Davis South Campus Superfund Oversight Committee

Rt. 2 Box 2879
Davis, CA 95616
916-753-9446
fax 916-753-8220
e-mail [email protected]
http://www.members.aol.com/dscsoc/dscsoc.htm

September 2, 1997

Remedial Project Mangers
LEHR Superfund Site
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616

Via e-mail

Dear RPMs,

I have attached Dr. G. Fred Lee's "Comments on DOE ARARs for the LEHR Site dated August 14, 1997" which Dr. Lee prepared on behalf of DSCSOC. Dr. Lee states "The key information that needs to be addressed in developing ARARs for the LEHR site is the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's Basin Plan requirements of clean-up to background for all pollution associated with the LEHR site." Any clean-up less than required by the CVRWQCB's Basin Plan requirements would be highly inappropriate for the situation that exists at the LEHR site. Dr. Lee summarizes "...there is significant technical as well as social justification for both DOE and UCD to clean up all wastes associated with the LEHR site, including the campus wastes, to background and to manage any residuals that are left at the site in such a way as to ensure that they will never again be adverse to the neighbors as well as the on-site users of the area. This will require that a comprehensive, in-depth, ad infinitum monitoring program be established and maintained." DSCSOC asks that the RPMs not permit DOE and UCD to continue to pass the burden for their mismanagement of waste on to the impacted public.

 If you have any questions regarding Dr. Lee's comments, please contact him.

Sincerely,

Julie Roth, Ex. Dir.

cc: DSCSOC's Ex. Board
Dr. G. Fred Lee
PRPs for LEHR
William Taylor
Jane Riggan
Brian Shafer
CVRWQCB Members

Comments on
DOE ARARs for the LEHR Site
dated August 14, 1997

G. Fred Lee, PhD, DEE
DSCSOC Technical Advisor
G. Fred Lee & Associates
El Macero, CA 95618
PH: (916) 753-9630
FX: (196) 753-9956
e-mail: [email protected]
http://members.aol.com/gfredlee/gfl.htm

September 1, 1997

The DOE ARARs for the LEHR site dated August 14, 1997 provide a general listing of regulatory requirements that need to be considered in establishing site investigation and remediation. The presentation and discussion of these ARARs, however, by DOE at the last RPM meeting fail to address many of the key issues contained within the applicable regulatory requirements that must be considered in establishing site-specific clean-up standards for the various waste management units, as well as contaminated soils and groundwaters that exist at the LEHR site.

The key information that needs to be addressed in developing ARARs for the LEHR site is the issue of complying with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's Basin Plan requirements of clean up to background for all pollution associated with the LEHR site. From information that has been provided by DOE in their so-called risk assessment approach, it appears that DOE is attempting to set up an approach where clean-up less than that required in accord with CVRWQCB Basin Plan requirements would be implemented. Such an approach is highly inappropriate for the situation that exists at the LEHR site.

As has been discussed in previous correspondence, the University of California, Davis undertook research at the LEHR site at what should have been obvious at the time were cheaper-than-real-cost approaches for waste management. It is well documented in the professional literature since the late 1950s that the waste disposal practices that the University of California, Davis has been using for its campus wastes as well as for the LEHR site wastes will lead to significant pollution. While the UCD L. Vanderhoef administration attempts to justify the pollution that has occurred based on the fact that the regulatory agencies allowed it, such an argument is not technically valid. Those familiar with the elements of how regulatory agencies operate know that regulations and regulatory agency interpretation of regulations often fails to provide full public health and environmental protection. The facts are that the University of California, Davis as part of its efforts to try to gain recognition as a research university undertook research without acquiring adequate funding to properly manage the wastes from the LEHR site. DOE, formerly AEC, did not adequately supervise UCD's management of the LEHR site wastes, with the result that DOE is now obligated to clean up the inappropriate waste management practices by the University of California, Davis at the LEHR site.

In addition, at this site there has occurred large-scale mismanagement of campus wastes associated with UCD's educational and research activities. Again, this is a case of cheaper-than-real-cost waste management since it has been obvious since the late 1950s that UCD's approach for landfilling of wastes would lead to groundwater pollution. The net result is that the real cost of the research that has been conducted on the UCD campus since the 1950s is now costing the taxpayers of California and the US many tens of millions of dollars in waste clean-up.

In addition to hazardous chemicals, there is a wide variety of deleterious chemicals present in LEHR site and campus waste deposited at the LEHR site which can impair the beneficial uses of groundwaters and the environment in perpetuity. The state of California regulations require control of these chemicals as well as hazardous chemicals. There must be full compliance with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's clean-up to background for deleterious chemicals, as well, including tastes and odors in groundwater, TDS, TOC, etc.

Both UCD and DOE are attempting to continue to pass the burden for the mismanagement of wastes on to UCD's neighbors, i.e. those who own and use property near the LEHR site. This is highly inappropriate. The neighbors have already suffered significant adverse impacts from UCD's mismanagement of its research and campus activities that lead to liquid and solid waste production. The impacted public within the sphere of influence of the LEHR site should be fully protected from any residual wastes associated with the LEHR site.

While UCD and DOE attempt to claim that the approach that should be followed is to clean up the LEHR site and the associated groundwaters to a risk-based level for selected hazardous chemicals, such an approach is not in accord with protecting the off-site impacted public. As discussed in previous correspondence but is continued to be ignored by UCD and DOE, only a small number of the potentially hazardous and deleterious chemicals present in the LEHR site as well as in the campus wastes now present at the LEHR site are regulated as hazardous chemicals. There is a vast arena amounting to tens of thousands of chemicals and their transformation products that could be present in these wastes which are not regulated and therefore, for which there can be no conventional risk-based assessment for potential adverse impacts to public health, groundwater resources and the environment. This situation causes considerable justification for clean-up to background for the regulated chemicals since as part of this clean-up, many of the unregulated hazardous or otherwise deleterious chemicals that will ultimately have to be cleaned up will be removed or managed.

Another fundamental problem with the risk-based approach is that it focuses only on a few hazardous chemicals that were somewhat arbitrarily selected as part of the Priority Pollutants under a court-ordered decree in the 1970s. The Priority Pollutant list was not developed based on consensus of experts, even within the US EPA much less the technical community, as to the known hazardous chemicals that must be managed to protect public health and the environment. Further, in the over 20 years since the original Priority Pollutant list was developed, there is a substantial amount of new information on hazardous chemicals that could be incorporated into the Priority Pollutant list but has not been done because of the politics of not wanting to add to the list which would increase the regulatory agencies' responsibilities for managing chemicals.

In summary, there is significant technical as well as social justification for both DOE and UCD to clean up all wastes associated with the LEHR site, including the campus wastes, to background and to manage any residuals that are left at the site in such a way as to ensure that they will never again be adverse to the neighbors as well as on-site users of the area. This will require that a comprehensive, in-depth, ad infinitum monitoring program be established and maintained. The funding for such a monitoring program must be such that there is an opportunity for the potentially impacted off-site public to independently verify that the monitoring and maintenance of the residual waste is properly carried out. It cannot be assumed that DOE, UCD or the regulatory agencies will protect the off-site public. There should be independent funding provided by UCD and DOE so the off-site public is, in fact, protected through independent verification of the adequacy of monitoring and maintenance.