by KELLY O’HARA

Daily Staff Writer

The Ames Lab has completed the first phase of cleaning up a radioactive site in Ames. They will now begin the second phase.

“Everything turned out to be a low-level radioactive waste,” said Rich Freeman, project manager with the U.S. Department of Energy. “We did not find the level of waste that would require it to be classified as hazardous, as we had expected.”

The cleanup project is now in the second phase of environmental assessment. Fourteen ground water monitoring wells have been installed and one more has been delayed by wet weather.

“We are trying to assess how far the contaminants have migrated,” said Freeman, noting that the source of contamination has been removed.

The wells begin near the burial pits and proceed down a ravine onto the YMCA property. The first round of ground water and vegetation samples will be collected and analyzed by September 30, 1995. Results will be available at the DOE/Ames Laboratory Information Repository in the Ames Public Library.

The next phase is preparing a feasibility study and proposed plan for public comment in the fall of 1996.

“The plan will state what we propose to do as far as a final remediation for the site,” said Freeman. “We try to address as many public comments as possible.”

Six public meetings have been held to inform local residents about the cleanup project.

“There is no imminent risk to public health whatsoever,” said Freeman. “We found some indications of off site migration, but no risk to any drinking water aquifer.”

ISU owns the land at the chemical disposal site, and there are no plans for any development or water wells in the area.

The chemical disposal site near the Applied Sciences Complex started with the Manhattan Project during World War II. The Ames Laboratory helped to develop the uranium enrichment process for the atomic bomb, and chemicals were buried on the site.

Ames Lab will spend at least $4 million to identify and clean up the buried waste. Over 7,000 pounds of asbestos, cyanide and other toxins were buried in 9 pits from 1959 to 1966 near the former nuclear reactor, north of Ontario Street. OHM Remediation Corp. worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to remove the material from the site.

The nine burial pits were excavated over a 50- by 70-foot area to a depth of 12 feet last September. The waste and 1,500 cubic yards of surrounding soil were moved to a concrete processing pad. The soil was packaged into 826 super sacks for shipping by the end of October. Trucking the waste to Utah began in January 1995 and was completed in March. The excavated area was backfilled with clean soil.

“We still need to revegetate the site this summer,” said Freeman.

The Iowa State Botany Department will recommend native species to plant on the area in July and August.