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State officials are trying to ease the fears surrounding plans to dump 12,000 cubic meters of uranium-contaminated ash in a landfill used for regular household waste.

State Rep. Joe Petrarca, D-Vandergrift, has arranged a meeting today between state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty and residents opposed to the plan for the radioactive ash from long-closed Armstrong County nuclear fuels processing plants. The residents want the ash taken to a low-level nuclear disposal site instead of an Elk County municipal landfill.

The ash was contaminated between 1977 and 1984 by wastewater from plants in Apollo and Parks Township. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovered uranium in the ash during a 1993 survey of the former treatment lagoon in Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County. The NRC posted nuclear radiation warning signs around the lagoon and ordered the Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority not to remove the ash.

In 2005, the NRC surveyed the site again. Instead of measuring the contamination in the lagoon ash, the agency measured the radioactive dose a person would receive if exposed to the material.

Saying the exposure would be within acceptable standards, NRC officials declared the ash "unregulated" and asked the DEP to oversee the site's cleanup.

In the fall, residents opposed to the disposal thwarted a plan to dump the ash to a municipal landfill in East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County. Last week, the Kiski Valley sewage authority tried again, opening a new set of bids from trucking companies and landfills willing to handle the ash.

Elk County officials said the ash is likely headed to Onyx Greentree Landfill in Fox Township.

"Anytime you say radioactive, people's ears perk up," said Bekki Titchner, Elk County recycling coordinator who also oversees solid waste issues there.

"Basically, we're telling people they have to trust what the state and federal government is saying."

Because state and federal agencies regard the lagoon ash as no different from the 4,000 tons of household waste dumped into the Onyx Greentree Landfill everyday, local authorities can do little to stop it, Titchner said.

Tom Haley, of Allegheny Township, a retiree who worked for 11 years at the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. in Apollo as a nuclear scientist, said activists fears' about contamination are unwarranted.

"Radioactivity is everywhere," Haley said.

People encounter radioactivity when getting an X-ray or going into the sunshine, he said.

Haley said the fly ash from coal-burning power plants also is radioactive and is commonly used in building materials.

A 1997 study by the United States Geological Survey showed coal ash averages 10 to 30 parts per million of uranium. The ash in Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority's lagoon has 12 to 425 parts per million.

Taking the lagoon ash to a low-level nuclear waste site would be needlessly expensive, Haley said. The authority plans to spend about $900,000 to move the ash to a municipal landfill. Shipping it to a nuclear-waste site could cost as much as $17 million, said one nuclear-waste expert who helped to clean up contaminated soil from other sites.

Haley and Petrarca said residents should trust government scientists to know how much exposure is safe.

Leechburg resident Patty Ameno, who has led the campaign against the dumping, wants DEP to rescind its permit for the ash removal plan, due to start in May. She also hopes to enlist Elk County residents to protest the disposal plan.

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