WANT TO GO BOWLING?
PEGGED meter reading! 400 Xs background radiation reading.
Eight Times (8X) DHS criteria for a radiological 'Dirty Bomb'!


Photographer, James Neiss, Niagara Gazette,
taken Sept. 06, 2006.
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The above reading was taken at the entrance parking lot of the Rapids Bowling Center, 9540 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Niagara Falls, NY.
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Niagara Gazette story--Don't understand WHY officials would "need to check" radiation. It looks pretty "checked" here! Been checked since 1979 or so.
NYSDoH, NCDoH, NYSDEC, USEPA, USDoE, etc... FYI-It's Still Hot.
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Niagara Gazette
September 11, 2006


Officials to check Niagara Falls Boulevard site for radiation

Location will receive multi-agency study; contamination originally identified in late 1970s

By Aaron Besecker
Niagara Gazette


A radiologically contaminated site on Niagara Falls Boulevard previously determined to present no public health risk will be re-evaluated by state officials this week after being confronted with issues raised by a local researcher.

Officials from the New York state Department of Health, Department of Environmental Conservation and the Niagara County Health Department this week will begin a study of the area that includes the Rapids Bowling Center and Dunn Tire, at 9524 and 9540 Niagara Falls Blvd.

In the late 1970s, local and state health officials determined that an area of the rear parking lot behind what is currently the bowling center had radioactive material buried beneath it.

At the time, officials said the contamination presented no threat to public health.

In 2005, the National Academies; National Research Council released a report, known as BEIR VII, which said even low levels of radiation are likely to pose some risk of health effects.

A spokesman for the state Department of Health said last week the site hasn't been evaluated since early 2001.

Former tourism advocate Lou Ricciuti, who has been raising concerns about radioactive contamination in the Niagara area and has created the Institute for Environmental Research and Oversight, pointed to the recent report as reason for concern.

"It's about time," Ricciuti said of the agencies' decision to act.

In addition to the National Research Council report, Ricciuti pointed to other information revealed since the initial evaluation of the property, including information about the role various sites in Niagara Falls played in handling nuclear materials for the federal government.

Because of what he considers to be the agencies' failings, Ricciuti insists there must be third-party oversight of the investigation.

"We're not going to let them do it in the way they have in the past," he said.

Niagara Falls real estate developer Frank Amendola used to own the entire site, but now currently owns just the Dunn Tire site.

He said he had been told by state officials the radiation on site was extremely low level and presented no risk.

The material was left on site was because of costs, as well as a problem finding a place to dispose of it, Amendola said.

Len Pimm of North Tonawanda is co-owner of the Rapids Bowling Center. He said state officials told him there were no health risks at the site and that all he had to do was seal the parking lot.

Pimm had not been told of the impending re-evaluation when contacted by the press on Monday.

In an August 1979 letter, then-State Commissioner of Health David Axelrod described the radioactive material as aggregate material containing "naturally occurring radionuclides."

Health department documents reviewed by the Niagara Gazette indicate concentrations of uranium, thorium and radium had been found.

Officials have described the material as "radioactive slag."

The same 1979 letter from Axelrod promised the state would present a permanent solution for the site material at the conclusion of the study.

Last week, Department of Health spokeswoman Claire Pospisil stressed that the site "does not constitute a hazard from the information that we presently have."
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Then they're not looking at the same information as seen here.
FROM above-
"..told by state officials the radiation on site was extremely low level and presented no risk."

If so, then why this?

"The material was left on site was because of costs, as well as a problem finding a place to dispose of it."
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-- Edited by nuclearlou at 06:32, 2006-09-13