Oak Ridge Today

ORFD completes firefighter training in blighted home purchased by city

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Waddell Place Firefighter Training Fire

The Oak Ridge Fire Department finished scientific and training burns on Monday, January 5, 2015, on this blighted house purchased by the City of Oak Ridge on Waddell Place. (Photos by Tom Scott)

 

The Oak Ridge Fire Department completed scientific and training burns on Monday, January 5, on a blighted house on Waddell Place.

The home was in the Highland View neighborhood in north-central Oak Ridge.

The blighted house was recently purchased by the city, which then completed asbestos abatement on the property and removed other items such as shingles, plastics, and other non-wood products to meet Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation standards for live fire training, ORFD Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said. [Read more…]

TVA: Kingston Ash Recovery Project follows new EPA guidelines

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TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Dike C Reinforcement

Photo courtesy TVA

 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for coal combustion products released on Friday are consistent with work the Tennessee Valley Authority has already done at the Kingston recovery project, the public utility said in a press release.

“TVA is already making substantial changes in the way we work with coal combustion products, including coal ash and gypsum, said TVA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson. “This included committing an estimated $2 billion to convert all our coal fleet impoundments from wet to dry storage. While recognizing the significant potential for beneficial reuse of ash and other products, we agree it needs to be handled and stored safely.”

The project area surrounding the Kingston Fossil Plant near Harriman is in the final restoration stage following the coal ash spill in December 2008. It was the largest ash spill in U.S. history. [Read more…]

TVA: Kingston Ash Recovery Project nears completion

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TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Dike C Reinforcement

TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Dike C reinforcement (Photos courtesy TVA)

 

The Tennessee Valley Authority is in the final stages of the Kingston recovery project. The public utility says it’s fulfilling a promise to restore the area surrounding the Kingston Fossil Plant near Harriman following the coal ash spill in December 2008, the largest ash spill in U.S. history.

A major milestone was reached in early December, with the completion of the cover for a 240-acre permanent ash retention landfill. The new landfill, which has been fortified with an underground earthquake-resistant wall anchored in bedrock, is covered by a flexible-membrane liner and geo-composite fabric, two feet of clay, topsoil, and grass.

“We all know this incident shouldn’t have happened,” said TVA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson, who visited the recovery site on December 17. “But we have learned from it and we are fulfilling our commitment to making it right.”

TVA says it’s also keeping its promise by returning the Emory River and surrounding waterways to pre-spill conditions, reforesting and adding vegetation to surrounding land, stabilizing shorelines, and adding wetlands and other wildlife habitats. TVA has opened Lakeshore Park, which features 32 acres of walking trails, fishing piers, a boat ramp, and docks. [Read more…]

DOE responds to advisory board recommendation
 on groundwater studies

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has responded to a recommendation made earlier this year by the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board.

In May, the federally appointed citizens’ panel recommended that DOE conduct additional groundwater studies to address any potential offsite migration of chemicals or radioisotopes from DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation. The recommendation focuses on developing information that fosters a better understanding of potential impacts of groundwater contamination related to risk mitigation, groundwater remediation, and long-term stewardship.

In 2013, DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation held a series of workshops to prioritize groundwater pathways on the ORR. Together the agencies created a groundwater strategy document that described the potential for releases from waste disposal sites and storage areas. The document also prioritized known groundwater plumes, concentration of contaminants, contaminants of concern, and potential health risks. [Read more…]

TDEC orders Oliver Springs to fix treatment plant or face fine

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has ordered Oliver Springs to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant or face a hefty fine. The state gave the town until August 31, 2015, to correct the problems outlined in the order, including several violations in the past few years dealing with system overflows and E. coli contamination.

The plant discharged water into Poplar Creek.

If the problems are not corrected by the end of August 2015, the town could face a fine of up to $175,000.

The state also issued a moratorium on adding any new sewer customers. [Read more…]

Inadequate shielding exposed workers to excess radiation at MMC imaging center, lawsuits allege

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Methodist Medical Center

Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge

Methodist Medical Center says it will ‘vigorously’ refute allegations

Note: This story was last updated at 3:38 p.m.

Five lawsuits filed in Anderson County on Monday allege that X-ray and radiologic technologists, including two who were pregnant, were exposed to excess radiation for several years at Methodist Medical Center because some walls in and around a radiology imaging center in the new emergency department were built without the required lead shielding, elevating the workers’ risk of health problems, including cancer.

The five lawsuits allege the walls in the emergency department, which opened in February 2006 as part of a hospital remodel, did not have the required protective radiological shielding because of building, design, and inspection errors.

Lead-lined walls are required in radiological areas to limit radiation exposure under local and federal regulations and construction and health standards, the lawsuits say.

But the defendants—Covenant Health of Knoxville, Rentenbach Engineering Co. of Knoxville, and TEG Architects LLC of Jeffersonville, Ind.—failed to have qualified personnel survey or check the installation and construction parameters, or conduct proper barrier determinations for lead barrier thickness, to ensure that the walls in the radiological areas would adequately reduce scatter and leakage radiation, the lawsuits say. The defendants also failed to have qualified personnel certify that the MMC in-department imaging center and nearby areas were built in compliance with all applicable regulations and guidelines so that the plaintiffs “would only be exposed to levels of radiation that were as low as reasonably achievable, all before allowing work to be done at that facility.” [Read more…]

TDEC provides violation notices, timeline on pet crematory where remains excavated

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Elliott Pet Service Excavation

Dump trucks remove pet remains on Wednesday that had been excavated from Elliott Pet Services in Morgan County. (Photo courtesy WATE-TV)

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation on Wednesday provided copies of the violation notices sent to the Morgan County crematory where animal remains were excavated last week after a state investigation.

TDEC also provided the media with an event timeline for September and October at Elliott Pet Services on Grouse Ridge Road, copies of annual inspection reports, and a state response to complainants Dana and Fegan Kenny.

You can read the documents here: [Read more…]

Impossible to identify animal remains excavated at pet crematory, state says

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Elliott Pet Service Excavation

Dump trucks remove pet remains on Wednesday that had been excavated from Elliott Pet Services in Morgan County. (Photo courtesy WATE-TV)

It will not be possible to identify animals buried at a pet crematory in Morgan County where remains were excavated this week after a state investigation, officials said Wednesday.

News of the investigation and excavations this week has left many pet owners, including in Anderson County, wondering whether animals they paid to have cremated might be among those buried at the rural wooded site near the Roane County line.

The crematory site on Grouse Ridge Road is operated by Elliott Pet Services. It was the subject of a citizen’s complaint in September that alleged animals were being dumped on the site.

In September, the business also received an open dumping violation notice from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. And in October, the company was cited for not maintaining logs.

Business owner Cameo Farr and her attorney, Kevin Angel of Oak Ridge, told several Knoxville television stations that burying animals is part of her business, and she has always cremated animals that were supposed to be cremated. [Read more…]

CROET recognizes TDEC, contractor performance on Impact Services cleanup

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IMPACT Services Waste

The last of more than one million pounds of low-level radioactive waste at the former IMPACT Services site at Heritage Center in west Oak Ridge was scheduled to be shipped out at the end of June.

The board of directors of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee honored Roger Fenner, consultant to the director of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Judy Hardt, senior project manager for Science Applications International Corp., for their leadership and success in closing out some 1.2 million pounds of radioactive waste left after Impact Services LLC declared bankruptcy in May 2012, a press release said.

Fenner and Hardt led the team of professionals that successfully closed out a performance bond required by TDEC as part of a state radiological materials license held by Impact Services, a lessee of CROET at East Tennessee Technology Park (the former K-25 site), at the time of bankruptcy. TDEC contracted SAIC to return to the waste generators and clean up the waste, the press release said. [Read more…]

CUB receives $200,000 Clean Tennessee Energy Grant

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Gov. Bill Haslam Check Presentation

Gov. Bill Haslam announced in June that Oak Ridge had received $200,000 in Clean Tennessee Energy Grant funding for lighting at the Municipal Building and Civic Center.

The Clinton Utilities Board has received a $200,000 Clean Tennessee Energy Grant to renovate its wastewater treatment plant.

CUB was one of 19 recipients receiving $2.1 million for projects promoting energy efficiency, benefiting the environment, and helping save money, Tennessee officials said this month.

In a check presentation ceremony in June, Gov. Bill Haslam came to Oak Ridge to announce that the Secret City had received the first of the 19 awards. [Read more…]

IMPACT Services cleanup scheduled to end Friday

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IMPACT Services Waste

The last of more than one million pounds of low-level radioactive waste at the former IMPACT Services site at Heritage Center in west Oak Ridge was scheduled be shipped out today.

It’s considered a success story—a one-year, $1.2 million state project to ship out more than one million pounds of low-level radioactive waste from a company that has declared bankruptcy—and it’s scheduled to end Friday, officials said last week. The last waste, stored in an open-air shed at the site, was scheduled to be shipped out today, but it has been delayed a day or two.

The project began in May 2012 after IMPACT Services Inc., a company that processed low-level radioactive waste, declared bankruptcy. The company had operations on property leased from the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee at the northwest corner of Heritage Center, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

In the past year, state and contractor officials said during a tour last week, a total of roughly 1.6 million pounds of waste and equipment has been shipped out, including to other processors and sites in Oak Ridge, Florida, and a landfill in Clive, Utah. The waste has been shipped from the site in 1,200 containers on some 220 truck shipments. [Read more…]

State awards $200,000 grant for lighting at Oak Ridge Municipal Building, Civic Center

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Gov. Bill Haslam Check Presentation

Gov. Bill Haslam announces that Oak Ridge has received $200,000 in Clean Tennessee Energy Grant funding for lighting at the Municipal Building and Civic Center.

Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday announced that Oak Ridge is receiving $200,000 in Clean Tennessee Energy Grant funding for lighting in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building and Civic Center Complex.

The money will be used to replace and retrofit existing fluorescent lighting fixtures to LED lighting, a press release said.

It’s the first of 19 grant awards that the governor will be making in the next few weeks, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said in the press release. Funding for the projects comes from an April 2011 Clean Air Act settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority. [Read more…]