Dartmouth Cleanup Plan for Contaminated Site Fully Approved

Dartmouth College has received full clearance to enact their revised cleanup plan of a contaminated site near campus. The Valley News states that following an initial approval by state water regulators last week of a revised cleanup plan of the Rennie Farm lab animal disposal site, state nuclear regulators have given their OK as well.

The Rennie Farm site near Dartmouth College used to be the dump site for several tons of deceased radioactive test animals as part of tests and studies at Dartmouth’s medical school. However, the radioactivity contaminated a private well and even though cleanup was undertaken in 2011, workers recently found waste that had been missed.

So far, around $5 million has been put into the cleanup efforts and the Department of Environmental Services has said that their immediate goal is to remove the extra lab animals that were recently discovered.

Neighbors of the site have demanded a more thorough cleanup and this time, monitoring wells will be installed to keep on eye on the contamination of the soil and water, should there be any more. Officials anticipate this particular cleanup operation to only last a few days.