Presentation by Janet Michel to a Town Hall meeting in Jackson Hole, WY,

October 4, 1999

¨ DID YOU KNOW that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator,

located on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation, is the ONLY

incinerator in the United States licensed to burn radioactive and hazardous

waste laced with PCB's?

¨ DID YOU KNOW that no one can document what comes out of the stack? The

"trial burns" tested only a small percentage of materials. Incomplete

combustion of PCB's produces highly dangerous dioxins and furans.

¨ DID YOU KNOW that many workers and close neighbors of DOE's K 25 site

(just west of Oak Ridge and Knoxville) are suffering serious health

problems that they believe may come from exposures at the TSCA incinerator?

The illnesses include severe chronic pain and debilitating fatigue

neurological, respiratory, cardiac, endocrine, and immune problems.

¨ DID YOU KNOW that there are at least three private, commercial

incinerators burning hazardous and/or radioactive materials within only 3

miles of the TSCA incinerator? The economic development folks have been

marketing this are as the "waste capitol of the world"

Why am I here?

U was asked to speak to you by the Spences about the DOE incinerator in

Tenn and my experiences with it as a person who believes my illness is

caused by DOE's activities. You do not want an incinerator of radioactive

waste and PCBs upwind of you and especially one owned by DOE. Of course

you will decide for yourselves, but I am here to warn you - DOE's

incinerators are not a good neighbors. I will tell you why by telling you

about our incinerator, the experiences of the surrounding community and the

workers with the federal government.

let me try to introduce myself since you don't know me from Adam's house

cat. It is difficult to convey that I am shell of my former self. I was

born and raised in OR - my parents worked at the plants, and grew up

playing in the creek where the millions of lbs. of mercury was lost! (Now

it is up to 4 million lbs, but what is a millions here or there? I left

after high school and lived in New Orleans, New Jersey, and DC. I was very

healthy until recently. I was an avid whitewater kayaker, (show photos),

a skier, a very active athlete. I was an awarded and rewarded employee and

active as a volunteer and officer in the area paddling clubs. Then, I went

to work as pollution prevention project manager in a building that was

contaminated in many ways- but primarily with nickel- and was not told. I

assumed incorrectly it was a safe place to work. I have been on

disability for almost 3 years with only slight improvement. I have many

medical problems, too numerous to mention. There are many sick people in

the Oak Ridge area who are much more ill than I. We have one suicide, many

deaths, and many others on the brink of death.

I represent 100's of ill people and their supporters in East Tenn. who have

been fighting for answers to questions and trying to get medical help for 4

years! These people lived within yards of the plants. They are the workers

who drank, smoked, and took breaks in areas where you now must wear 3 anti

contamination suits and respirators. Our 1000's of letters to elected

officials and the media resulted in over 200 articles in The Tennessean

newspaper. The first series focused on the Oak Ridge area and aroused the

concern of the Tenn. General Assembly's Joint Committee on the Environment

which held a series of hearings. Unfortunately, unlike Congress, presenters

are not required to take an oath. The result of the hearings was a

Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel set up to investigate the incinerator and the

health concerns. With too little money, too little time and DOE's

contractors and consultants appointed to the panel, we lost another 6

months. Over ¼ million was wasted from DOE's clean-up budget while

endless meetings were held and experts reviewed DOE's documents. No new

research and no monitoring of the environment or the people was done. And

lo and behold, everything was found to be safe! We asked the state 101

questions about the operations of the TSCAI which took them over a year to

answer! And these are the people who are supposedly looking out for our

health and safety. Our efforts continue today. But, let me explain the

situation…

First a work about Nukespeak (show book cover)

A change in language can transform our appreciation of the cosmos.

Benjamin Lee Whorf

mixed waste

low level waste

K-25 GDP has become The ETTP and the Heritage Center

Recently reported in the news of the nuclear accident in Japan:

"Altogether, there have been 21 such "inadvertent criticalities" in the

United States, the Soviet Union and Britain, according to the Energy

Department. This is the term that nuclear engineers use for accidental

chain reactions."

The Oak Ridge Reservation - show map

39,000 acre "environmental research park" with 3, 55-year old nuclear

facilities there.

ORNL

Y-12

K-25 - show photo and site map

proximity to residential areas, show the creek where I played

TSCAI

Show photo - romantic.

1982 - first proposal for the TSCAI. Through the 1980's the EIS was

completed - all according to the law - no one paid attention. (I was living

in NJ)

The Cold War was still on; the K-25 plant was on cold stand by and lay offs

already started.

The incinerator is permitted to handle TSCA (PCB) wastes, Resource

Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or hazardous wastes, and radioactive

mixed with hazardous and PCB wastes. It has burned over 21 million pounds

of waste from 1991 through April 1998 From 12 DOE facilities in six states.

This slowed down in 1999, when the governor rejected the burn plan and

would not allow out-of-state wastes to be burned. A recent Government

Accounting Office audit found the incinerator to be woefully inefficient

and should as it is not operating to capacity.

Part of the permitting process for incinerators is the successful

completion of a trial burn. Trial burns are required under EPA

regulations. Incinerators must meet destruction and removal efficiencies

(DREs) for part of the waste fed into them. During the trial burn, the

incinerator is fed wastes containing specific wastes and the percentage of

the hazardous components removed or destroyed during the incineration

process is measured. The results of the trial burn are then used to

develop a model of the incinerator's operation. This model is, in turn,

used to determine the amounts and types of wastes fed to the incinerator

and to estimate the emissions from the incinerator stack.

Of course, the TSCAI passed everything and although it is called

"experimental" it has been running essentially 24 hrs a day for 10 years.

Down time for annual routine maintenance and a few accidents.

Problems with TSCAI Show photo of blow down

Efficiency claims

When you hear about the amount of wastes being burned and the efficiency of

how those will be destroyed., beware! Even if you are left with .001

percent that didn't get destroyed, the .001% will still work out to 1000's

of pounds of the toxic materials that is either going out of the stack or

ends in up in waste waters, sludges, etc.

Releases

TSCAI releases material to the environment through a number of pathways:

air emissions from the incinerator stack, fugitive emissions from storage

and transfer operations, ash from the kiln, blowdown water from quenching

and scrubbing operations, and sludge from facility sumps.

Let me relate to you a down to earth example about releases and health

effects:

In 1995-1996, over 80 employees reported toxic levels of urine thiocyanate.

We know the TSCAI burned acetonitrile, and acrylonitrile, but no air

samples were ever done for these or cyanogen chloride during the time the

employees were reporting illnesses. These compounds metabolize into

cyanide in the bloodstream which then metabolizes in thiocyanate and is

excreted in the urine. These compounds are some of the most difficult to

incinerate. We submitted many suggestions for monitoring of us, our

families, the environment - nothing was ever done. We have since found

dozens of documents showing these compounds were on the site.

Additionally, we discovered 2 years later that DOE had illegally packaged,

transported, stored, and incinerated cyanide-bearing and cyanide-derived

wastes during the time the employees were reporting poisoning. Employees

cyanide levels dropped to normal or zero after leaving the site!

Employees have been retaliated against and fired for raising health and

safety concerns. DOE told its contractor that employees were not to ever

call EPA alone to report problems. This policy was printed after several

had experienced retaliation. We have met with state officials for hours

and have gotten no where.

Doctors hired by the company have stated publicly that t hey believe the

incinerator could be is the source of employee illness, especial several

cases of beryllium disease. Incidentally, the employees being examined by

the occupational physicians still, 3 years later, have no answers and have

no medical help.

- problems with beryllium: TSCAI is allowed to release 0.73 pounds of

Beryllium per anum. Technically this could all be released in one day, if

the other 364 days had zero release of beryllium. Use beryllium example of

football field, etc.

- The quantity of metals "burned" in the TSCA incinerator increased

five-fold in 1995-1996.

- The Combustion and Air Toxics Research Lab at UCLA's Center for Clean

Technology has stated that

"Most risk assessment studies performed in conjunction with siting

hazardous or municipal waste incinerators identify emissions of such heavy

metals as cadmium, lead, and mercury as having relatively high potential

for harming the surrounding population. These elements are usually emitted

in the form of oxide aerosols, which are formed in the flame. Further, a

significant fraction of the aerosol is in the sub-micron size range, which

is both very difficult to handle with conventional particulate control

devices and easily respirated into the lungs. Once in the lungs, these

metal oxides can lead to cancer and other health problems."

The point is no one really knows exactly what is being burned, whether it

is being completely burned, and how much is coming out of the stack. And

we sick people with materials in their bodies that are identical to the

materials being burned and being emitted from this plant.

Monitoring:

The experimental TSCAI continues to operate without even simple monitoring

of its discharges! So what kind of science has come from its "experimental"

nature. Even now no outside agency monitors them. They are self-monitoring.

The monitoring consists of two stations with filter intakes. The filters

are changed weekly and analyzed. The results take three months to process.

Yet they call it continuous monitoring. We have even heard that the

monitors have been turned off. The self policing status of this known

prevaricator, and cover up nature of the agency and corporations involved,

leaves no reassurance in the monitoring.

Monitors ARE analyzed for lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, beryllium, and

uranium. There is supposed to be additional monitoring for PCBs, Dioxins,

furans if the thermal relief valve event opens. Their primary monitoring

system is to guess what goes in and then to analyze the ash the comes out

(classic garbage in/garbage out manipulation).

They must comply with a new MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technologies)

standard in three years hence the haste to burn everything as fast as they

can. They claim an efficiency of 98.5 % for metals excepting mercury.

Hazardous waste efficiency claimed is 99.99%. Plant manager does not have

oversight control of monitoring as he is a BJ employee, and all monitoring

is still under the control of L-M. Fedel gave

out the following email at the incinerator meeting <flp@bechtel.com>.

Problems with the law:

The permits has been changed 64 times. Some of the changes have been

because the all of the sudden discovered it was burning illegal waste and

to be legal, they had to have the new wastes added to the permit. The point

it is, that these wastes were not part of the trial burn or the model that

calculates efficiency and emissions. So, they really don't know what it is

coming out!

There have been 12 thermal relief vent events. This happens when there is

a problem in the feeding of the waste, or in the combustion chamber or in

some other part of the facility. The entire process shuts down and a relief

valve opens and undestroyed wastes are vented to the atmosphere. There

were 4 of these events in 1996 - coincidentally the year that many sick

people started showing up!

- There have been Hundreds of NOVs - where the state or EPA put DOE on

notice that they are in violation of the law or the permit.

- There are Covenants of agreement between DOE and EPA whereby EPA has

agreed not to sue DOE even in DOE is found committing illegal activities.

- There have been ridiculously low fines levied by the state because DOE

"self reports" the violations. More deal making to keep DOE out of trouble!

Problems with DOE as a neighbor

We call DOE: the Department of Evasion or Denial of Everything

There is scant evidence of health effects from DOE activities because DOE's

own record keeping is abyssmal. They have even admitted their radiation

exposure records for employees were flawed and unreliable prior to 1989 and

we know they are since then because of "tests" that employees have done

with their dosimeters in hot areas. DOE's health studies have been

continually "inconclusive by design" and those epidemiologists who shown

any positive correlation at all are now black balled from further research

and having to shutdown their businesses and work groups.

Granted DOE has an astronomical problem with the wastes and contamination

and should NEVER be let off the hook for clean up. But this clean up can

and should be conducted safely. But it is scary when it is in the hands

of someone who continually lies and denies, and makes mistakes all of the

time, and has deals cut everywhere to avoid liability

There have been "weekend runs" of materials from Y-12 to TSCA without

proper documentation.

There have core samples taken outside of K-25 office buildings that were

found to contain beryllium above the EPA Region 4 Action Limit. But we

were told by Lockheed Martin attorneys that there was no beryllium on the

site! We now have at least two employees with chronic beryllium disease

and one office employee with beryllium sensitization.

There have been barrels of waste that were mistakenly sent to the Y-12

burial grounds (not licensed for type of waste) instead of Envirocare in

Utah.

DOE's credo is to only admit what the public is likely to already know or

might find without much effort.

There is an 800 lb gorilla alive and well in Oak Ridge. We are not

entirely sure of the faces of the beast, but we suspect it is the power

structure at DOE, the contractors, and the local government.

We are dealing with a larger and larger toxic burden in our community.

Even though some operations have ceased, clean up activities are releasing

even more toxins into the air and water.

When is enough enough?

When you hear that things will be in compliance and everything has been

checked out to be safe, don't believe it! DOE's mantra is "we are always in

compliance" and yet we continually find that they are NOT!

We hear that the regulations are protective of human health and the

environment and here are the reasons why they are NOT!

Problems with toxicology and regulations and the regulatory agencies.

- limits of exposure set with lethal doses, not chronic, long term

exposures (testing protocols don't mimic the real world)

- tests built on end point of cancer, not immune, neurological, endocrine,

and developmental diseases.

- Tests and studies are inconclusive by design

- Testing for one compound does not look at the additives in the materials

in actual use.

- Testing only looks at a single route of exposure

- no knowledge of synergistic exposures

- politics reigns over science: revolving door between industry and agency

executives. Elected officials dependent on financial generosity of

industry. Laws are being weakened not enforced and strengthened.

- economics reigns over science: Costs of studies is extraordinary. 71% of

thee 300 high production chemicals have no basic health data on them.

People with a vested has funded 95% of the published studies interested in

the product.

- Government and industry uses "Risk Assessments" to overcome scientific

uncertainty. It is method originally developed to analyze non-organic

problems, such as bridge building. With a lack of information on chemical

toxicity and genetic susceptibility, RA fails miserably to adequate human

health and the larger environment. It becomes an economic decision based

on "educated guess" as to the "acceptable" number of people that my die or

be harmed by a chemical exposure.

- What the government loves to call "health studies" are really nothing

more than engineering exercises - studying DOE's own records which are

highly suspect and trying to calculate doses, guessing at disease and death

causes.

\POLITICS REIGN IN OAK RIDGE

We have politically incorrect illnesses. We have experienced political

science not good medical science. We have been forced into a position of

proving the cause of illnesses when DOE owns the proof and it is still

classified as secret. We are not even allowed to talk with our doctors

about the materials we have been exposed to and our doctors cannot find out

about the pathways of exposure. We have experienced unethical, incompetent

science, withholding and falsification of data. Our requests for

information are forwarded to the Department of Justice.

The Cold War and the secrecy mentality still permeates the thinking of most

people. MANY are still afraid to speak out for fear of violating their

oath to keep the secrets and also afraid of losing their jobs. We have had

people fired and retaliated against for whistleblowing.

DOE continues to miss milestones in the clean up of the site and millions

have been wasted on studies and technologies that have failed. Our governor

has rejected the 1999 TSCAI burn plan and publicly chastised DOE . (read

letters)

TSCAI is still experimental. There is no technology for continuous

monitoring of unburned and newly formed chemicals and metals. Incineration

is often described as the "preferred alternative", a proven technology" or

the "only feasible answer" to the toxic waste crisis. In reality, it merely

provides an opportunity for DOE to avoid responsibility for their wasteful

practices, dilute its wastes with large quantities of air and disperse it

into the environment,. This is convenient, liability-free and masks the

problems and passes them to the next generation.

DOE has admitted that the animals, trees, water, soil, and buildings are

contaminated, BUT there's no way a human could be!! People are still sick

and dying. We are still not receiving medical care. Our leaders and

doctors are afraid.

I went through a period of denial about my illnesses. I couldn't believe

that the men who were friends of my parents, who went to my church, who

came to our home could have allowed me to be put in harms way. But it

happened and there are many reasons why it did. I loved growing up in OR

and it hurts deeply to see the community poisoned physically and

spiritually. There is deep division and controversy there now.

I feel that I have been betrayed by my hometown and country and I am deeply

disturbed that these things I have told you about have been allowed to

happen. I am scared for you!

We don't have any rich or famous people helping us. You are lucky!! Let

them help you!! Take action! Don't let the unthinkable happen to you!