Scarboro Q and A

Scarboro Questions and Answers

These questions were selected from a list of questions and concerns expressed in one or more Scarboro meetings.

Is Scarboro Another Love Canal?

Love Canal:	Scarboro:
Was created as a major chemical waste dump by the Hooker Electrochemical Co. in Niagara Falls, NY	Was created as a white hutment residential area by the Manhattan Project during World War II. It was previously a farm community.
Was capped with la layer of dirt according to the specifications of the times and donated to the City of Niagara Falls as a future RECREATION area.	Was converted by the army to black homes residential area using some of the same street and utilities.
Was sold by the City of Niagara Falls to a developer who leveled the land exposing the chemicals	Was never used as a dump of any type although the City had a sanitary land fill in a not too distant location.
Was developed as a bedroom community with lots of kids playing in very highly contaminated yards.	Is located about forty feet above East Fork Poplar Creek and avoided the effects of the mercury discharges and other waterborne Y-12 contaminants to the Creek.
Became a major controversy in the history of waste disposal and was torn down after children became ill and the contamination was discovered.	Did receive a small amount of airborne, enriched uranium from Y-12 but not enough to be at all dangerous. The Pine Ridge springs are not contaminated.
Was the result of an irresponsible city government.	Has been closely monitored by DOE to preclude any significant contamination.
Love Canal was a truly contaminated location.	Scarboro's contaminants are typical background.

In its history and contaminants,
Scarboro in no way resembles Love Canal.

'Someone' said, "Scarboro Has A High Background."

Measurements of Background in Various Locations (uR/hr)
Scarboro	Reference Areas
Locations =11; Range = 5 to 11; Average = 7.5	55 Jefferson Avenue; Range = 5 to 7; Average = 6
	21 US Cities; Range 5.8 to 15.9; Average = 10.2
Fly overs: Six years; Range = 2 to 20	Regional: Range = 2 to 20
	ORR Hot Spots: (approximate) Y12 = 100; K25 = 2000; ORNL = 2000
Monitoring 1997: Range = 5.4 to 6.5; Average = 5.8	Fort Loudon Dam: 4.5 to 5.5; Average = 5.1

Whoever 'Someone' is, They are Wrong

Is the Water in Scarboro Safe?

Surface Water (ug/L)	Ground Water
Granted that few samples have been taken, BUT	No groundwater data has been found, BUT
Surface water samples, especially mercury, have shown many non-detects; the levels are so low that they are not measurable.	The rock layers in Pine Ridge slope back toward Y-12 and the majority of the water flows in that direction. There is no evidence of cross-ridge flow on the ORR.
Others, including radioactivity, are too low to be measured reliably	All the known groundwater plumes in Bear Creek Vally are on the far side and flow east or west along the valley.
Other are: Barium = 74.7 Manganese = 292	The streams in Scarboro, which are fed by groundwater, show no evidence of unusual contamination.
Lower East Fork Poplar Creek does not back up into Scarboro.	Uranium is strongly bound to soil and rock and does not move very far.

The chance that Scarboro water has been contaminated by Y-12 is very, very low. However, it should not be drunk for other reasons.

What About The Uranium That Came Over The Hill

One can say the following about the uranium that came from Y-12 over Pine Ridge:

There was definitely was some as the Scarbpro uranium is slightly enriched. More so on Pine Ridge than near the homes.
There wasn't very much as the Scarboro uranium levels are at the back ground level and the is no evidence of an air plume in the Y-12 fly over data.
The percent of residential uranium in Scarboro coming from Y-12 can be crudely estimated from the measured enrichment and assuming the enrichment of the uranium leaving Y-12. The results for the residential area are:

Assumed Y-12 enrichment	5 %	20 %	95 %
Resulting Scarboro percent	3.5	0.8	0.2

These are well within the variation of background levels.
It should also be pointed out that U-238 and Th-232 are the least radioactive element known having half-lifes of 4.5 billion years and 14 billion years.

The Uranium that came over the hill is not a health problem.

Were the Scarboro Soil Samples Taken Properly?

There are many purposes for taking soil samples. Some are:

Purpose Sampling Method

Determining the worst possible risk to human health. Sample the surface at locations likely to be the worst spots, called high-side biasing.

Finding the average human exposure to the contaminant. Sample the surface at random locations

Finding the total amount of contaminant in an area. Take core samples at random locations

To compute valid averages and total estimates the samples must be random or the calculated estimates are not the best.
Human exposure comes from the top layer of soil (about 3 inches) taking into account ingestion, dust, contact or vegetables.
To get a worst-case result, the locations most likely to have the most contaminants.

Most Scarboro concerns seemed to be about health problems, so high-side biased sampling of the top layer was quite appropriate but it does preclude a comparison to areas that were randomly sampled. However, since Scarboro levels were within the range of background and below levels of other areas, this does not cause any problems.

The one question the study did not answer directly was the question of environmental justice, However it is very improbable that other Oak Ridge areas are significantly below background and thus below Scarboro levels.

Yes, Scarboro soil samples were properly taken to meet the purpose.

"This Is A Clear Case of Environmental Racism"

This is not a well-defined statement. The NBC News segment (Feb 1998) in which it occurs contains a number of errors or misleading statements.

1) It identifies the community as Scarboro, TN but it is the Scarboro community in Oak Ridge, TN

2) It states the Y-12 Plant was built in the 1950s. Fact: It was built in the 1940s.

3) It states that, at that time the plan was built, blacks were forced to live practically next to the Y-12 Plant. Fact, during the war when the plant was built, the black hutments were in what is now Woodland about one mile from the Plant. Gamble Valley (now called Scarboro) contained white hutments and trailers and was closer to the plant. The homes for the black residents replaced the white hutments as a segregated community in the early 1950s by the army.

4) The newscast suggests that seeps and streams have contaminated Scarboro. Fact: All the soils, sediments and water data at the time of the newscast (and since) were known to be well within the range of background. The contaminated stream, LEFPC, lies about 3000 feet from Scarboro and about 40 feet below it. It did not contaminate Scarboro but did contaminate other predominately white areas. The water flow in Pine Ridge was known to be mostly down the rock layers back towards Y-12. The polluted ground water in the Bear Creek Valley was known to be on the far side away from Scarboro.

5) One of the children shown by NBC who had asthma was known to have had asthma before moving to Oak Ridge. A study by the Center for Disease Control found there was not an excess number of respiratory diseases in Scarboro.

Whatever "This" Is, It Is Not a Case of Environmental Racism.

But the construction of a segregated community was morally wrong.

Purpose	Sampling Method
Determining the worst possible risk to human health.	Sample the surface at locations likely to be the worst spots, called high-side biasing.
Finding the average human exposure to the contaminant.	Sample the surface at random locations
Finding the total amount of contaminant in an area.	Take core samples at random locations