Corps Halts Dredging Project Upon Discovery of Radioactive Material.Business Editors, Environmental Writers NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2001 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of District announced today that they have immediately halted dredging dredging, process of excavating materials underwater. It is used to deepen waterways, harbors, and docks and for mining alluvial mineral deposits, including tin, gold, and diamonds. operations at Glen Cove Glen Cove, city (1990 pop. 24,149), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on the north shore of Long Island, at the entrance to Hempstead Harbor; settled 1668, inc. as a city 1918. Creek, NY upon discovery of some of the dredged material from the Creek being radioactive. The area was subsequently secured. Approximately 22,000 cubic yards of dredged material had been placed on a parcel along the Creek formerly used by the Li Tungsten industrial facility, which once processed metals and ores. This facility was being remediated under the EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. superfund program Noun 1. Superfund program - the federal government's program to locate and investigate and clean up the worst uncontrolled and abandoned toxic waste sites nationwide; administered by the Environmental Protection Agency; "some have intimated that the Superfund's money . The City of Glen Cove, the non-federal sponsor, in their efforts to beneficially re-use the dredged material as backfill back·fill n. Material used to refill an excavated area. tr.v. back·filled, back·fill·ing, back·fills To refill (an excavated area) with such material. for an ongoing Superfund clean-up project, requested an EPA contractor to examine the dredged material. Approximately 40 percent of the dredged material was examined and at 50 individual locations it was discovered that radiation levels exceeded the 5 picocuries/gram (pc/gm) action level. In their initial Superfund screening of the area, EPA had determined that radioactive materials were confined to the upland areas. Prior to commencement of the dredging, the Corps and the City of Glen Cove tested the material for radioactivity with negative results. Those results were reviewed and concurred with by EPA, NY State Dept STATE DEPT Department of State . of Environmental Conservation, an independent consultant for the City of Glen Cove, and the Corps' Safety and Occupational Health Officer. Glen Cove Creek is one mile in length consisting of an outer harbor, containing several marinas and a passenger ferry terminal and an inner channel currently used by commercial facilities. The inner channel was being dredged for the first time since the mid-1930's. The outer harbor has been maintenance dredged several times since construction, most recently in the mid-1990s. Glen Cove Creek has historically been an industrial area. Several individual parcels along Glen Cove Creek were and are currently being cleaned up under the EPA Superfund program. One of the contaminants of concern being remediated at some of those sites is radioactive material. |
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