Soil at school concerns group

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Soil at school concerns group

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STEPHEN UHLER

 

Pembroke Daily Observer

April 16, 2008

 

The Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County are upset soil from the vicinity of

SRB Technologies was spread at Fellowes High School and used as fill for its

soccer field.

 

The material was taken from a property in the city's industrial park,

located beside SRB, which manufactures betalights.

 

The dirt was used as backfill at the school and was tested for the presence

of the radioactive material. The results showed it ranging from 8 Bq/L to 196

Bq/L of tritium in soil water.

 

The Ontario government drinking water standard is 7,000 Bq/L.

 

Kelly O'Grady, speaking on behalf of the environmental watchdog group, met

with council Tuesday to express her group's concerns.

 

She said the group is upset the city allowed this to happen, especially as

it knew the soil around SRB is contaminated with tritium, the active

ingredient which makes betalights work.

 

This is indicated by a 2006 agreement the municipality has with the company,

in which soil samples are to be taken and tested whenever new development

occurs near the Boundary Road site.

 

Ms. O'Grady said European standards are set to 100 Bq/L, but feels there is

no safe level, especially where children are concerned. Since there has been

so little study on the long-term effects of tritium, the less exposure they

get, the better.

 

She said, in her opinion as a health-care professional, there is no safe

level of radiation and soil contaminated with it has no business being anywhere

within the vicinity of children, nor being put on public land.

 

Ms. O'Grady added it is fortunate the soil wasn't even more contaminated

than it was, for a groundwater test well near the east end of the SRB property,

near to the site where the dirt came from, registered 792 Bq/L of tritium,

and going down a metre in depth 5,571 Bq/L was detected.

 

" What my issue is, " she said, " is we have highly-contaminated soil and we

don't have a city council who appreciates the extent of that contamination. "

 

Stephane Levesque, SRB Technologies president who was in attendance at the

meeting, said the city and his company do have an agreement where a third

party will test soil samples at all new developments within the vicinity of the

SRB facility.

 

To date, two developments have been initiated near the site, including the

construction on the vacant lands immediately east of SRB.

 

Soil samples were collected at the construction site and analyzed, with

additional samples taken at Fellowes once the dirt was laid down. Mr. Levesque

said results show the tritium concentrations in soil water were less than 340

Bq/L, while at the high school the numbers were far less.

 

" We'll continue to test it at the school, " he said, " as we are at the Motel

6 property. "

 

Mr. Levesque said the numbers represent very small amounts of radiation and

so pose no risk to the public.

 

" If someone was to extract the moisture within soil at the highest level

found of 340 Bq/L, and use it as a sole source of drinking water for the entire

year, their dose for the year from drinking that water would equal

approximately 0.005 mSv, less than one per cent of the public dose limit of 1

mSv/year, " he said.

 

To compare, an abdominal X-ray would dose a patient with 0.5 mSv of

radiation, radiation exposure to the public from natural sources is 2.4

mSv/year and

air travel from Montreal to London, England would result in a dose of 0.0478

mSv due to cosmic radiation, a dosage 10 times higher than contained in soil

with 340 Bq/L worth of tritium

 

Deputy Mayor Les Scott said if the senior environmental officer with the

Ministry of Environment wasn't worried, neither was he, referring to an e-mail

from Brad Eckert who provided the soil sample data from the soccer field.

 

" They are saying things are OK, " he said, addressing Ms. O'Grady.

 

" We are always told it is OK, " she replied. " It is not OK, and that is not a

safe level. "

 

 

_suhler_ (suhler)

 

Kelly O’Grady, RN

 

Executive Director,

 

The First Six Years

 

219 Welland St.,

Pembroke, ON CANADA

K8A 5Y5

Tel: 613-735-0717

Fax: 613-732-2859

 

Email: _lead_ (lead)

 

Web: _www.first6years.org_ (http://www.first6years.org)

 

 

 

The First Six Years is a grass roots organization whose primary mandate is

the promotion of optimal social, physical, and environmental conditions for

the development of healthy productive children. We achieve this goal through

the use of environmental monitoring and surveillance and public and

professional education.

 

 

 

 

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