PIKETON, OH - An internal wastewater discharge flow map from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, reveals a massive and active system that continues to move effluents from various facilities into Southern Ohio waterways — including the Scioto River and both branches of Beaver Creek. But this isn’t just about modern discharges of treated water. During its uranium enrichment prime, radioactive materials were routinely released into the environment, and historical records confirm it.
According to a federal report from 1984, 73.9% of the plant’s radioactive liquid effluent that year was discharged into Little Beaver Creek via the East Drainage Ditch. Another 24.0% was dumped directly into the Scioto River through the Sewage Plant Effluent Pipeline. Nearly all of this radioactive waste originated from the X-705 Decontamination and Cleaning Facilities, where uranium-contaminated equipment was washed down.
These wastes were routed through detention ponds, where lime was added to help settle solids, before merging with surface runoff and other waste streams — and then piped out to local waterways.
The same document states that radioactive waste from the sewage plant was “currently believed to originate in the X-705 decontamination area,” but adds that the exact source was “still under investigation” at the time.
The Network Still Stands
Today’s discharge layout shows at least 10 active outfalls, each channeling waste from specific buildings, contaminated runoff, cooling systems, and holding ponds — including stormwater from demolition zones and legacy uranium processing sites. These outfalls are monitored, but many are tied directly to the same areas that historically released radioactive isotopes, such as X-705, X-333, and X-230J.
Water from decontamination systems, old steam plants, emergency containment basins, and groundwater all flow through internal monitoring stations before being released into the Scioto River or surrounding creeks.
Then and Now: What's Changed?
While the Department of Energy and its contractors now claim all discharges are treated and meet environmental standards, it’s clear from the historical data that radioactive contaminants were regularly flowing into public waterways — and some outfalls still connect to those very same zones.
The system isn’t just managing legacy waste — it’s still actively moving contaminated stormwater, groundwater, and process water from demolition, deactivation, and waste-handling operations.
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