All,
It was EPA's Research & Development Scientists who in 2003 shared with our citizens' group crucial radiation testing information regarding how they had tried many years to stop USEPA's rad division, NAREL / John Griggs, from continuing to use the EPA Finished Drinking Water 900 Methods on dumpsites like Uniontown IEL, saying they " all knew at EPA it was wrong" - that this method was never meant for raw water samples - that it could lead to grossly under estimated or missed altogether the radiation results.
Some of those experts even courageously went to the US EPA Inspector General involved with investigating our IEL's radiation that included plutonium, Tc 99, radium and tritium, but even the IG would NOT listen to their own experts! Moreover, instead of consulting with DOE's RESL lab at INL in Idaho, (a Dingell letter to DOE's Bodman, '07) had called the RESL the " reference lab" for NRC and EPA agencies. No, EPA IG chose to circumvent our nation's best and brightest resources and went out of the country for radiation testing advice. We learned later that DOE's RESL's top radiochemist completely concurred with US EPA's R & D.
It appears with this NYTimes story that the "powers that be" now have made absolutely sure that those seeking "best available science" are gone. The research and development scientists who clearly stood on the front lines in their effort to carry out their oaths at EPA - to protect the health of American families, our precious children - from both enemies from without, but also, from within. How many more cancers, children with Leukemia, will result?
Chris for Concerned Citizens of Lake Twp./Uniontown IEL Superfund Site, Ohio: