ML20198S704

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Extends Invitation to Attend Next Meeting of Iscors Sewage Subcommittee to Be Held on 981202.Purpose of Meeting to Discuss Progress on Various Tasks for Sewage Sludge/Ash Survey Project Including Dose Modeling
ML20198S704
Person / Time
Issue date: 12/16/1998
From: Mo T
NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES)
To:
NRC
References
NUDOCS 9901110399
Download: ML20198S704 (9)


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n u:u fl l p k UNITED STATES g j NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION o A" WASHINGTOPs, D.C. 20Swo001 s,...../ December 16, 1998 l

Dear Members of the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee:

You are invited to attend the next mSN% [8EMbbSewage Subcommittee to be held on December 2,1998, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The meetingyill be held at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Forrestal Building,10098nd@@r&n4Debue, Washington, D.C. in conference room number 4E-069. (You may call James Bachmaier of DOE for directions at 202-586-0341). If you plan to participate by telephone conference call, the bridge nurnber for this ,

Subcommittee meeting will be (334) 270-3461 The purpose of this Subcommittee meeting is to discuss progress on various tasks for the sewage sludge / ash survey project including dose modeling and the writing of the guidance document for the POTW operators. An agenda for this meeting and the summary of the last Subcommittee meeting on November 10,1998 are enclosed.

I look forward to meeting with you on December 2,1998. If you have any questions about the ,

meeting agenda please call me at (301) 415-8151 or Robert Bastian at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at (202) 260-7378.

Sincerely,

'~

s Tin Mo, Ph.D.

Environmental Health Physicist Nuclear and Radiochemist Radiation Protection and Health Effects Branch Division of Regulatory Applications Office of Regulatory Research

Enclosures:

As stated I' I

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9901110399 MG 981216 nwa NREB gg 9_ G

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ISCORS SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE AGENDA FOR DECEMBER 2,1998 MEETING SEWAGE SURVEY (9:00 A.M. TO 10:00 a.m.)

- Reference Radionuclide Document (Mo, Bachmaier)

- POTWs for Questionnaire (Bashan)

DOSE MODELING WORK GROUP (10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.)

- Briefing on accomplishment and follow-up actions of 10124/98 meeting at D.O.E.

Headquarters (Mo, Hoffmeyer, Bachmaier, Powers, Setlow, et al.)

BREAK (10:30 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.)

POTW GUIDANCE DOCUMENT (10:40 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.)

- Status of work on Guidance Document (Sobel)

(1) Task Action Plan, (2) Techlaw Work Assignment, (3) Responses to Public Comments on May 1997 draft guidance, and (4) Comments on Techlaw's September 30,1998 draft guidance, (5) AMSA Guidance FUTURE / FOLLOW-UP ACTION ITEMS (11:50 a.m. to noon)

- Summary of action items (Mo, Bastian lead with cooperation from others)

Schedule next Subcommittee meeting (Mo, Bastian lead with help from others) 1 l

.. 4 DISCLAIMER This ISCORS Subcommittee meeting summary resulted from interagency discussions. The Sewage Subcommittee is composed of representatives from the Environmental Prottation Agency Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, the l

State of New Jersey, the City of Cleveland and the County of Middlesex, New Jersey. The Subcommittee meeting summary has not been approved by the respective federal agencies and does not represent the official position of any participating agency at this time.

ISCORS SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING

SUMMARY

Date: November 10,1998 Time: 9:00 a.m. to noon Location: U.S. Department of Energy, Forrestal Building, Washington, D.C.

Attendees: NRC: Tin Mo, Phyllis Sobel, George Powers, Lee Abramson, Thomas O'Brien EPA: Robert Bastian, Behram Shroff, Loren Se' tlow, Dale Hoffmeyer, Mark Doehnert EPA /NAREL: David Saunders, Mary Wisdom, Scott Telofski DOE: James Bachmaier DOD: Roy Lovett  ;

POTW Representatives: Thomas Lenhart/NE Ohio Regional Sewer District, l Cleveland, Ohio, and Kevin Aiello/ MCUA, New Jersey.

Agenda: Sewage Survey Project Guidance Document Reference Radionuclide Dncument Dose Modeling Work Group Activities l

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,. r Summary-Behram Shroff started off the meeting with his discussion of NAREL's response to NRC comments on the laboratory report, which presents the results of the analysis of radionuclide concentrations in sewage sludge and ash samples collected from the 9 test sites or POTW's.

It appears that there is a lack of configuration and nomenclature centrol and tracking of the various versions of several documents that are being generated by the project and that this I created some confusion for many of the committee members as to which particular document or version of these documents are (or were) being referred to during the Subcommittee ,

meetings and in e-mail messages. NAREL staff asserted that the document jointly prepared by l NAREL and ORISE laboratory staff that presents the results of the survey of the 9 test sites is i the Laboratory Report and that they have been working on it since the summer of 1997. NAREL staff also stated that for allintents and purposes, they completed this laboratory report on February 17,1998, and that it is up to the Subcommittee to prepare the final public release document by incorporating comments from NRC staff and other reviewers of the report.

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Phyllis Sobel of NRC stated that NAREL has not incorporated most of the NRC comments on '

the report, and ORISE needs to concur on the report. NAREL staff reminded Phyllis that they had provided the reasons in writing (in e-mail dated November 9,1998) as to why they did not incorporate most of the NRC comments, which were prepared primanly by Anthony Huffert. The Subcommittee decided that NAREL should finalize the Laboratory report, and Behram Schroff should distribute the report by November 16,1998.

Phyllis asked the subcommittee for comments on the draft report entitled " Joint NRC/ EPA Sewage Survey. Survey Design and Test Site Results"(also referred to by the subcommittee as the Public report). The Public report summarizes the survey design and the results from the '

nine test sites; this report will be available through the Internet on the EPA home page. The Subcommittee decided that the Laboratory report and the Reference Radionuclide document should be completed by the end of November 1998. The Reference Radionuclide document should be attached to the Public report, which will be given to the full ISCORS Committee at their meeting on December 10,1998.

The Subcommittee discussed how the Laboratory report and the Public report would be released. The two reports will be able to satisfy the interests of most nontechnical and technically trained readers; the lab report would likely only be requested by highly trained or interested parties.

Kevin Aiello and Tom Lenhart, the POTW representatives from the Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) in New Jersey and Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) in Ohio, expressed concerns about the potential ramifications of the national sewer survey to POTWs, including liability and public acceptance of the c"sposal/use of sewage sludge. They also reported on the efforts of the National Biosolids Partneships and AMSA in preparing a letter of recommendation regarding participation in the survey. In addition, a National Biosolids Partnership Guidance Document is being prepared and should be distributed to POTWs in January 1999. This document is intended to assist POTWs in making self-evaluations of the level of radioactivity within their systems, and steps that can be taken to reduce such a levelif 3

i necessary.

{ The Subcommittee considered three options for finalizing the September 11,1998 draft of the i Reference Radionuclide document, namely, expansion, contraction or leaving it as it is. Tin Mo

reminded the Subcommittee members that the Subcommittee had decided during the October i 13,1998 meeting that for the document to be technically sound and defensible, the tables in the current draft of the document need to be revised based on more current data and information concerning the concentrations of radionuclides in U.S. background soils and consumer products j such as fertilizers and building materials. More recent and authoritative references such as the

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1997 edition of " Environmental Radioactivity" by M. Eisenbud and T. Gesell should be used rather than using concentration values which are back calculated from exposure or dose rates

) from NCRP report number 94 of 1975 vintage. Based on this discussion, the Subcommittee j decided that Tin Mo and James Bachmaier of DOE tMi work on generating the updated and revised tables by the end of November 1998, prior to the Subcommittee meeting on December

2.1998.

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Mary Wisdom of NAREL and Loren Setlow of EPA Headquarters briefed the Subcommittee on the status of the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for the full sewer survey. Tin Mo

! inquired if the comments from NRC on the QAPP had been addressed and incorporated into the i QAPP. The Subcommittee agreed that Mary Wisdom should once again e-mail the current i

version of the QAPP to all the Subcommittee members and identify the additional information she needs to finalize the document.

Loren Setlow introduced Dale Hoffmeyer of EPA's Center for Risk Modeling and Emergency Response who will replace him as the new EPA Co-Chair for the Dose Modeling Work Group.

Dale informed the subcommittee that he will schedule a meeting on November 24,1998 at DOE headquarters and passed out a draft agenda to be used for that meeting for review and comment. The main items on the agenda included review, discussion and concurrence on the draft objectives of the dose modeling workgroup, and discussion of a draft plan to achieve those objectives. Techlaw will provide technical assistance for this work. The work group will consider scenarios, and exposure pathways used for the Mchnical support document for EPA's Biosolid Rule,40 CFR Part 503 and for NRC's NUREG/CR-5814, " Evaluation of Exposure Pathways to Man from Disposal of Radioactive Materials into Sanitary Sewer Systems" and NUREG-CR-6289, " Reconcentration of Radioactive Material Released to Sanitary Systems in Accordance with 10 CFR Part 20" The dose modeling effort it intended to produce screening levels for radionuclides in sewage sludge and ash based on different disposal and use scenarios.

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' Summary of Action items

1. Laboratory Report

- Prepare cover letter to release / send out the final laboratory report (Saunders)

- ORISE to concur on final report

- NAREL to send finalize report to EPA Headquarters (Saunders et al.)

- Bastian to present report to full ISCORS Committee on December 10.

2. Public Report

- Complete and finalize by December 1,1998 (Sobel)

3. Reference Radionuclide Document Tables

- Prepare revised, updated and reformatted tabim by December 1,1998 for Subcommittee review and discussion at December 2,1998 meeting and prior to finalizing (Mo, Bachmaier).

4. Guidance Document

- A. Update task action plan based on Subcommittee discussions (Sobel)

- B. Circulate Draft Statement of Work (SOW) for Techlaw contract to subcommittee by 11/13/98 (Shroff)

- C. Send review comments on SOW to Shroff by 11/20/98 (All)

- D. Prepare responses to public comments on May 1997 draft guidance (All)

5. Letters to Agreement States

- Send letters to water quality program directors in Agreement States (Bastian)

6. Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP)

- Identify remaining inputs needed from the Subcommittee and circulate QAPP to Subcommittee members (Mary Wisdom)

7. Schedule and conduct Dose Modeling Work Group meeting to jump start modeling work (Hoffmeyer with help from work group members)
8. Send letters to Nine Test Sites, POTWs with results of their sample rnalyses and lists of licensees (Bastian)
9. AMSA Guidance Document / Letter:

- Complete and finalize Guidance Document for release by January 1999 (Lenhart and Aiello)

- Circulate AMSA/ Water Environment Federation (WEF) letter for POTWs supporting full survey effort (Lenhart and Aiello).

Itams to be provided to full ISCORS Committee at next meeting (10Dec1998).

- Final Lab Report on Nine Test Site sample rest.its

- Final Public Report on survey and test sites (mth Draft Reference RadSquclide Document) l - FOIA Strategy

- Current schedule 5

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ISCORS Sewage Sabcommittee Distribution: December 16, 1998 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Robert Bastian ATTN: Tin Mo Office of Wastewater Management (4204) Mail Stop T-9C24 401 M Street, S.W. Rockville, MD 20555-0001 Washington, DC 20460 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Phyllis Sobel ATTN: Anthony M. Huffert Mail Stop. T-7F27 Mail Stop. T-7F27 Rockville, MD 20555-0001 Rockville, MD 20555-0001 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Robed Nelson ATTN: Lee Abramson Mail Stop. T-7F27 Mail Stop T-10E50 Rockvibe, MD 20555-0001 Rockville, MD 20555-0001 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Tom O'Brien ATTN: George Powers Mail Stop O-3C10 Mail Stop T-9C24 Rockville, MD 20555-0001 Rockville, MD 20555-0001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ATTN: Loren Setlow ATTN: Behram Shroff 401 M Street, S.W. - ORIA (6602J) 401 M Street, S.W. - ORIA (6602J)

Washington, DC 20460 Washington, DC 20460 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Environmental ProtectJon Agency ATTN: Deborah Kopsick ATTN- Mark Doehnert 401 M Street, S.W. - ORIA (6602J) 401 M Street, S.W. - ORIA (6602J)

Washington, DC 20460 Washington, DC 20460 Roy Lovett U.S. Env ronmental Protection Agency Directorate for Safety and Engineering ATTN: Alan Rubin ATTN: MCHO-SHE 401 M Street, S.W. - OST (4303)

Building 1500. Ft. Detrick Washington, DC 20460 Frederick, MD 21702 6

U.S. Department of Energy NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection ATTN: James Bachmaier ATTN: Dr. Jill Lipoti, Assistant Director for Mail Stop EH-412 Radiation Protection Programs 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W. Division of Environmental Safety, Health Washington, DC 20585 and Analytical Programs - CN 415 Trenton, NJ 08625-0415 Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education U.S. Environmental Protection ATTN: Dale Condra Agency /NAREL P.O. Box 117 ATTN: Dave Saunders Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117 540 South Morris Avenue Montgomery, AL 36116 U.S. Environmental Protection U.S. Environmental Protection Agency /NAREL Agency /NAREL ATTN: Mary Wisdom ATTN: Scott Telofski S40 South Morris Avenue 540 South Morris Avenue Montgomery, AL 36116 Montgomery, AL 36116 NE Ohio Regional Sewer District Middlesex County Utilities Authority ATTN: Thomas E. Lenhart ATTN: Kevin Aiello 3826 Euclid Avenue P.O. Box 159 Cleveland, OH 44115-2504 Sayreville, NJ 08872 7

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1 s ,

l December 16, 1998 1.

Dear Members of the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee:

You are invited to attend the next meeting of the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee to be held on December 2,1998, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The meeting will be held at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Forrestal Building,1000 independence Avenue, Washington, D.C. in conference room number 4E-069. (You may call James Bachmaier of DOE for directions at 202-586-0341). If you plan to participate by telephone conference call, the bridge number for this Subcommittee meeting will be (334) 270-3461.

The purpose of this Subcommittee meeting is to discuss progress on various tasks for the sewage sludge / ash survey project including dose ;andeling and the writing of the guidance document for tFc POTY ' operators. An agenda for this meeting and the summary of the last Subcommittee meeting on November 10,1998 are encrosed.

I look forward to meeting with you on December 2,1998. If you have any questions about the meeting agenda please call me at (301) 415-8151 or Robert Bastian at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at (202) 260-7378.

Sincerely, Original Signed By:

Tin Mo, Ph.D.

Environmental Health Physicist Nuclear and Radiochemist Radiation Protection and Health Effects Branch Division of Regulatory Applications Office of Regulatory Research

Enclosures:

As stated Distribution:

Central Files I.. Abramson PDR T. O'Brien RPHEB R/F R. Johnson J. Hickey P. Sobel C. Trottier G. Powers DOCUMENT NAME: g:\mo\sewmtg.nte To recewa a copy of this document indicate en the box "C" a copy without attacnment/ enclosure B" = copy with attachment / enclosure. N" = No copy OFFICE: DRA/RPHEB O DRA/RPHEB- -

NAME: TMo;nb Q CTrottier DATE: 12/ /C/98 12// 698 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY RES FILE CODE NO.:

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