Aug 13 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Joe Walker The Paducah Sun, Ky.

The Department of Energy has agreed to test for more than 150 substances to ensure that a system to treat radioactive materials and other pollutants flowing from a 25-acre landfill behind the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is working correctly.

DOE site manager Bill Murphie signed anagreed order with the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet to implement the testing, which also includes organic and heavy metal contaminants. The agreement was in response to a March 28 petition by the Frankfort-based Kentucky Resources Council challenging cabinet approval of the treatment plant without reviewing its capability to treat contaminants generated from the plant landfill off Ogden Landing Road.

Signed by Deputy Cabinet Secretary John Clay, the agreement says the cabinet "complied with all regulations and statutes" onin approving DOE's application to modify the landfill waste permit and renew permits for two adjacent landfills. All three permits were merged.

DOE will test landfill runoff to be sure that it can be effectively treated by a system that collects the water in tanks. The Resources Council petition -- filed on behalf of plant neighbor Ron Lamb and environmental activist Mark Donham of Brookport, Ill. -- contended that land and creeks near the plant were being harmed by the runoff.

Despite protests by Donham and others, DOE in May 2004 began accepting radioactive and hazardous waste into the landfill at levels the agency said were low enough not to threaten public health or the environment. Donham and six others quit the plant's citizens advisory board in frustration of DOE cleanup policy and lack of input.

"What's supposed to go in that landfill is equivalent to what Paducah's household garbage goes into," Donham said.

The agreement does show that citizens can influence the process," he said. "I think that's important for people to know because there sure is a lot of apathy and fear in participating in the public domain."

Among other things, the Resources Council petition said DOE did not prove the system could meet state regulations requiring that storage be sufficient to handle 15 days of peak production during heavy rain. State officials inspected the landfill in March when DOE contract workers were preparing to expand it. At that time, landfill manager Gary VanderBoegh complained that expansion might cause the tanks to overflow.

As a result, DOE did an evaluation and reported there were times when the 15-day level was exceeded even without expansion. Tony Hatton, assistant director of the Kentucky Division of Waste Management, said earlier that DOE had used storage tanks and treatment to handle the problem, but needed to improve the storage system to comply with regulations and meet its permit.

Hatton said he saw no immediate threat to health or the environment because DOE had treatment capacity until the improvements were made. He described "relatively low levels" of radioactive substances in the leachate -- liquid that percolates through or drains from the waste.

VanderBoegh, who lost his job last spring when DOE hired a new cleanup contractor, has repeatedly complained about the treatment system. He filed a Department of Labor action alleging he lost his job partly because he told the old contractor that the system would only treat organic contaminants and not radionuclides or heavy metals. VanderBoegh also has raised the treatment issue before the citizens advisory board.