West Valley, New York’s Nuclear Waste Site Remains A Serious Threat To Great Lakes Waters Shared By Millions of Canadians And Americans

By Art Klein

(A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Way back when – in the dirty 1980s and 90s, when I was covering environmental issues for a once-decent daily newspaper in Niagara, Ontario, one of the major issues for people in the Southern Ontario and Western New York regions sharing the Great Lakes were the number of hazardous waste dumps bleeding their poisons into waters we drink, and waters vital to a diversity of wildlife, including fish many Great Lakes residents catch and eat. 

Environmental groups during that time – groups like Pollution Probe from Toronto, Operation Clean from Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Sierra Club from Western New York and others – pushed governments to excavate all of the wastes from these dangerous dumps and have them destroyed or, if that was not possible, at least place them in leak-proof vaults further away from watersheds in the Great Lakes basin.

One of the many sites that were subject to this debate was the West Valley, New York nuclear waste site, located in the Cattaraugus Creek watershed, draining into Lake Erie and the upper waters of the Niagara River, southwest of the Buffalo Area. Like Love Canal and so many other infamous waste sites that were a focus of debate back then, governments of the day decided that excavating and destroying the waste would be too costly, and they opted to hire engineers to come up with plans to wall the wastes in, using “containment  systems” instead.

As at least some of us who followed this whole business closely knew, these containment systems would eventually break down and the buried wastes – many of these poisons capable of remaining toxic for hundreds, if not thousands of years – would have their chance to leak out into the surrounding environment, including waters flowing into the Great Lakes again. The dirty 1980s and 90s would be reprised to poison the planet for future generations.

So here, below, is some disturbing news shared with Niagara At Large from Art Klein, a member of the Sierra Club in Western New York. And here we go again.)

An aerial shot of the sprawling West Valley nuclear wast dump site in the Lake Erie watershed, just upstream from the Niagara River

Bad science and engineering, entwined with the loony economics of shallow planning and the ever shifting priorities of government policy, developed West Valley Nuclear Demonstration Project, New York’s prominent Nuclear Waste Site. 

And the delays of five decades now allow climate change to intensify the menace of the site!

Were it not so dangerous, West Valley would resemble a comic opera of why superficial treatment of symptoms does not lower threat of fatal disease.

Dissolving radioactive fuel rods in acid to extract valuable plutonium and other materials in1960s seemed so simple and obvious but the little bit of thought given the matter soon became obvious and halted when everyone realized they did not know what they were doing.  It was yet another lesson that to dilute the dangers from radioactive waste was not working any better to reduce any other pollution by dilution.

But that early activity created conditions that were not manageable through three decades of effort. It was not until 2002, after a chain of failed attempts when the extreme much of the terrifying radioactive sludge in huge tanks was converted to gigantic glass modules and a lot of buried nuclear waste identified, and the extent of some seeping spills measured.  But very little true remediation has been done and large threats lurk.

Mostly, and at present on the site, is the result of 1960s deep trenches that, buried nuclear waste in fibre drums and cardboard boxes, leak into the surrounding subsurface areas. Also, there lurks a large and serious sub-surface strontium plume from spilled material creeps toward surrounding water bodies and the site and contents are monitored but with very little correction.

Both the United States Federal Department of Energy and New York Energy and Research Development Authority supervise the West Valley effort. Naturally low budgets and priorities guarantee slow progress.

Competent scientists and engineers seek to reduce the danger of spreading radioactivity. Erosion Control of surface waterways is active and they work to develop a scientific framework upon which decisions about the extent and character of the cleanup. But money is dear and progress creeps slowly inviting outside forces like weather to provide an increased, unpredictable role.

West Valley is testimony to the failure of technology and engineering to assess and manage most toxics and radioactive waste. Mostly we rely on the next generation to discover how to tame the monster we bequeath to them. 

The terrible environmental consequences in nuclear waste is a threat to the water supply of millions humans on Lakes Erie, Ontario and the Niagara and St Lawrence Rivers. An inch of rain an hour for many hours is more frequent these days and is what occurred to flood the City of Gowanda in 2009.  Such a storm could accelerate erosions of West Valley into Cattaraugus Creek and then Lake Erie. No current water supply filtration systems can cope with radioactive water.

Recently the West Valley Management Team assembled an impressive group of climatologist physicists to add to the information on possible impacts and outcomes of climate change on West Valley.  Their qualifications and research findings are at: http://westvalleyphaseonestudies.org/images/documents/ClimateWorkshop_Handbook_R4.pdf.

The engineers at West Valley are proud of the bank stabilization projects that they assure us will convey even exceptional storms through the West Valley Plateau. As they spoke my mind conjured up the scenes of destruction in New York and Vermont as a result of Hurricane Irene last year and the huge masonry abutments that were detached from the water banks and ended stranded in the new much wider streambeds. Nature has a way of making its own rules and ignoring puny human standards.

All this threatens your world and we concerned citizens will gather to explain the current dangers and how they could affect you and yours.

February 26 at 7:00 PM in the auditorium in the Buffalo-Erie County Library Lafayette Square Buffalo, in an event hosted by Lynda Schneekloth of the Niagara Group, Sierra Club, Western New Yorkers can learn in great detail the dangers of West Valley. Experts who have studied and worked on the problems of WV, including Barbara J. Warren, RN, Ms, Executive Director of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, Joanne E. Hameister, Research Analyst who has worked Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes, since 1980 and Diane D’Arrigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director for Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). These all are folks with decades dedication to doing something about the terrible threat of the Nuclear Waste in our midst makes the rest of us deeply indebted. So get out to this event and get active to remove a serious threat to your water, your life and those of your decadence.

Art Klein is a resident of Tonawanda, New York and member of the Sierra Club – an organization that has been watch-dogging the West Valley nuclear dump for decades. 

Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper had the honour of engaging in a lively evening of discussions on environmental issues of concern to people on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border with members of the Sierra Club of Western New York about three or so years ago in Williamsville, New York. To learn more about this time-honoured group of dedicated citizens who care about protecting and preserving something of our natural resources for future generations visit http://niagarasierraclub.wordpress.com/ .

(Niagara At Large encourages all visitors to this site to share their views on this post or any other posts NAL has posted. Divergent views are most welcome in the spirit of NAL’s goal to operate as a virtual town hall for discussing and debating issues of interest and concern to our communities and countries across the greater Niagara region and beyond.)