On June 15, 2016, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) requested immediate assistance from the U.S. EPA to provide site security, reinforce the boarded up windows, maintain emergency storm water pumping activities and repair emergency generator at the Advanced Medical Systems (AMS) site in Cleveland, Ohio. The Radiation Safety Officer for AMS arrived at the facility on the morning of June 14, 2016 and noticed the facility had been vandalized. The electrical power lines had been stripped and rendered inoperable, the back-up/emergency generators were also not operating. Intruder(s) entered the facility through a boarded up window. Notably, the intruder(s) cut, pulled and disabled the sampling equipment that was at the facility for sampling and testing storm water to be pumped and discharged. A sampling regime in currently in place to provide assurance that surface water in contact with this facility is below a pre-established threshold for cobalt-60 activity before it is discharged to the parking lot. Therefore, sampling and sample screening activities prior to discharge has not been performed. AMS informed the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) simply does not have the means to address the investigative and remedial needs from the vandalism at their facility.
