DOE kills K-25 fish to save ponds

Comment: Do you really think the EPA will protect us from uranium mining and milling, it took them decades to clear up this mess, if you call this cleaning up PCB!

Reporter: Gordon Boyd
Email Address: gordon.boyd@wvlt-tv.com

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Scooping up bass and their brethren, by the ton, may look like the ultimate in low-tech cleanup of three ponds near the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge.

Far from it.

"We are addressing contamination of PCBs," says Jeff Cange,
project manager for Department of Energy contractor Bechtel Jacobs.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenals, are chemical residues shown to cause skin irritations, birth defects and liver damage.

"We want to take out some of these fish that are big bio-accumulators (of PCBs) says Mark Peterson, part of the team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who designed the cleanup project.

The project has used the chemical rotenone to kill every fish in these ponds within minutes, by clogging their kills. Crews say rotenone is harmless to all other life within the ponds' ecosystems.

"The PCB's have been in these ponds for decades," Cange says.

"It's a function of runoff coming from historical practices (K-25 operations)."

"The real risk is from eating fish," Peterson says. "It's not from exposure to the PCBs"

The property, now home to the East Tennesee Technology Center, has posted signs warning of the health risks, and the property violations inherent in trespassing and fishing on site.

They have failed to deter some anglers.

They're useless for stopping the natural predators; hawks, osprey and heron, who view the ponds as hunting grounds and buffet tables.

"You have a chance that the PCB-contaminated fish are spreading," Cange says. "Either when Watts Bar lake comes up, Poplar Creek is over the bridge--fish comes up over Poplar Creek."

The project aims to stabilize the pond sediment, by recontouring it with fresh soil. Then, crews will restock the ponds with smaller sunfish and bluegill, less prone to accumulating high levels of PCBs.

The plans have come together over the last three years. The Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation (TDEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reviewed the protocols, and stationed inspectors on-site, according to project directors.

"The killed fish are going into a clay lined pit, that will be capped in clay," Cange says.

The sediment will remain in the ponds. Dredging it would more than double the cost of remediation, now estimated at $3 million.

"It saves risk to the workers by not digging stuff up," Cange says.

"You also run a risk from transporting stuff to other facilties, and then relocating your problem elsewhere."

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