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April 2003
RUSSIANS AND SCARBORO RESIDENTS
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT SOIL, SEDIMENT, & WATER SAMPLING
NEAR THE Y-12 PLANT IN OAK RIDGE
Scarboro is an African-American community in Oak Ridge that is located next to the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. It is the closest neighborhood to any nuclear weapons facility in the country, and consequently, Scarboro residents have faced a disproportionate amount of toxins in their environment (as well as the resulting cancer and other illnesses) from nuclear weapons production. On Monday, April 28th, members of the Scarboro community, along with representatives of the Russian grassroots group "Step Towards" and Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), took soil, sediment and water samples in designated locations chosen by Scarboro residents. The Department of Energy (DOE) has tested for contaminants in the past, but their results have been sketchy at best.
"I have lived in Scarboro my whole life and am proud to be part of a process that I hope will lead us one step closer to explaining all the health problems we have here," said Earnest Hurd, Scarboro activist and an honor student at Roane State College. "We just want some answers about the amount and type of contamination coming from Y-12, right in our back yard. We're looking for what we want, where we want."
Tatiana Schoor is a professional Russian chemist and a head of a public group in Russia who helped with the sampling plan and some of the logistics in Scarboro. "We are here to help our friends who find themselves in the same situation we find ourselves in Russia. We all live very close to nuclear weapons facilities. By choosing the locations and types of contaminants we learn about how sampling works, empowering ourselves with knowledge," said Mrs. Schoor. "Our goal is to provide affected people in this area with technical training on how to collect environmental and health data so that they can improve their situation..."
The group is analyzing samples for beryllium, strontium-90, mercury, cesium-137, isotopic plutonium, and lead. The elements were chosen according to the community's concerns about health related problems and off-site contamination of nuclear weapons production by-products.
The sampling project is a multi-year exchange project sponsored by the Institute for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR). Tatiana and her daughter, Maria Schoor, come from the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals where three closed towns are home to different nuclear facilities.
The lab should have the results of the testing in about two weeks; we will keep you posted as we find out more.
For more information, contact:
Fannie Ball in Scarboro (fannieball@earthlink.net)
Mike Knapp, SOCM (mjknapp@icx.net).
Tatiana Schoor, Step Towards, Russia (fe@chel.surnet.ru)