Laserfiche WebLink
<br />002437 <br /> <br />ATT ACHMENT A <br /> <br />LAND ANNOTATION <br /> <br />DURANGO, COLORADO PROCESSING SITE <br /> <br />NORTHERN, MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN PARCELS <br /> <br />The Uraniwn Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (Public Law 95-604), Section 104, requires <br />that the State notify any person who purchases a designated processing site of the nature and <br />extent of residual radioactive materials removed from the site, including notice of the date <br />when such action took place, and the condition of the site after such action. The following <br />information is provided to fulfill this requirement. <br /> <br />The Durango, Colorado processing site originally consisted of th.J:ee separate land parcels. <br />The northern parcel contained the mill site, two tailings piles and remnants of old buildings. <br />The southern parcel, located approximately 0.5 miles to the south, contained raffinate ponds, <br />which were used for the disposal and evaporation of contaminated liquids from the mill <br />process. The two sites are cOlUlected by a cw-rently impassable service road cut into the face <br />of Smelter Mountain which is the third parcel. <br /> <br />Approximately 2,500,000 cubic ya.:ds of contammated materials which included 1) tailings; 2) <br />$ubpiJe soils; 3) surficial materials in the mill yard; 4) windblown materials; and 5) raffinate <br />ponds and contents were removed from the sites from 1987 to 1990. The remediation was <br />conducted in accordance with regulations promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection <br />Agency, in 40 CFR 192. These regulations require that the concentration of radium-226 in <br />land averaged over any area of 100 square meters shall not exceed the background level by <br />more than: 5 pCilg (picocuries per gram), averaged over the fLTst 15 Cm of soil below the <br />surface, and 15 pCi/g averaged over 15 cm thick layers below the surface. <br /> <br />After remediation was complete the sites were backfilled with approximately 230,000 cubic <br />yards of clean material, graded for drainage and revegetated. Backfill materials were <br />routinely analyzed for radium-226 and were determined to have concentrations near <br />background. Material with radiurn-226 concentrations less than 5 pCi/g wen: used for surface <br />backfill. Excavation of residual radioactive material was also condueted for Thorium-230 on <br />the southern parcel. For thorium-230, the cleanup standard was determined as a projected <br />1,000 year Radium-226 concentration based on the ingrowth of the thorium to radium This <br />resulted in a thorium-230 concentration of approximately 35 pCi/g as the clean-up standard. <br />AU verification soil samples from the two sites met the EP A standards of 5 and 15 pCilg <br />radium 226 plus background (1.6 pCi/g) except for grid H-38-20 which, including the <br />thorium-230 results, after 1000 years would have a projected concentration of 18.6 pCi/g of <br />radiwn-226. (The actual concentrations at this location are 49.4 pCilg thorium-230 and 1.8 <br />pCilg radiurn-226). This grid is located on the southern parcel, as shown on the attached <br />map. <br /> <br />The northern parcel also contains slag from a lead smelter which operated On the site prior to <br />