[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 149 (Thursday, August 3, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44049-44052]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-12515]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 040-07455]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Source Materials License 
No. SMA 1018, Approving Revision 2 of the Erosion Sediment Pollution 
Control Plan for Excavation of Wetlands Areas at the Whittaker 
Corporation's Facility in Transfer, PA

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 
Significant Impact for License Amendment.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marjorie McLaughlin, Health Physicist,

[[Page 44050]]

Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 
475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406-1415; telephone 
(610) 337-5240; fax number (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the 
issuance of a license amendment to Source Materials License No. SMA-
1018. This license is held by Whittaker Corporation (the Licensee), for 
its Whittaker facility (the Facility), located at 99 Crestview Drive in 
Transfer, Pennsylvania. Issuance of the amendment would approve a 
revision to the license tie-down document, ``Erosion and Sediment 
Pollution Control Plan for Phase 1 and Phase 2 Activities at the 
Whittaker Remediation Site (ESPCP).'' The Licensee requested this 
action in a letter dated May 24, 2006. The NRC has prepared an 
Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this proposed action in 
accordance with the requirements of Title 10, Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR), Part 51 (10 CFR Part 51). Based on the EA, the NRC 
has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is 
appropriate with respect to the proposed action. The amendment will be 
issued to the Licensee following the publication of this FONSI and EA 
in the Federal Register.

II. Environmental Assessment

Identification of Proposed Action

    The proposed action would grant the Licensee's May 24, 2006, 
license amendment request, thereby approving Revision 2 of the ESPCP. 
Specifically, the ESPCP describes the Licensee's activities at the 
Facility that involve excavation and/or other forms of earth 
disturbance. The ESPCP also describes the engineering and programmatic 
controls the Licensee will implement during any such activities to 
minimize the potential for accelerated erosion and sedimentation. 
Accelerated erosion is the removal of surface soils by natural 
processes and human activity at a faster rate than would occur due to 
the natural processes alone. Sedimentation is the action of depositing 
sediment (e.g., soil) in a body of water. The proposed action would 
approve the Licensee's revision to the ESPCP to allow for excavation of 
material within Facility areas that are delineated as wetlands. The 
specific contents of the ESPCP are described in more detail in a later 
section of this report.
    License No. SMA-1018 was issued on December 15, 1969, pursuant to 
10 CFR part 40, and has been amended periodically since that time. The 
license authorized the possession and use of unsealed source material 
(natural thorium and natural uranium) contained in ores used for 
minerals processing and as a contaminant that was isolated by the 
processing of scrap metal. The Facility originally consisted of a plant 
and a slag waste storage area. In 1974, the Licensee ceased licensed 
operations at the Facility, and initiated decommissioning of plant 
equipment and buildings. Waste slag, raw materials, feed-metal scrap, 
and contaminated building materials that were generated from the 
decontamination activities were placed in the slag storage area. The 
portion of the property housing the plant was released for unrestricted 
use in 1975, following the performance of a confirmatory survey by the 
NRC. An additional plant building was decommissioned in 1983 and 
released for unrestricted use in 1985. The plant is an active facility 
under a new owner (Greenville Metals), who is not associated with the 
Licensee. Greenville Metals processes and refines scrap and other 
metals to produce metal alloys and conversion products. Greenville 
Metals does not utilize NRC-licensed radioactive material, and is 
separated from the Whittaker property by metal fencing.
    The current Facility consists of the slag area, located on an 
irregularly-shaped, 5.9 acre strip of land, that is characterized by 
four sections according to topography and site use. Facility topography 
(prior to the initiation of decommissioning) had been built up through 
the repeated disposal of slag, scrap metal, debris, and foundry sand. 
The Facility is bordered by an access road to the north, Greenville 
Metals to the west and south, and the Shenango River to the east. The 
Facility is located within an industrial park. There are no buildings 
remaining (with the exception of temporary trailers supplied by the 
decommissioning contractor), and the surrounding area is primarily 
rural. In July 2004, the Licensee initiated decommissioning activities, 
involving excavation of the slag material and shipment to an authorized 
disposal facility.
    The NRC has required the Licensee to monitor the current Facility 
for signs of erosion from the time when it was used only as a storage 
area for the radioactive slag material. The slag piles had reached 
elevations of 20 feet or more above the adjoining river flood plain. 
The proximity of the Facility to the river, coupled with the steep 
slope of the slag piles were the initial motivation for implementing 
erosion controls to guard against offsite migration of contaminated 
material. When the Licensee commenced decommissioning activities, a 
more robust erosion control program was required. NRC approved the 
previous ESPCP revision with the most recent license renewal. The EA 
associated with that renewal was published in the Federal Register on 
September 16, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 179). The current and proposed 
ESPCPs describe the controls that are to be implemented during Phase 1 
and Phase 2 of the Facility decommissioning operation. Phase 1 involved 
the removal of staged debris and slag from a concrete pad located on 
the Facility, and is complete. Phase 2 involves excavation and removal 
of slag material from other Facility areas, and is currently in 
progress.
    The proposed ESPCP amendment involves excavation of material 
located within the site-delineated wetlands areas. As defined in the 
Clean Water Act (CWA), wetlands are, ``those areas that are inundated 
or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration 
sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, 
a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil 
conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and 
similar areas [Source: 40 CFR 230.3(t)].'' Section 404 of the CWA 
establishes the program that regulates the discharge of material into 
U.S. waters, including wetlands. Activities within wetlands areas are 
evaluated and controlled through a permitting process, which grants 
approval of proposed actions. Significant activities are approved by 
individual permits. Activities that are determined to have minimal 
adverse effects may be granted a general permit. The program is 
developed and enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA) and is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). 
State environmental agencies involvement may consist of assuming either 
the general permitting process or the entire permitting program. The 
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) has assumed 
the authority for general permit reviews for proposed activities in 
wetlands within the Commonwealth.
    The current ESPCP is a part of the Licensee's NRC license. 
Amendments to the ESPCP require an amendment to the license. The 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires Federal agencies to 
consider the environmental impacts of actions under their

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jurisdiction. Although the decommissioning activities described in the 
proposed ESPCP do not differ from those already approved by the NRC in 
the licensee's current operating procedures, their application to 
Facility wetlands areas requires NRC to perform this assessment of the 
environmental impacts of the proposed action.

Need for the Proposed Action

    The Licensee is no longer using licensed materials at the Facility, 
and has initiated site decommissioning. The Licensee is preparing a 
formal Decommissioning Plan (DP) that will describe the methods and 
procedures to complete decommissioning activities, and will submit the 
DP as a separate amendment request. Until the NRC approves the 
Licensee's DP, decommissioning activities must be performed in 
accordance with NRC-approved procedures. This amendment request 
involves such a procedure and the action allows the licensee to 
continue site cleanup activities until the DP is approved. In 
accordance with 10 CFR 20.1402, a site may be considered for 
unrestricted release if the residual radioactivity results in a total 
effective dose equivalent (TEDE) that does not exceed 25 millirem per 
year (mrem/yr). To meet this dose criterion, the Licensee must 
remediate (decommission) the Facility by removing and appropriately 
disposing of radioactive materials that result in a TEDE that is 
greater than 25 mrem/yr. The Licensee identified that radioactive 
materials are present in the subsurface soils of Facility wetlands 
areas. Removal of these materials is necessary to effect Facility 
decommissioning. The Licensee will follow the proposed ESPCP to provide 
protection to the affected wetlands and waterway while removing this 
material.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    Both the previous and the proposed ESPCP revisions provide a brief 
description of the site, its history and current activities, and 
topography and soil makeup. There is also no change to the method for 
preventing sediments generated from storm water runoff from entering 
the wetlands areas and the Shenango River. Installed silt fencing at 
the base of the slag pile slopes remains the control method for this 
situation. The fencing in some locations is 30-inch filter fabric 
reinforced with staked straw bales and 33-inch filter fabric supported 
by chain link fence in other locations. In addition to the silt 
fencing, which will remain installed both during and in-between 
excavation activities, weekly site walkdowns are performed during 
active excavation campaigns. The walkdowns include inspection and 
maintenance of the silt fencing and removal of any built up debris or 
sediment from the base of the fencing. Any necessary repairs to the 
fencing are reported to the appropriate Commonwealth agency. During 
periods of Facility inactivity (i.e., winter shut-down), the site 
walkdowns are performed monthly. The proposed action does not involve a 
change to the silt fencing use or design, or to the site walkdowns.
    The current ESPCP describes the delineation of Facility wetlands 
and certifies that slag and material removal from these areas will be 
performed by hand (i.e., heavy equipment will not be used and 
excavations will not be involved). The current ESPCP does allow for 
material excavation using heavy equipment within the Facility floodway 
areas, and specifies that such activities will only remove material 
from the floodway, and will not add any. The current ESPCP was 
submitted to the PADEP as a section of the Facility Restoration Plan, 
which was provided to meet the Commonwealth's requirements for 
approving Facility activities. The Commonwealth approved the current 
ESPCP and determined that the proposed activities had no significant 
environmental impacts, and qualified for a waiver from the permit 
requirements in accordance with 25 PA Code 105.12. NRC approved the 
current ESPCP as part of the most recent license renewal, as described 
previously in this report.
    The proposed activity amends the ESPCP to allow for excavation of 
material from within the Facility-delineated wetlands. The proposed 
ESPCP states that soil borings may be obtained from within this area 
using a boring machine, so that the soil may be analyzed for the 
presence of radioactive material. In addition, excavation of material 
within this area may be performed, and some trees removed so that 
radioactive slag within the root systems may be accessed and disposed. 
The ESPCP proposes to minimize the environmental impacts from these 
activities by: Extending the silt fencing to contain these areas; 
setting up the excavating equipment in non-wetlands areas and, to the 
extent possible, extending the reach of the arm so that only the bucket 
impacts the wetlands (i.e., rather than driving an excavator truck over 
the wetlands soil); and minimizing the amount of soil removed from the 
wetlands. The proposed ESPCP commits that the Licensee will restore the 
wetland, floodway, and riverbank upon completion of slag removal. The 
specific restoration activities will require PADEP approval and will be 
provided in a later ESPCP revision.
    The Licensee submitted the proposed ESPCP to PADEP as a revision to 
the Facility Restoration Plan. PADEP approved the revision on April 19, 
2006, and again determined that the proposed activities qualify for a 
waiver from the permitting requirements.
    The NRC staff has determined that the proposed activity will have a 
minimal effect on environmental resources. The activities described in 
the proposed ESPCP involve removal of material from within Facility 
wetlands areas, but the amount of material and the impact to these 
areas will be minimized to the extent possible. Additionally, the 
proposed activity provides for the use of engineering barriers (silt 
fencing) to prevent migration of sediment and contaminants into the 
river. The proposed activity involves only the removal of soil and slag 
material. The Licensee will not be adding material to the wetlands or 
waterway under this proposed action. Based on its review, the staff 
concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect 
on the quality of the human environment.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    The only alternative to the proposed action is the no-action 
alternative, under which the staff would deny the amendment request for 
the proposed ESPCP. This alternative would result in no environmental 
impacts, but would prohibit the removal of contaminated material from 
the Facility wetlands areas. This no-action alternative is not feasible 
because it conflicts with 10 CFR 20.1402, requiring licensees to verify 
that residual radioactivity meets the radiological unrestricted release 
criteria. The Licensee may not be able to meet the unrestricted release 
criteria if the material in these areas is not removed from the 
Facility and appropriately disposed. Additionally, denying the 
amendment request would prevent the Licensee from completing 
decommissioning in the timeframe required by 10 CFR 40.42(h). The 
environmental impacts of the proposed action are not significant, and 
the no-action alternative is accordingly not further considered.

Conclusion

    The NRC staff has concluded that the proposed action is consistent 
NRC guidance and regulations. Because the proposed action will not 
significantly impact the quality of the human environment, the NRC 
staff concludes

[[Page 44052]]

that the proposed action is the preferred alternative.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    NRC provided a draft of this Environmental Assessment to PADEP for 
review on June 9, 2006. On June 14, 2006, PADEP responded by email that 
PADEP staff involved with both radiation protection and with watershed 
management reviewed the EA. PADEP agreed with the conclusions of the 
EA, and otherwise had no comments.
    The NRC staff has determined that the proposed action is of a 
procedural nature, and will not affect listed species or critical 
habitat. Therefore, no further consultation is required under Section 7 
of the Endangered Species Act. The NRC staff has also determined that 
the proposed action is not the type of activity that has the potential 
to cause effects on historic properties. Therefore, no further 
consultation is required under Section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The NRC staff has prepared this EA in support of the proposed 
action. On the basis of this EA, the NRC finds that there are no 
significant environmental impacts from the proposed action, and that 
preparation of an environmental impact statement is not warranted. 
Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a Finding of No Significant 
Impact is appropriate.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for 
license amendment and supporting documentation, are available 
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the 
NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which 
provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The documents 
related to this action are listed below, along with their ADAMS 
accession numbers.
    1. Amendment request with Erosion and Sediment Pollution Control 
Plan Revision 2, dated May 24, 2006 (ML061570151);
    2. Title 25, Pennsylvania Code, Chapter 105, ``Dam Safety and 
Waterway Management;''
    3. Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 230, Section 
404(b)(1), ``Guidelines for Specification of Disposal Sites for Dredged 
or Fill Material;''
    4. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20, Subpart E, 
``Radiological Criteria for License Termination;''
    5. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 40, ``Domestic 
Licensing of Source Material;''
    6. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 51, ``Environmental 
Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory 
Functions;''
    If you do not have access to ADAMS, or if there are problems in 
accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public 
Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by e-mail to [email protected]. These documents may also be viewed 
electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 
F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. 
The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee.

    Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, this 25th day of July.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Marie Miller,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, 
Region I.
[FR Doc. E6-12515 Filed 8-2-06; 8:45 am]
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