The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects this week to begin moving contaminated soil from a former beryllium production plant in Ohio to final disposal in Michigan.
The Army Corps in April formally began cleanup of the Luckey site under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). Contractor North Wind-Portage at the time began digging up soil contaminated with beryllium, lead, radium-226, thorium-230, uranium-234, and uranium-238, according to an Army press release from April.
A US Ecology disposal facility in Belleville, Mich., could receive as much as 124,000 tons of contaminated soil, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday. The transport program could involve a maximum of 11 trucks per day between the two sites, the Army Corps said.
“Materials that are being transported for disposal are loaded into flexible bulk packages inside hard-sided roll-off containers. The flexible bulk packages will be sealed when full, and a tarp will be placed over the containers before they leave the site,” according to its Thursday press release. “The exterior of the waste transportation vehicles and containers will be surveyed prior to leaving the site to ensure that they are not inadvertently spreading contaminated materials off-site. Trucks will be transporting one roll-off container each, which will contain 15 tons of contaminated soil.”
In FUSRAP, the Army Corps remediates and sustains sites contaminated by defense and civilian commercial programs managed by the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission from the 1940s to the 1960s. Brush Beryllium Co. (subsequently known as Brush Wellman) managed beryllium manufacturing at the Luckey property from 1949 to 1958 via an Atomic Energy Commission contract.
