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Half-way there on Shattuck cleanup

Release Date: 6/28/2004
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      Denver -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the one-thousandth rail car left the Shattuck Superfund Site June 23 carrying radioactive concrete waste to the U.S. Ecology disposal site in Grandview, Idaho. More than 108,000 tons of waste material, measuring 17-feet high in some places on the six-acre parcel of land, have been dug up and shipped out of Colorado during a cleanup effort that began with the first shipment on March 9, 2003. EPA officials estimate that the cleanup is now approximately 50 percent complete.
The long-defunct Shattuck Chemical site operated at 1805 S. Bannock Street, roughly four miles from downtown Denver. Shattuck processed radium, uranium, molybdenum, rhenium and other heavy metals from the early 1920s to 1984. Radiological contamination detected at the site resulted in its addition to the Superfund National Priorities List in 1983.
    Public safety during the cleanup process remains the paramount concern for the EPA. To ensure the utmost safety, the Shattuck monolith is dug up and handled inside mining structures that have air filters to prevent emissions being released into the air. All waste movement is handled inside these structures, to include the final loading into rail cars lined with plastic wrappers that contain the waste material during transportation. The U.S. Ecology facility provides permanent disposal for the Shattuck waste material.

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