| ConcerningOurRiver.com |
| Where Your Concern Is Our Concern |
We not only work here, we live here and we raise our families here. Over the past quarter century, UniTech has employed hundreds of area residents. The safety and well being of the community has always been and remains our first concern.
Founded in 1958, UniTech has a longstanding tradition of putting people and planet before profits. We are ISO 14001 certified—which means we have invested extensive resources to ensure we stay environmentally responsible.
To read about UniTech’s history in Royersford look here.
This website is intended to put UniTech’s discharges into perspective and to explain why the effects on the River and the effects on the public using and enjoying the river are negligible. It is also one of the few ways we have to express to the public that we really do care about the environment and we spend a lot of time and money limiting our environmental impact.
The DEP experienced negative publicity over the events surrounding the disposal of sludge in the Pottstown landfill and the Royersford reed beds at the Tullytown Landfill. The Media characterized the DEP as "Confused" and "Slow Reacting". The bad press was really just a misinterpretation of DEP's measured response to a situation that did not pose any threat to the public. To avoid a repetition of such negative publicity, DEP decided to take a very proactive approach to analyzing and dealing with UniTech's ongoing discharges to the Schuylkill River. DEP decided to sample the River bottom to see if radioactive material could be found, and then having found the expected trace quantities of Radioactive Materials, DEP decided to release the information to the media to avoid any inference that it was not being "up front" with the public.
UniTech welcomes the opportunity to inform the community about its operations, and we feel we have an obligation to the general public, and to our fellow businesses and landowners to control the pitch, the tenor, and the distribution of our messages so that they do not result in undue misapprehension. Our discharges to the Schuylkill River are perfectly safe, and have been in progress since the mid 1970s.
UniTech Services Group, Inc., operates a nuclear laundry and decontamination facility that has been in Royersford, PA, since the 1970s. UniTech bought the facility from a competitor in 1984. The facility receives protective clothing from customers who use radioactive material. UniTech launders the protective clothing to remove tiny amounts of radioactive material. UniTech uses a sophisticated, modern, treatment plant to clean the wash water before discharging it to the Schuylkill River.
UniTech’s operations today are a lot like those that took place before 2004. Today, our wash water goes through a biological treatment plant (UniTech's) and then into the Schuylkill River. Before 2004, our wash water went through a biological treatment plant (the Royersford Sewage Treatment Plant) and then into the Schuylkill River. The only real difference is the location of the discharge point and the fact that UniTech does not discharge treated sewage to the river. UniTech’s sewage still goes to the Borough’s Treatment Plant.
As a point of interest, the Royersford Sewage Treatment Plant outfall is about half a mile downstream of UniTech’s discharge point. Limerick Township’s Sewage Treatment Plant is approximately 1000 feet upstream of UniTech.
Recently, DEP has released public information about UniTech’s release of radioactive material to the River, and also results of DEP’s sampling of the River which have shown expected levels of radioactive material.
Radioactive material can be measured in vanishingly small amounts. The amount of radioactivity allowed to be discharged to the environment by the Commonwealth’s regulations is very small. In the case of water released to the environment, the limits are based upon the assumption that a person drinks the effluent water as his or her sole source of drinking water over an entire year. The regulations allow that such a person could receive no more than 50 millirem. The term “millirem” is a typical unit used to measure the biological effects caused by radiation.
To put DEP’s 50 millirem per year limit into perspective, consider that the average human being in the United States of America receives, on average, an annual radiation exposure of 360 millirem from a variety of sources. For more information on typical sources of radiation and typical annual exposure levels to people see the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Webpage.
Since the beginning of time, people have been exposed to radiation. Radiation comes from the ground around us and from the atmosphere and outer space. It also comes from the food we eat, and since “we are what we eat,” to a very small extent, it comes from within our own bodies. Many people are surprised to learn that if they sleep next to another person they get more radiation exposure than if they sleep alone. The important thing to remember is that people have always been exposed to radiation and that radiation exposure is as natural as breathing.
For more information on radioactive material, see the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Webpage.
Federal and Commonwealth regulations limit public exposure from effluents to 50 millirem per year. UniTech has a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The permit controls what UniTech is allowed to discharge into the Schuylkill River. The permitting process required various government agencies to publish the application in the newspaper and to hold public hearings before issuing the permit. UniTech’s NPDES permit limits discharges of radioactive material to the Schuylkill River to levels that would produce radiation exposures of no more than 4 millirem per year - more than ten times less than allowed under the regulations. The limit calculation is based upon a person who receives the maximum possible dose.
UniTech began discharging water to the Schuylkill River, under the direction of the NRC and DEP, in February of 2004. Although UniTech is allowed to discharge radioactive material that could result in a 4 millirem exposure, UniTech has never discharged enough radioactive material to cause even 1 millirem of radiation exposure in any one year.
The radioactive material limit is measured in terms of exposure to a theoretical maximally exposed individual. UniTech and DEP are using a variation of a dose model called the “resident farmer scenario.” Under this model the farmer obtains 100 percent of his drinking water and dietary intake from fish taken from the river and from vegetables and beef raised on the farm using the river as the sole source of water. The farmer grows crops irrigated with river water and both eats the crops and feeds the crops to animals which he then eats. The farmer is assumed to recreate on the River and to be in the proximity of the river for nearly one-half of all the hours in the year. Thus the farmer is exposed to radiation in every conceivable way, directly, by being near the river, and indirectly by eating animals, fish, and crops grown irrigated with river water and by drinking the water.
The scenario is intended to be ultra-conservative. Only by engaging in all of the above activities, could a person actually be exposed to the radiation doses contemplated in the very low limits assigned to UniTech. The calculations in the model contemplate the exposure to the farmer and his descendents over a very long period of time – upwards of 10,000 years or more to ensure that the limiting exposures are not exceeded now or in the distant future.
UniTech discharges water to the Schuylkill River in batches of about 10,000 gallons of water at a time. UniTech measures the amount of radioactive material contained in each batch, and compares the results to regulatory limits. No tank is discharged unless the concentration of radioactive material is less than the applicable limits. UniTech publishes all of its monitoring results in a required report called a “Discharge Monitoring Report” or “DMR”. According to law, results of all analyses must be reported. The DMR is a public record which is available for review by contacting DEP.
UniTech’s analytical procedures include calibrating instrumentation to standards issued by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST). UniTech also sends samples out to third party laboratories to double check its analyses and it affords DEP the opportunity to obtain and analyze samples of its water at any time.
UniTech is not the only source of radioactivity in the Schuylkill River. There is radioactivity from any number of other sources including natural sources such as potassium (K-40). Since the amount of radioactivity that UniTech discharges is miniscule, the effects are negligible, and should not be a cause for undue concern.
PADEP’s long standing Bureau of Radiation Protection or (BRP) took over regulation of certain radioactive material within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. PADEP’s BRP has taken an interest in UniTech’s discharges to the Schuylkill River and it has sampled sediment downstream of UniTech’s outfall. Sampling by the BRP took place between August and November of 2008. DEP informed UniTech of its sampling results in late November and requested that UniTech perform additional sampling of the riverbed.
In 2009, UniTech obtained over 300 samples of sediment from the Schuylkill River in 4 different sampling events throughout the year. Sampling is continuing through 2010 and beyond. The results thus far show UniTech is in full compliance with regulations and permits allowing the discharge of extremely small and harmless but detectable amounts of radioactive material.
The results of DEP’s sampling were made known to UniTech in November of 2008. At that time, DEP requested UniTech’s voluntary cooperation in obtaining additional samples from the Schuylkill River. UniTech agreed, and performed its own sampling in the river in January.
Results of sampling indicate concentrations of radioactive material in sediment which is consistent with discharges made in compliance with UniTech’s limits. The amount of radioactivity present in sediment is very low and not apt to result in significant radiation exposures to people.
DEP has not taken any action to stop UniTech from discharging very low concentrations of radioactive material to the river, and no such action is expected. UniTech is working with DEP to ensure that such discharges are kept as low as reasonably achievable.
UniTech provides jobs to about 100 employees from the surrounding area. UniTech’s dedicated staff helps to reduce the amount of radioactive waste generated in the United States by enabling the re-use of protective clothing by those engaged in using radioactive material for a wide range of purposes. UniTech monitors both airborne and waterborne radioactivity in the ambient air and drinking water supply in Royersford and UniTech likely would be the first to learn and the first to inform the DEP of any elevations in radioactivity concentrations in the environment. Few other communities share this benefit. In addition, UniTech is a resource, should there be any kind of radiological disaster in the local area. UniTech can provide trained personnel and equipment to help deal effectively with such incidents.
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Last updated:
Thursday, March 5, 2009
9:31 AM