How much radioactivity is being "flushed down stream". Is this a case where we get more from our microwave then eating a 100 fish?

I guess that my years in Engineering, and the Sciences, has taught me to question articles in the media. The Media is self serving, lacking in journalist integrity for the most part. Is there a problem? Maybe, but more likely then not, the fear mongers are at work.

[hewesfisher]

Lotech is giving a more correct input here with regard to where the contaminants in Roosevelt came from. They came from the Teck Cominco (now Teck) mining operation north of the border and may or may not affect those who choose to consume fish from Roosevelt.

There are no current state health advisories for the general population for any fish taken from Roosevelt. Current advisories taken direct from the 2010-2011 WDFW Sport Fishing regs apply to:

women who are or might become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children

and only for the following 3 species - walleye, burbot, and largescale suckers. Naturally, anyone who feels they may be at risk should follow the advisory consumption recommendations.

For those of you who would like to be informed of what's happening at Roosevelt, join the Lake Roosevelt Forum to receive their newsletters, or visit the Lake Roosevelt Forum website http://www.lrf.org/ and read the newsletters there to stay abreast of Roosevelt projects and happenings. I much prefer this source of information to those generated by the press and mainstream media - at least the info is more factual and devoid of "sensationalism" which is so prevalent in the other forms.

[kjackson]

I lived in Spokane back when the first advisories came out.

They were kind of scary until I started digging into some of the reports and science. (I will say here that I have a background in science but am no expert and should not be judged to be even close to one about the topics.) The thing that struck me then was that the tests were done on whole fish-- the bassamatic version. Further reading led to the fact that the contaminants at the time (lead and heavy metals) concentrated in the guts and fat. Since I filleted all walleye and discarded the organs and most, if not all, of the fat, I wasn't too concerned about the warnings.

While the Cominco smelter was the primary culprit back then, we also had pollutants washing down from the Idaho mines plus some concern about the uranium mine leachates.

Having done a bunch of research on mercury contamination nationwide, I can tell you that a lot of the environmental alarmism is simply spin for an agenda. If you're really concerned about a topic, you need to do more than read from one source. You need several, and you also need to engage the brain and think critically.

[Anglinarcher]

kjackson and hewesfisher, thanks for your perspective on this.

I think the biggest thing that we agree on is that critical thinking and scientific study are the best way to evaluate the real risk.

Ponder this if you will. The Upper Spokane river, from State Line to Upriver Dam, is C&R fishing. OK, no problem for me, at least for the trout. But the supportive claim is that the fish are contaminated by heavy metals, etc.

Riddle me this Bat Man - the source of these metals was from the Idaho mines. Neither Idaho or the Federal EPA consider there to be a problem upriver from State Line to the Lake, and neither the EPA or Washington consider there to be a problem below Upriver Dam.

So, what is so unique about this section of the river that "concentrates" contaminates that are apparently not a problem above or below this location? Hmmmmmmmm.

[Kfedka]

Article from Spokesman Review; Radioactivity on the Spokane Reservation

[ruthven78]

I find myself walking a picket fence, with one side being disgust at the fear mongers that claim to be environmentalist, the other side being real dangers, and the fence, too sharp to fall or sit on, is the need to recreate and enjoy the outside world.

First, if the articles are coming from the Seattle Times, then you already know that you have the philosophy of liberals, mingled with truth, so that we are expected to believe there is a BIG problem, when perhaps there is none. THEY MUST SELL OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

Lately I dont believe anything I read or hear unless it is coming directly from the source cause the media spins it way too much. News stations do this but newspapers are the biggest culprit. I wont even read articles that come from the Associate Press. I've fact checked way too many to find them full of opinion more than fact.