Fw: NECR Update

Sara Jacobs to:

03/09/2010 04:58 PM

Cc:

Michele Dineyazhe, freidasw, “Lillie Lane”, "Jesse Traugott", sric.chris, Andrew Bain, Sheryl Bilbrey, Harrison Karr, Dana Barton, Luis Garcia-Bakarich, Laurie Williams, Clancy Tenley, jane.w.gardner, Lance.Hauer, Randall.McAlister

From: Sara Jacobs/R9/USEPA/US

To:

Cc: Michele Dineyazhe/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, freidasw@juno.com, “Lillie Lane” <hozhoogo_nasha@yahoo.com>, "Jesse Traugott" <jtraugott@dnalegalservices.org>, sric.chris@earthlink.net, Andrew Bain/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Sheryl Bilbrey/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Harrison Karr/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Dana Barton/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Luis Garcia-Bakarich/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Laurie Williams/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Clancy Tenley/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, jane.w.gardner@ge.com, Lance.Hauer@ge.com, Randall.McAlister@ge.com

Hello members of the Red Water Pond Road Community Association (RWPRCA),

I am planning on attending the RWPRCA meeting this Wednesday (tomorrow), March 10 at the UNC building conference room at 6:00 p.m. I hope that many of you and your family members will be there. In addition to a presentation from GE and their contractor regarding the revegetation activities that will be occurring at the end of March/early April, I will be providing a brief report back on EPA activities so that you all are aware of the work we have been doing over the winter. Below I have provided a summary of this information in case some of you are unable to make it to the meeting. Please feel free to share with other members of the community.

Northeast Church Rock (NECR) Interim Removal Action (IRA) StatusAll major earthwork involved in the removal action has been completed. We are aware that this action placed a significant amount of stress on local residents with over 50 residents participating in a temporary housing program. We would like to thank you all for your patience and flexibility which allowed the successful removal and consolidation of approximately 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated material as an interim action to address the potential risk to residents from the site. Both reseeding and installation of fencing around the perimeter will be completed in late March/early April. As described above, GE and its contractor will provide a presentation on these efforts at the RWPRCA meeting this Wednesday evening and will be available to answer questions. Upon completion of these final activities under the IRA, we will forward the associated final reports.

Red Water Pond RoadUS EPA ordered an assessment and conducted a screening to determine contamination levels of the Red Water Pond Road. I have sent preliminary results from those investigations in a previous e-mail on December 29, 2009. Portions of the road exhibited levels of contamination that exceeded the cleanup levels for the adjacent Navajo lands. If not addressed, contamination from this dirt road could

FOIA ex 6, Personal Privacy

FOIA ex 6, Personal Privacy

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recontaminate areas already cleaned up in EPA’s prior response actions. EPA is currently in discussions with GE and Rio Algom, the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) for both the NECR and Quivira Mines, about removal alternatives for as early as the summer of 2010.

Final NECR Remedy - Engineering Estimate/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) StatusBoth at the conference listening session and during the public hearings we heard many of your concerns about ALL of the potential contamination sources that you are living with, including the NECR mine, Quivira mines, mill site, arroyos, Red Water Pond Road, and the groundwater. Further, we have received the strategic planning document of the RWPRCA which addresses potential contamination sources in the area beyond the NECR mine. Rather than move forward immediately with our response to comments and decision on a final remedy for NECR, US EPA and the Navajo Nation agreed that it would be in the best interest of the project and those affected to take some time to re-engage with the community and look at a more comprehensive approach to consider all contamination sources in the area. Therefore, US EPA will be taking this spring and summer to coordinate a series of workshops for your community, beginning with a requested Health and Risk Workshop on the evening of March 30, 2010 (flyer attached below). We are thinking of hosting workshops approximately monthly, covering various issues such as the groundwater, the Quivira Mines, and other desired topics such as those raised above. We will also be coordinating a summer tour of a similar remediated mine with discussions with the affected community. We would like to host a "conceptual planning" workshop in late April/early May to discuss a comprehensive approach to assessing alternatives for all potential areas of contamination and hope to receive significant community input on appropriate workshop topics, creative options for alternatives, additional areas of concern, revising the community involvement plan and process, and more. I will notify you as to the date/time of subsequent workshops, meetings, tours, and other events as they are established.

Financial Resources for the Red Water Pond Road Community AssociationUnder the Superfund laws and regulations, US EPA is required to obtain meaningful input from the affected community into our decision making process. Due to the unique circumstances of the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site and surrounding community, such as the remote location, technical complexity, and language and cultural differences, US EPA community involvement staff are unable to interact with the community as frequently or as substantively as would be necessary to obtain the desired level of participation and involvement from the community without utilizing outside resources. Therefore, we often rely on the structure and resources of the RWPRCA to help with outreach efforts related to distribution of information and documents, translating and disseminating information to the community, reporting on observations of field work that create concerns for community members, and helping to advertise meetings, workshops, or other events that are organized by US EPA. Unfortunately, we do not have a funding mechanism available to provide resources for past activities of the Association, but as we will continue to rely on the Association for this assistance in the future, we have identified funding resources to be put into place to assist the Association with future activities. Additionally, the Association has requested that they have access to their own technical experts to assist with providing meaningful and constructive input when reviewing and commenting on technical documents related to future clean-up activities. Below I have summarized the two funding mechanisms we have identified to help provide the necessary resources to the community for their involvement in the planning process and implementation of clean up efforts. We hope to have these funding mechanisms in place in April 2010.

* Direct Contract with the AssociationThe US EPA has prepared a scope of work itemizing the above activities performed by the Red Water Pond Road Association for which EPA is a beneficiary. The US EPA contracting office will be contacting the Association shortly to provide this scope of work and request a cost proposal and workplan detailing the work required to accomplish these tasks and the associated cost. For budgeting purposes we are planning for resource allocations in the range of $10,000-$12,000 per year.

* Technical Assistance US EPA has an existing contract with the engineering firm, Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc. (ITSI). We are currently able to contribute funding to this contract of up to approximately $25,000 this fiscal year to provide the use of technical experts. An example of some of the activities we would request of ITSI are

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listed below, however, we will work both with ITSI and the RWPRCA to develop a more detailed task order under the contract, specific to the needs of the community.

ITSI Task Examples1) Quarterly Trips to Navajo to meet with the Red Water Pond Road Community Association2) Review Technical Documents and Provide Assistance to the Community in Preparing Comments3) Developing Maps, Fact Sheets, and other Information Requested by the Community

Sara JacobsCommunity Involvement CoordinatorU.S. Environmental Protection Agency75 Hawthorne St. (SFD-6-3)San Francisco, CA 94105-3901Ph: 415-972-3564Fx: 415-947-3528E-mail: jacobs.sara@epa.gov

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Uranium Health and Risk Workshop

Tuesday March 30th, 2010

6:00pm - 8:00pm

Church Rock Chapter House

February 2010

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Participants to Include

Name Organization Medicine ManHenry Tso Association

Andrew BainDaniel Stralka US EPA

Michele Dineyazhe NN EPA

Libby Vianu ATSDR

Dr. Douglas Zang IHS

To Be Determined NNDOH

Johnnye Lewis UNMand DiNEH team DiNEH Project

Churchrock, NM

6:00 - 7pm Panel Discussion with Question / Answer Session

7pm - 8:00 Availability Session Information Tables One-on One discussions

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