## ![](media/image1.png){width="1.2291666666666667in" height="1.5902777777777777in"}[Full Board Meeting]{.smallcaps} 

> **T-214**

## Saturday, October 30, 2004

### Draft Minutes 

The Fernald Citizens Advisory Board met from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on
Saturday, October 30, 2004, in T-214 at the Fernald Closure Project
site.

Members Present: Jim Bierer

Katie Brown

> Lisa Crawford

Steve Depoe

> Pam Dunn
>
> Gene Jablonowski

Graham Mitchell

> Robert Tabor
>
> Gene Willeke

Members Absent: French Bell

> Sandy Butterfield
>
> Marvin Clawson
>
> Lou Doll

Designated Federal Official: Gary Stegner

> Bill Taylor

The Perspectives Group Staff: Douglas Sarno

> David Bidwell

Fluor Fernald Staff: Sue Walpole

Approximately 15 spectators also attended the meeting, including members
of the public and representatives from the Department of Energy and
Fluor Fernald.

# Updates and Ex-Officio Announcements

Jim Bierer opened the meeting by thanking those who attended the FCAB
Retreat in September. He expressed the importance of the retreat and of
coming away with a better understanding of the CAB's focus for the next
year. The CAB will focus on things it can affect, and will return to the
dialogue mode that was successful for the CAB in the past. He also noted
it is important to cement the legacy of the FCAB in this last year.

# 

Bill Taylor reviewed a chart of accomplishments that was distributed to
the CAB. There are 28 trains out to Envirocare and 1,798 cubic yards of
waste have been shipped out in 2004. 609,000 cubic yards of waste have
been placed in the On-Site Disposal Facility (OSDF). The clay and liners
needed in the remaining OSDF cells have been installed, and several
buildings and trailers have been removed from the site. A total of 109
acres of the Fernald site have been declared clean by EPA. The DOE
Combined Business Center (CBC) will be stationed in Cincinnati, and a
temporary office will open in Springdale. Jack Craig (DOE-Ohio) will
head the CBC, and Glenn Griffiths has also been assigned there.

At a meeting in Washington, DC, during the week of October 25^th^, Bill
learned that Gene Schmidt at DOE-HQ will be retiring, and that Mark Frey
will be taking over that position. The Ohio field office is shrinking
rapidly, and things will be consolidated as closure nears at Fernald,
Mound, and the Columbus site. The cleanup of the Ashtabula site is
currently in litigation. The West Valley site is scheduled for closure
beyond 2006. They have taken apart the melter, and there are 286
canisters of waste to dispose of.

Graham Mitchell announced that Bill Taylor, Johnny Reising, and Tom
Scneider have been meeting about the Natural Resource Damages (NRD)
settlement and are making good progress. Bill said that they would like
to have a draft settlement package together and forwarded to the
attorneys by the end of 2004.

Gene Jablonowski announced that DOE has submitted a draft Explanation of
Significant Differences (ESD) for off-site temporary storage or
alternate disposal of the Fernald silos waste to the U.S. EPA. The
review of this document should be completed in a couple of weeks. A
public meeting is planned for December 7^th^ regarding this issue.

Lisa Crawford announced that the November 16th meeting on Risk-Based End
States (RBES) is still on for 6:30 p.m. Tom Winston, Jim Saric and Bob
Warther attended the Chicago meeting on RBES in early October. Johnny
Reising said that the Fernald site was asked to submit the final
document to DOE Headquarters by December 1st. There will be minor
adjustments to the document following the November 16^th^ meeting. A
final draft will be distributed to the Board for its review.

Jack Craig announced that LM is continuing to have a presence at the
site and is moving towards transition. He said that they are trying to
frontload as much planning as possible, due to reductions in the site
staff. The biggest issue is the transfer of databases, which include all
of the environmental data.

Dennis Carr announced that FY2005 would be a crescendo year for cleanup
at the site. Safety at the site continues to be good, although there
have been a couple of reportable incidents recently. He said that they
were taking the last hard shell building down, and that trailers will be
demolished soon. Staff will be moved to nearby offices. There will be a
lot of focus on soils and deep excavations this year. There are 180,000
tons of above-WAC (waste acceptance criteria) soil that need to be
shipped off-site this year.

Dennis also announced that Silos Advanced Waste Retrieval (AWR) would
continue, and that the Silos 1 and 2 treatment facility would be brought
to readiness by mid-December. The Silo 3 facility remains on standby.
Removal of waste from Silo 1 has been a big success, operations have
worked smoothly, and they are approximately 45% complete moving waste
out. The sluicing operation is going perfectly. The CAB watched a video
showing sluicing. Dennis explained that there have been some minor
challenges with sluicing operations in Silo 2. When they dug below the
initial bentonite layer in the silo, they also found a thin layer of
harder material that deflected the sluicing water. The layer was tested
and was very close in character to rest of silos waste. It is believed
to have formed when calcium-based material was used to neutralize the
Silos material. The material\--essentially Portland cement\--can be
crushed with one's hand. He explained that they had found a way to
increase the water pressure, which cut through the harder layer of
material. After the silo was originally filled, workers dumped a layer
of contaminated soil on top. As the soil pile was being taken down by
the sluicing, operators found debris such as 2x4s and hardhats. The pump
was stopped by this debris. Dennis explained that they would lower a
"clamshell" on a hoist to pull out the debris. The items will be washed,
and then put in drums.

Dennis explained that the Silos waste was not sticking to walls. He told
the CAB that there are weir boxes on the walls, and they are working to
determine how to remove the boxes and get all the materials out. Steve
Depoe stated that the engineering story should be shared with the public
and with other sites. He said that there are great lessons to be
learned, and that they were performing technological wizardry.

Gary Stegner announced that the Community Reuse Organization (CRO) would
meet on Monday, November 1. It is an organization that encompasses three
townships and school boards and determines how excess site property will
be distributed to the community. Furniture will be dispositioned to a
warehouse off-site, and video editing equipment and sign-making
equipment will go to nearby technical colleges.

Todd Martin gave the CAB a Critical Analysis Team (CAT) update. They
will keep moving on Silo 1, and will continue to address that challenges
with Silo 2. He said that everything still looks solid on Silo 3
facilities. He came to see an integrated test for the Silos 1 and 2
treatment facility, but it was delayed. The CAT plans to return and view
the test in November. Gail Bingham said that the site is removing about
9 tons of material an hour on Silo 1, and that the pump will remove
material at the bottom of the silo to about 1 inch deep.

Lisa Crawford announced that FRESH would hold its twenty-year
celebration on Friday, November 19th. Please RSVP to Lisa if you
received the invitation.

Steve Depoe announced that Fernald Living History, Inc. continues to
build support for an education facility. They will meet with the
Hamilton County Commissioners and a local environmental coalition. He
said that Fernald Living History wants to make sure that DOE has an
overall plan for dispositioning photographs. Steve distributed two
letters. At the next meeting, he wants to explore the Weldon Spring
Interpretive Center. This center was included in Weldon Spring
Institutional Controls Plan.

#### SSAB Chairs Meeting

Graham Mitchell and Katie Brown attended the SSAB Chairs meeting at the
Hanford site in Washington State during the first week of October.
Graham reported that Hanford was amazing, and he stated that tremendous
progress has been made at Hanford. He thanked Todd Martin for helping to
run the meeting. Official notes from the meeting will come from DOE. The
Chairs discussed the issue of waste disposal and the interdependency of
sites in the Complex. Graham reported that the Chairs identified a need
for a National Forum to discuss this issue and drafted a joint
recommendation. The FCAB approved the recommendation.

Bob Tabor announced that Legacy Management would host a National
Stakeholder Workshop on Legacy Management on November 16-17^th^ in Las
Vegas, NV. He would like to attend, but would need to be sponsored. Lisa
said that a large portion of the workshop is focused on workers issues,
but there are breakout sessions that apply to transition plans. Lisa
expressed that the LM team did a poor job of communicating the workshop
information to stakeholders.

# Tour

To get a sense of their sizes and appearance, the FCAB toured the four
trailers offered by DOE for post-closure public education. The trailers
are currently being used by DOE and Fluor Management. Each FCAB member
received a floor plan drawing of each trailer. The CAB also toured the
10,000 square foot warehouse currently being used by the silos project.

# Site Configuration at Closure

Johnny Reising explained some of the potential scenarios of site
configuration at closure. Doug said that by the end of this fiscal year,
the CAB needs to make sure that they are on record on all closure
issues. CAB members suggested that recommendations should include a
statement of general philosophy, in addition to specifics. Doug promised
that all Stewardship related recommendations would be included in the
next mailing to the CAB, so they can review past recommendations.

Johnny explained that the perimeter fencing around the site would be
coming down soon. The removal must begin now because it is part of the
Fluor contract. Johnny noted the areas that need to be secured would
still be surrounded by security fence. Adjacent landowners will have the
option to take over maintenance of the fence sections and have DOE leave
that section in place. Katie expressed the importance of detailed
signage at the site explaining the purpose of removing the fence and
what will happen next. The site should avoid removing the fence and
replacing it with "No Trespassing" signs without explanation. Sue
Walpole explained that every neighbor had been contacted regarding fence
removal.

The FCAB discussed several possibilities for the site post-closure. All
agreed that the warehouse would be the best location for museum style
displays, exhibits, scale models, and other interactive displays and
laboratories. The goal would be to create a compound centered around the
warehouse. The surrounding trailers would serve as offices, conference
and class rooms. Jim Bierer asked if LM would have an office on-site.
Jack Craig explained that they are still evaluating the resource needs.
Responding to a question from the Board, Doug stated that DOE would be
making the grounds keeping decisions based on the available budget.

The CAB also discussed using landscaping techniques to make the trailers
and warehouse feel like an education complex. Lisa stated that they
should use any leftover materials possible to cut down on expenses,
including placing the trailers on the concrete slab from the silos
remediation facilities. Katie asked if a strip of the railroad and a
rail car could be left on the site as an exhibit. Doug asked if a well
and pump head could also be left as an exhibit. He asked the CAB to give
these possibilities some thought.

Johnny Reising said that interim storage of trailers wasn't preferable.
He suggested using the trailers at Security Hill, Oak Grove, or the 23
acres at the site for storage. Lisa said that she believed that Security
Hill would be the best location, and that the trailers should not be
shrink-wrapped. Jack Craig added that LM would be taking over those
trailers and would also prefer not to have them shrink-wrapped.

There were no public comments.

# Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, December 4, 2004, at 8:30
am. The location will be announced.

James Bierer Date

Fernald Citizens Advisory Board Chairman

Gary Stegner Date

Deputy Designated Federal Official