CANiT Politicians Flip-Flop on
                    Cleanup at Tonawanda Nuclear Site

by Jim Rauch

     On August 6, after months of silence, Congressman John LaFalce
brought federal Energy Department (DOE) officials to his Buffalo
office to announce what turns out to be a seriously flawed,
incomplete cleanup plan for the Tonawanda nuclear site.

     The plan calls for removing less than a third, 115,200 cubic
yards [according to the Buffalo News], of the 366,000 cubic yards
of radioactive waste (mostly contaminated soils) previously
identified in DOE documents produced during the environmental
impact statement review process.  That process was "suspended" by
DOE over two years ago following overwhelming public opposition to
DOE's preferred plan at that time - excavation and consolidation of
all the waste in a single onsite dump along the Niagara River.

     The radioactive contamination, which now involves at least
five properties and covers almost one-half square mile, is the
result of Manhattan Project operations at Union Carbide's Linde
plant (now Praxair) and subsequent mismanagement of the generated
wastes for over fifty years by all levels of government -- federal,
state and local.  The radioactive contaminants will remain
hazardous for over 500,000 years.

     The reduced cleanup volume proposed by DOE is based on:
     1) cleaning up only three of the four identified properties;
the 117,000 cubic yards of waste improperly dumped in the Niagara
Landfill property are to be left there, and
     2) very limited cleanup of the remaining three properties to
allow only specified restricted re-uses of these private properties
and, even then, only under a ten-times less protective federal
radiation exposure limit than New York's radiation cleanup
guideline.
     
     Both DOE and CANiT failed to notify important DOE-recognized
community and environmental stakeholder participants, including
FACTS and Sierra Club's Niagara Group, of the meeting.
 
     Since the "suspension" of the environmental review process,
area politicians at all levels of government have consistently
maintained that the only acceptable plan for cleaning up Tonawan-
da's Manhattan Project contaminated properties was complete removal
of all the radioactive waste to a properly licensed, out-of-state
disposal facility.  The Buffalo Common Council passed and sent two
resolutions to DOE toward that end.  The second resolution, which
requested a report from DOE comparing state and federal cleanup
effectiveness, has been ignored by DOE.

     Following the announcement, it is now clear why DOE has
preferred to deal with the small group of politicians who refer to
themselves as CANiT (Coalition Against Nuclear materials in
Tonawanda).  CANiT includes Congressman LaFalce, County Executive
Gorski, Legislator Chuck Swanick, Tonawanda Supervisor Carl
Calabrese and Tonawanda Mayor Alice Roth.  Ironically, as recently
as their March 18 public meeting, CANiT's nominal leader Richard
Tobe (Erie County Executive Dennis Gorski's representative)
restated CANiT's oft-trumpeted position calling for complete
cleanup of all Tonawanda properties.  And he further clarified that
such cleanup should allow unrestricted future use of the proper-
ties, which, by the way, is the stated goal of the DOE's FUSRAP
(Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program) cleanup program,
the federal authority for the Tonawanda cleanup.

     FACTS had been skeptical of CANiT's intentions since last
October when Congressman LaFalce brought former DOE Assistant
Secretary Thomas Grumbly to the area to discuss CANiT's main reason
for being: the interest in redevelopment of the radioactively
contaminated portions of Tonawanda's waterfront.  Grumbly asked if
"the banks" had attended any CANiT meetings and had made known what
they needed in the way of a cleanup before they would commit to
finance any redevelopment in the affected areas.  The answer came
from Ray Sinclair, Town Councilmember and State Senator Mary Lou
Rath's representative on CANiT,: no, but the developers only
require the public's "perception" to be that a cleanup has made the
site safe.  This implied that it was okay to the developers and
CANiT if the cleanup was not really a sound cleanup to health-based
levels of residual contamination because the otherwise-occupied
public, quite naturally, expects any "cleanup" will render the site
safe.

     WHAT TO DO: Write Congressman John LaFalce, 111 West Huron,
                 Buffalo, NY  14202.
     Ask him why he and the CANiT politicians are letting the
     Clinton DOE off the hook on a complete cleanup for unrestrict-
     ed re-use of all four private properties.  And don't forget
     this flip-flop by the CANiT politicians at election time.

     For more information contact:  FACTS
                                    PO Box 566
                                    Kenmore, NY  14217

                                    Phone/Fax (716) 876-9552