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Project Status
The Great Lakes and Ohio River Division Commander, Major General John W. Peabody, recently executed the Record of Decision for the Seaway Site, which identifies Alternative 6 - Containment with Limited Offsite Disposal, as the Selected Remedy for the site. The comments received during the public comment period and the responses to them are included in the Responsiveness Summary portion of the Record of Decision.
The Selected Remedy requires excavation of FUSRAP related material outside the landfill boundaries that exceeds the clean up criteria and requires shipping it off-site for disposal. It also requires the capping of Investigative Areas A, B, and C within the landfill boundaries. The cap for the FUSRAP-related material will be constructed of multiple layers of various types of soil, fabric, and geomembranes at least 4.5 feet thick. Long-term monitoring of FUSRAP-related materials in capped areas, surveillance, and maintenance will be performed by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will ensure that land-use controls are in place to prevent future access to and disturbance of the contained FUSRAP-related materials. The Selected Remedy in the Record of Decision will be protective of human health and the environment and complies with applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements.
The Record of Decision for the Seaway Site is available by clicking the link in the Documents section below. The Record of Decision was placed in the Seaway Site Administrative Record File which is located at the Tonawanda Public Library located at 333 Main Street, Tonawanda.
About the Seaway Site
The Seaway Site, located in Tonawanda, New York, was operated as a landfill from 1930 to 1993, accepting a variety of municipal, commercial, construction, and industrial wastes. Nearby, in the 1940s, the former Linde Air Products Division of Union Carbide processed uranium ores under contract to the Manhattan Engineer District (MED). The mill tailings from the FUSRAP-related activities were transported from the Linde Site to the former Haist Property, now known as the Ashland 1 Site. During the mid-1970's, Ashland Oil constructed oil tanks on the Ashland 1 property. During the construction, materials containing radioactive residues were removed from the area and transported by Ashland Oil to the Seaway landfill and what was the Ashland 2 Site and used as cover or grading material. This material was also placed in what is now known as Seaway Areas A, B and C.
During the Corps' remediation efforts at Ashland 1, FUSRAP-related materials at elevated concentrations were found that appear to extend onto the Seaway Site. At one location, elevated concentrations appear to extend under the capped portion of the landfill. Remediation of this material as part of the Ashland 1 remediation ceased at the site boundary. This area is referred to as Seaway Southside. There is also an area on the north side of Seaway near Area A where, during Ashland 2 Site remediation efforts, elevated concentrations of FUSRAP-related materials were found outside of the Seaway containment system (i.e., outside the area encompassed by the landfill's leachate collection system). This area is referred to as Seaway Northside. Both Seaway Southside and Seaway Northside are now included within the scope of the FUSRAP remediation activities for the Seaway Site.
The Corps of Engineers follows the phased process required in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq., when implementing FUSRAP. The Buffalo District released the Addendum to the Feasibility Study for the Seaway Site and Proposed Plan for the Seaway Site during August 2008. The comment period for the Proposed Plan was from August 25, 2008, to October 24, 2008. A Public Meeting to receive public comments was held on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. The comment period was extended to November 28, 2008.
Responses to all comments received on the Proposed Plan are documented in the Responsiveness summary. The remediation of the Seaway FUSRAP Site as detailed in the Record of Decision is currently scheduled to begin in 2016. This schedule is dependent on the completion of other FUSRAP site cleanups, and the availability of FUSRAP funds nationally.
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