Public Meeting: Health Risks of Radium and Radon in Local Landfills
A program on the health risks
of radium and radon in the Hakes Landfill in Steuben County and the Chemung
Landfill in Chemung County will be held on Saturday, March 28 at 11:00 a.m. at
the Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning. Dr. David Carpenter and Dr. Raymond Vaughan
will speak about the evidence for high levels of radium and radon in the
landfills from the landfills’ own leachate test results and what these levels
mean for the health of those working at the landfills or living downwind or
downstream from the landfills. Dr.
Carpenter will participate in the program by Skype.
The Chemung Landfill and the
Hakes Landfill are the two landfills in New York taking the greatest volume of
drill cuttings from gas drilling operations in the Marcellus shale in
Pennsylvania. The leachate test results
for both landfills show significant levels of radium and radon breakdown
products.
“At this point in time, the
greatest health risks from radioactivity in these landfills likely come from
exposures to the radon gas that is being emitted from the landfills’ gas
flaring and venting systems and to the radon-breakdown products that are formed
in the environment when the radon decays,” said Dr. Carpenter. "To quantify these risks, radon testing
needs to be conducted at these landfills."
Dr. David Carpenter is
currently Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the
Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany. He previously served as Dean of the School of
Public Health at the University at Albany from 1985 to 1998. From 1973 to 1980 he served as Chair of the
Neurobiology Department of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute,
the research arm of the Defense Nuclear Agency, where he directed and performed
research on the health effects of ionizing radiation. Because of that background and because of the
concern of effects of ionizing radiation resulting from the Three Mile Island
nuclear plant incident, in 1980 he was appointed as the Director of the
Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department
of Health, where in addition to his other responsibilities he continued
research on health effects of ionizing radiation, funded in most part by the
Defense Nuclear Agency.
Dr. Raymond Vaughan is a
licensed professional geologist and environmental scientist in Buffalo. His familiarity with the physical and
quantitative properties of radionuclides and the alpha, beta, and gamma
radiation they emit is based partly on work relating to radionuclides that he
performed between 2000-2012 when he was employed as an Environmental Scientist
at the NYS Attorney General’s Office, partly on consulting work he has done to
review and interpret radiological test results, and partly on
technically-oriented volunteer work he has performed for several decades as a
member of the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes (1978-2006) and as a
member of the West Valley Citizen Task Force (1997-present). He was appointed
to the West Valley Citizen Task Force by the U.S. Department of Energy and the
New York State Energy Research and Development Administration (NYSERDA).
The program is sponsored by
the Sierra Club, People for a Healthy Environment, Inc. and Concerned Citizens
of Allegany County, Inc (CCAC). It is free and
members of the public are welcome to attend.
The following diagrams show
the landfill gas collection system at the Hakes Landfill and a generic landfill
gas collection system. The generic
diagram may help to visualize what is going on in the Hakes diagram. Note that the Hakes flare is located at the
edge of the landfill in a valley along a stream next to the storm water
retention ponds.
