Niagara, N.Y. (WBEN) - The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say they're making progress in gathering soil samples to determine radiation exposure for a number of Niagara County neighborhoods.
"We're continuing to make really great progress in order to understand what's out there and make sure that we're delivering for these communities," said DEC commissioner Amanda Lefton during a visit to the Town of Niagara on Tuesday. "We are all exposed to radiological material. That's not what we're looking for. What we're looking for is elevated levels. We're looking for concentration of that material."
Tuesday's news briefing featured a demonstration of the equipment the DEC and EPA are using to educate the public.
"If you've signed an access form, to understand who might be visiting your home, what that might look like, and make sure that we're we're getting awareness out there," Lefton said.
She adds a hotline is up weekdays from 8 a.m.-to-6 p.m., with people picking up the phone at (518)-712-8279. The DEC can also be contacted by email at necra@dec.ny.gov.
"Starting on Thursday, we're going to be in-person, right here. So we're going to have some of our team members that are going to be here to answer questions, and that is going to be from 3 o'clock to 7 p.m. this Thursday, July 30, Monday, Aug. 3, and Monday, Aug. 10," Lefton said.
Patrick Concannon of the DEC describes some of the equipment to be used.
"We have a GPS-enabled 22, sodium iodide scintillator, that basically means it's a gamma detector, detects gamma radiation. We have it connected to via Bluetooth to a GPS device as well as a tablet. What we're doing is that when we go out to these studies, we want to make sure that we document this appropriately as possible. Make sure that we had defendable data. We collect this information utilizing the instrumentation. It feeds up into the data logger, that being the tablet, and then all the GPS information is collected and also sent to the tablet as well. And that information is mirror is basically synced up together. So then we can take the information, bring it back in the office, and run our analysis," Concannon explained.
He says the representative that will be carrying his backpack will walk through a property, walking tight transects.
"With that, they collect this information, and then that information is brought back to the office. In the office, we'll download the information and plot it out in our geographic information systems and conduct analysis to see if a property warrants further investigation. If a property warrants further investigation, a second visit will be made by field teams utilizing this instrumentation here, which is very similar to this one here, except it counts, it measures radiation and the cellular different units, what we refer to as exposures. That information is then collected, spot checked throughout your property, and that information is recorded and then provided to a EPA risk assessor," he added.
More residents give the OK to access for testing
More residents give the OK to access for testing
