Soil Removal Begins at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory By Calla Cofield, SLAC Today
August 2009

Menlo Park, California --Traffic picked up and a pile of contaminated dirt began to get smaller around the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory campus recently, as the Oakland Project Office of the Office of Environmental Management (EM), began soil cleanup work at seven sites, including the artificial ridge and the lower salvage yard, here.

EM has contracted CPE, a company run by three small business organizations: Cape Environmental Services, Terranear PMC and ECOR Environmental Services that leads the soil removal project. Federal Project Director, Kevin Bazzell, manages the performance of CPE. The removal will continue into the fall until rainy weather forces a stop. Remaining work will resume in the spring.

"People can expect to see earth-moving equipment in areas like the artificial ridge and the bone yard," said CPE Environment, Safety and Health Manager Tim Campbell, who has been working on the project with SLAC personnel for the past year.

"We're working very closely with SLAC security and SLAC ES&H groups to coordinate movement. We're also working with building and area managers so they are well aware of our plans. We'll try to limit as best we can any impact to the site employees." CPE is also working with SLAC's own Environmental Restoration Group to take on the project. "Everyone at SLAC has been great to work with," Campbell added, "and we greatly appreciate their efforts."

The decision to clean up the sites came after a multi-year DOE soil sampling campaign that was so extensive it even took dirt from SLAC flowerbeds. The survey found some non-hazardous contaminants such as motor oil in certain sites, to be removed from the dirt. There are also some heavy metals to remove, notably lead, that has flaked from old shielding blocks.

The DOE Facility Representative Jeffry Parkin emphasizes that none of the contaminants are radioactive, and they do not pose a risk to anyone near these areas, either through the air or water. In fact, he said, workers clearing the soil away are not required to wear chemical personal protection equipment while they work on the sites. "'Cleanup should give the impression of good," said Parkin. "We're taking bad things away." Keeping the campus soil clean is part of the DOE's responsibility in the land lease with Stanford University.

"We'll take more samples and as we find contaminants we'll start to scrape soil off," said Parkin. "If we haven't got it all yet, we go down another few inches. Our samples verify our goals."

Parkin expects that the project will remove 25,000 to 35,000 cubic yards of dirt total. In most areas he expects they will remove eight to twelve inches of soil off the surface, but on the artificial ridge they'll remove about eight feet of depth off the eastern end. It will remain up to Stanford University to rebuild the ridge or not. Nearly all of the removed soil will be "type 2" soil and will go to the Altamonte Landfill.

In 2005, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) placed SLAC under a Waste Discharge Order for the Former Solvent Underground Storage Tank area and this work is being performed to meet the requirements of that order.

The SLAC facility occupies 426 acres of Stanford University property and is leased to DOE. SLAC is a research facility, specializing in photon science, and particle and particle astrophysics research. SLAC was founded in 1962 and has gained international recognition for research and operation of major user facilities in synchrotron radiation science and particle physics. The SLAC facility is operated by Stanford University for DOE.