By Bill Gunther, Manager
Environmental Restoration Division
In the last three years, and especially in the last two months, we at the Environmental Restoration Division have received many calls from folks interested in our cleanup activities. With this, our first newsletter, we intend to be more responsive to your questions and concerns about environmental cleanup at Brookhaven National Laboratory. I hope that through channels such as this, you will receive helpful information about the environment - a subject important to all of us.
Over the last several years, our office has worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to make substantial progress in addressing the environmental issues resulting from practices considered acceptable 20 or 30 years ago. For example, we have removed under- and above-ground storage tanks, and capped a large, inactive landfill.
Currently, this office is conducting nine projects related to the elimination of possible sources of contamination and to the evaluation of groundwater quality. As part of the Superfund process, we issue reports and hold public meetings to update you about the status of these various projects. This newsletter should help us better in form you about these projects and meetings, and do so on a more frequent and less formal basis.
I am proud of the progress made in the environmental restoration program and by the efforts of our staff. We are a dedicated group of people who take our job seriously and are committed to the efficient, effective and successful completion of the cleanup work at BNL. This newsletter will also share the backgrounds of the people responsible for environmental restoration projects here at the Lab.
As always, we encourage your questions and comments about this newsletter, the cleanup program, or any of the ongoing projects. Thanks very much.