[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION, REUSE: "Navy used obsolete safety standards in shipyard cleanup, researchers say" at Hunters Point, CA

[Lenny Siegel]

Navy used obsolete safety standards in shipyard cleanup, researchers say

by Jason Fagone and Cynthia Dizzies 
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
October 30, 2018 

Faked soil samples, falsified documents, two criminal convictions, three federal lawsuits — in recent months, the cleanup of the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has been rocked by scandal. Most questions have focused on the role of a Navy contractor, Tetra Tech EC.

But fraud may be the least of the problems with the cleanup, according to a new report by academic researchers that reaches a startling conclusion: The Navy, which is supposed to be removing radioactive contamination from the shipyard, is relying on decades-old, obsolete safety standards in order to avoid cleaning up dangerous substances - a strategy that lowers the Navy’s costs, but increases the risk that people living or working on the site will get cancer.

What’s more, the researchers say, state and federal regulators either failed to catch the archaic standards or approved of them, despite the fact that federal law requires current standards to be used. In some cases, the strategies put forward by the Navy appear to have been authored by Tetra Tech, the same contractor now accused of widespread fraud, according to public documents reviewed by the researchers.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.sfchronicle.com/green/article/Navy-used-obsolete-safety-standards-in-shipyard-13349512.php

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org