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Community Liaison Council Meeting Minutes
November 15th, 2007; 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Visitor Information Center, Building 45 (Natcher Building)
Conference Room D
National Institutes of Health

CALL TO ORDER & ANNOUNCEMENTS—Dennis Coleman & Ginny Miller, Co-Chairs

Mr. Coleman opened the meeting and made the following announcements:

  • Today, Ms. Hildebrand pointed out a broken or otherwise open grate at the South Dr. exit which is dangerous for bikers. In what appears to be a record NIH response, Mr. Coleman traded emails with Lynn Mueller and the problem was identified and addressed within hours.  Mr. Mueller reports that a trench drain grate was indeed broken and another grate was cracked. Replacement grates have been ordered.  In the meantime, the grates will be temporarily repaired until the replacements arrive.
  • November 14, between 12:50 and 2:30, all gates at the National Naval Medical Center were closed in response to a security alert. This snarled traffic in the area.
  • NIH undertakes and sponsors complex biomedical research, and people don’t always recognize how the results are used in practice outside the NIH fence.  On 11/13/07, The Examiner published a “3 Minute Interview” with Dr. Keith Horvath, Chief Surgeon of NIH’s Cardiac Institute at Suburban Hospital.  He gave concrete examples of NIH research being practically applied.  In one example, stem cell therapy is nearing application for direct injection into human hearts to stimulate regenerative capacity.  In another, high resolution MRI is being used to operate on the heart remotely with such precision that physicians can now replace an aortic valve in minutes instead of hours and without major surgery.
  • Mr. Mueller will be able to present recent photos of new plantings along MD355 at the December CLC meeting. [Editors Note: This is an appropriate success story for the holidays.]  Mr. Wilson added that the current phase of landscaping to better screen the CVIF began yesterday (11/14) with dozens of medium-sized shrubs being placed to supplement existing ones. This phase should be done by the end of the month.  A final phase is scheduled for the spring.
  • On December 1, Montgomery County will sponsor a winter family concert at the American Film Institute in Silver Spring. The concert will involve many acts, including the Army Band.  It is free, but you must have tickets, which just became available from the County Recreation Department web site and won’t last long.  The AFI phone number is 301-495-6720.

ENVIRONMENT—Don Wilson, Chief, DEP Waste & Resource Recovery Branch, ORF
Follow-up on Medical/Radioactive/Chemical Waste Management

NEMS, the NIH Environmental Management System (discussed at the October 18 meeting) isn’t changing the way NIH manages hazardous waste, nor the amount generated or delivered for processing. The primary NEMS goal is to minimize the amounts of conventional waste generation by recycling, a goal attained through education of the waste-generators. They are educated and encouraged to separate waste into recyclable components, such as lead, paint, verticulum (a component of cement), plastic, paper, metal, cardboard, food, and batteries of all types. 

Hazardous waste processing starts with regular or requested pickups from the waste generators.  Special trucks deliver the waste to the NIH processing facility. Chemical waste is packaged for off-site treatment and disposal at licensed facilities.  If the waste is radioactive, a licensed contractor specialized in radioactive waste takes it to a separate facility for further processing.  NIH is itself licensed by the NRC to generate and process radioactive materials for medical and research use, and is regularly audited for compliance.  The NIH fence line is also surveyed with dosimeters on a regular basis to ensure containment of nuclear materials.

Hospital waste can be recyclable or consumable.  Medical and research waste can be solid, liquid or gaseous.  Some of it can be radioactive or otherwise hazardous in chemical or biological terms. All medical waste, either from patient care or laboratories, is packaged into “burn boxes.”  NIH’s medical waste contractor collects the boxes, bringing them down freight elevators to loading docks where they are put on a truck and taken to the processing facility. About 600 boxes are shipped out per day. One truck remains at the facility, while 2 others circulate collecting boxes for delivery to a separate burn box container. The container is on a trailer.  When full, it is hauled to a permitted Maryland Department of the Environment disposal facility near Baltimore.  All medical waste is screened for radioactivity prior to shipment.

Discussion

  • Mr. Schofer recommended an article in the Yale Alumni Association’s publication on general recycling. He assumes that NIH waste is shipped to the Curtis Bay incinerator—not the same Baltimore facility that has had scandals reported about improper burning of waste.
  • Mr. Coleman said neighbors were vigilant about the area and had noticed and asked about the dosimeters on the NIH fence a few months ago. OCL inquiries had discovered that this was a periodic audit required by the NRC to ensure that there was no off site radioactive exposure. This confirms what Mr. Wilson is saying about NIH’s commitment to regulatory compliance.  Mr. Wilson suggested inviting someone from Bob Zoon’s office to speak further about radioactive waste management if the CLC was interested in more information.
  • Ms. Miller asked about the scope of hazardous waste regulation. Mr. Wilson assured her that NIH complies with both NRC and Maryland hazardous waste requirements.  Mr. Wilson’s organization (NIH’s Div. of Environmental Protection) is regularly audited by NRC for radioactive waste management and the state of Maryland for hazardous chemical and medical waste management. In addition, Montgomery County has business recycling regulations that actually drive recycling efforts by specifying what kinds and how much waste should be recycled.
  • NIH goes further by recycling things like ink jets and toner cartridges and even the plastic pipette-tip racks used by bench scientists. After the plastic racks are ground up (in Building 25), a vender picks up the ground plastic for recycling. They also recycle wooden pallets, in which case a contractor circulates through the campus picking them up and then takes them to a Baltimore facility for reuse. In 2006, for example, NIH recycled 480 tons of wooden pallets. Tyvek suits from animal facilities are also, collected and shipped to a vendor that processes them for reuse.  Remuneration received from toner cartridges and Tykek suits is provided to NIH charities who offer special activities for long term patients (e.g., bone marrow transplant patients who are here for several months).  The NIH recycles rechargeable batteries through participation in the Rechargeable Battery Corporation.  For solid waste, there are some 70 dumpsters on the campus. The contents are hauled daily to the Montgomery County Transfer Station, which is a regulated public facility.
  • The bottom line is that NIH uses EPA-approved and/or licensed procedures, facilities and contractors for all radioactive, medical, and chemical waste. Incinerators and associated operating temperatures are designed to destroy any biological hazards.
  • Mr. Schofer recalled a previous presentation in which it was stated that radioactivity from NIH is not the area’s biggest environmental problem.  It is rather mercuric oxide produced from cremations at a local funeral home which is not even on the NIH campus.  Dr. Ozarin suggested that the group move on.
  • In summary, neighborhood concerns about NIH waste management raised during the 1990s have been addressed although it took a long time.  The full recycling program for example was begun only in 1996.

FACILITIES—Ron Wilson, Acting Director, Facilities Planning Division, ORF
Rte 355 Streetscape Planning Meetings and Next Steps

The Statement of Work (SOW) is done and the contractor has been identified. However, because NIH is operating under a continuing resolution through December 14, the contractor cannot be hired at this time.

At Mr. Wilson’s invitation, Mr Hochman explained that “continuing resolution” essentially means carrying forward with the activities and scope authorized during the previous fiscal year for a limited time.  Expanded activities require the passage of a new appropriation bill, which is still pending before Congress for NIH, as it is for other agencies.  It is not unheard of that agencies have operated for extended periods of time under continuing resolutions.  If that happens this year, the streetscape planning project may be delayed, but given the CLC’s interest, ORF’s preliminary work, and the interest of ORF’s Director, it won’t be forgotten.

In response to a question on how long streetscape improvement planning could take once it got rolling, Mr. Wilson said that, compared to complex facility planning activities, landscape improvement planning  shouldn’t take long.  One external factor is that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) might need to review and approve any significant landscape changes because those could trigger the need for a Master Plan revision. This would not be nearly as large an undertaking however, as previous updates to the Master Plan amendments, such as the 2003 Amendments approved by NCPC in January 2005. 

The streetscape study is limited in scope, the intent being to create an integrated, harmonious look along the MD355 frontage, not unlike what the Navy has in some ways done across the street. This will involve landscaping, vegetation, walkways, lighting, and consideration of the feasibility of placing a berm between the CVIF and MD355.  Pending congressional funding action, everything could be in place to start the project early next year.

South Fence Location
There was some confusion at the last CLC meeting as to the exact location of the south fence relative to plans for future NIH buildings.  Mr. Wilson will bring information and a map of a future Master Plan phase to the CLC meeting next month. Mr. Sawicki thought an animal facility was supposed to be built in the vacant space (now used as a parking lot), but that it is not within 250 feet of the fence, so he doesn’t know why the community can’t use the additional open space. Mr. Coleman advised the CLC that property inside the fence belongs to NIH, and the community members would need to think about the extent of community use of areas already set aside for that purpose or ways to improve it.  Regardless of whether this space could ever be provided to the community, the CLC is interested in the rationale behind NIH’s decision, which is a valid CLC information request.

Data Acquisition Plan on Bench Scientists’ Irregular Work Hours
In response to a request from Ms. Lueders at the October CLC meeting regarding the number of scientists on the Bethesda campus, Mr. Wilson’s office contacted NIH staff responsible for managing the NIH Enterprise Directory (NED), a tool NIH uses to maintain current contact, organizational, and identity information for NIH’s workforce.  He noted that the information identifying “scientific employees” is very general and must be refined.  Doing otherwise assumes that all scientific employees work irregular hours which has been suggested by some.   Mr. Wilson will try to provide the total number of NIH scientific staff at the next meeting. 

Mr. Schofer thought that the degree of detail requested was unnecessary because, in the end, it’s a judgment call as to whether NIH warrants special treatment relative to NCPC’s new target of 0.33 parking spaces per employee for facilities within 2,000 feet of a Metro station.  Again, the information is related to NIH’s position on what constitutes an acceptable parking ratio for the campus.  CLC members are split on whether a lower ratio is preferable in terms of community impact.

Result of NCPC Porter Neuroscience Research Center-Phase 2 Agenda & Memorializing 45-dBA Design Goal
The final design for Porter-Phase 2 went to NCPC, which approved it with no recommendations for change. With the plan in place, NIH can start to implement it, if and when the project is funded.

Discussion

  • Mr. Coleman noted that if design goals are met, this building would be half as loud as the Phase 1 building, which is a real improvement. Mr. Schofer thought that noise from Phase 1 might dominate noise from Phase 2, which is correct. The idea is that Phase 2 will not make existing noise worse.  Future and existing buildings have different noise fixes since the options are more limited when the building is already present and in use.  Mr. Wilson assured CLC members that despite NCPC’s approval of the Phase 2 plans, “final” construction plans for Porter 2 are not in place and that the design team is still working on making the building quieter, as described previously.  
  • Mr. Coleman underscored the community goal of memorializing NIH’s commitment to build a quieter building.  Even though noise reduction wasn’t documented to NCPC, it was documented in a CLC presentation by the Porter-Phase 2 consultant, as well as in his work papers in terms of design goals.
  • Mr. Schofer thought it wasn’t possible to determine the noise being emitted from one building without shutting down the other, and that has not been possible without interrupting NIH operations. Mr. Coleman reminded the group what the noise consultant (Colin Gordon) had said about adding adjacent noise sources.  50 dBA + 50 dBA = 53 dBA, which means that adjacent equal sources do not generate double the decibels.  Moreover, 50 dBA + 40 dBA = 50 dBA, which means that when one source is significantly louder (e.g. Porter-Phase 1), the second source (Porter-Phase 2) doesn’t make the noise worse.  Mr. Wilson suggested bringing back Bob McDonald (now Chief of the Division of Property Management) to address that issue again if the CLC is still wondering about what effect a quieter Phase 2 building will have on community noise exposure.
  • Mr. Coleman said tearing down buildings is not an option to reduce existing noise, nor is shutting down buildings to completely replace air handling equipment.  The goal for new buildings is that future noise should not get worse than it is now.  Porter-Phase 2 will be hard to notice if the consultant meets the objective of 10 dBA less noise. That would achieve the goal with respect to future noise.  This could even be checked with OCL’s noise meter.  It provides an instantaneous snapshot of sound. Since present noise around Porter-Phase 1 has been measured this way, the meter could verify that a quieter Porter-Phase 2 does not make community noise worse.  If the noise is worse, the community would have information to support further study and remediation if it’s reasonable to do so.
  • Ms. Hildebrand was concerned about existing noise. Mr. Wilson said that such questions should be answered by Kenny Floyd, whose Environmental Protection Division funded this year’s noise survey. Kenny’s department will review all noise mitigation measures the consultant identifies as feasible and warranted and determine which if any are reasonable to pursue. Ms. Hildebrand suggested that since Mr. Floyd is so busy with NEMS and other environmental projects, could Mr. Wilson or someone else work on this issue and interface with the CLC.  Mr. Wilson indicated Mr. Floyd’s division was responsible for noise but he would share the CLC’s concerns with him and let Mr. Floyd determine whether he or someone on his staff had sufficient time to continue to work the issue.  If not, the matter might be redirected to someone else within ORF.  When Mr. Schofer said that current NIH noise did not exceed County standards, Ms. Hildebrand reminded everyone that Dr. Zerhouni wrote to Rep. Van Hollen that NIH would undertake reasonable efforts to reduce its contribution to neighborhood noise. She wondered what level of effort NIH would undertake.
  • Mr. Coleman said he thought he could answer that.  NIH staff needs a specific noise reduction goal in order to make progress in this area. It’s simply not effective for neighbors to continually say that they can still hear “something” from the campus, and NIH thus has more mitigation to do.  Based on the Colin Gordon “baseline campus noise map” and the two reports (The Noise Reference & Noise Meter Survey Reports) OCL prepared for the CLC Noise Committee this summer, the recommended goal is for NIH to identify the top 2 to 5 campus contributors to community noise and to reduce noise at those sources by at least 5 dBA.  This means at least a 30% decrease in what human hearing can perceive.  This recommendation needs analysis by NIH staff to see if it’s “reasonable” (i.e. is the noise reduction discernable to the community; is the noise reduction reasonable in terms of NIH cost and operations impact).  Mr. Coleman stated that reducing existing neighborhood noise from at least two NIH sources by at least 5 dBA appears to be in the ball park of “reasonable”, as shown by Suburban Hospital’s recently announced goal to reduce their air handling noise source by 7 dBA.

Emergency Relief Valve Noise

  • Mr. Sawicki reported that the emergency relief valves went off again on November 11. Mr. Coleman said that he has communicated several times this year with the managers of Buildings 35, 37, and 40, one of which appears to be the source.  According to Harvey Eisen who followed the noise on November 11, Building 37 now appears to be the source.
  • To find out why relief valves are tripping every 8-10 weeks, Mr. Clifford will recommend that he and Bob MacDonald look at the situation from a systems perspective. Last week, the co-generation plant released steam in a 20-minute exercise. These are manned boilers (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) that operate at 125 psi steam. What neighbors hear is a steam station that reduces that pressure from 165 to 15 psi. That’s why it’s thumping like a jack hammer.  The people who man the NIH power plant boilers are inside an industrial scale facility and would not know if a relief valve went off at the edge of the campus in the Building 35/37/40 cluster. However, there should be a reason for such a regular, long and localized operation of a relief valve, and if the Building Managers need technical support to figure it out, Mr. Clifford will get some engineers involved.
  • Mr. Coleman will forward Mr. Eisen’s e-mail to Mr. Clifford. Mr. Eisen has been a sentinel for this issue, documenting regularity, duration, and location ever since the first of the current series of events started in December 2006.

TRANSPORTATION—Brad Moss, Communication Officer, ORS

September 20 Follow-up:  Temporary Lot Restoration Status 
Mr. Moss provided information from Transportation Services Manager Tom Hayden.  He has requested the Medical Arts group to produce a special map that will show which surface parking lots have been established in the past and which have been restored to lawn. He will present this information to the CLC once the map is completed.

Increased Congestion Causes
Traffic counts confirm that there has been no increase in NIH traffic, which remains ~30% below 1992 levels, consistent with the MOU NIH has with the NCPC. Occasional NIH events such as the Research Festival or incidents such as a malfunctioning gate or badge reader can and do cause traffic problems, but these are temporary.  Events not associated with NIH may cause backups as well, and can also be temporary, such as this year’s bridge, intersection and resurfacing projects on route 355, yesterday’s NNMC security alert (which closed all NNMC gates for more than 2 hours), and general development up and down the MD355 corridor.

With regard to a recent radio report that a backup on 355 had resulted from a slowdown of NIH gate security, that information was incorrect.  WTOP got it from a commuter, not from NIH.  WTOP has agreed to only accept such information in the future from authorized sources.

Ms. Mazuzan reported at a previous meeting that there had been an unexplained backup on the NIH southbound turn lane into South Drive while she was on the J2 bus.  The bus driver had said it was not a normal occurrence. Ms. Miller said the issue is that the space is too small for buses to turn into the NIH driveway, so they get hung up and block MD355. Mr. Moss said that ORS is aware of this problem, and they have a consultant considering increasing the turn radius into the NIH driveway at that location. When Gateway Plaza opens, visitor traffic will no longer mix with buses and other traffic, and this should help prevent entry backups, just as the CVIF separating truck traffic has helped in that regard.

Since South Drive backups do occur and insufficient bus turning radius is being evaluated as a cause, Mr. Coleman suggested that the CLC periodically receive information on this issue, which he referred to as “The South Drive Bus Turning Radius Improvement Project”.

Cedar Lane Parking by NIH Staff 
The county has been contacted about the increase of cars parking on West Cedar Lane.  Since this is a public county road outside NIH property, resident concerns should be e-mailed to <trafficops@montgomerycountymaryland.gov>, attention Fred Lee. Mr. Schofer says that at least 100 cars are involved and some have NIH employee parking stickers hanging from their rear view mirrors.  This means that these cars are occupying public parking places while the public has no ability to occupy the places NIH has set aside for those employees inside the fence. 

Mr. Clifford suggested that some of the cars could belong to people using Metro who don’t want to pay to park in a Metro lot at another station.  The comment was made that regardless of whom the cars belonged to, anyone can park on public streets that allow it.  Prevention of extended parking would require that the street be posted to limit how long one could park there.  Posting requires affected citizen input to the responsible jurisdiction.

Wilson Drive & MD355 Upgrade
The contractor was on site yesterday and work had resumed.  Since the project only involves signal replacement and relocation and addition of pedestrian crossing indicators without any paving or concrete work being involved, it shouldn’t take much longer, now that it has resumed.

BRAC
At the proper time, Mr. Hayden will arrange for an SHA representative to give a presentation on what MD355 traffic routing changes (if any) are being considered to accommodate new local traffic impacts expected during 2008.  These arise from NIH opening Gateway Center, the County building a retention pond, and continuing increases in BRAC related traffic.  Since BRAC would eventually have a larger and more sustained impact than these other developments, and the BRAC Environmental Impact Statement has not yet been released, it’s too early for SHA to present their response.

Crosswalk at North Drive Entrance
Ms. Volz reported a concern of one of her community members.  The crosswalk near the employee-only entrance at North Drive seems more dangerous than it has to be. Mr. Wilson was unaware of any pedestrian problems at that location. The current design is state-approved because it interfaces with MD355.  Ms. Volz said that somehow drivers still need to be made more aware that pedestrians may be crossing the driveway at that spot, which is right where drivers come off MD355. Mr. Wilson will look at the driveway and determine if a simple fix like a warning sign would help. 

Along the lines of improving pedestrian safety, Mr. Schofer wondered why the crosswalk at Wilson Lane is on the north rather than south side of the intersection.  Mr. Hayden will research the answer.

Mr. Coleman expects that both positive and negative changes in MD355 traffic patterns are likely given impending changes during 2008 such as multiple projects at the same time.  Mr. Moss mentioned that MD355 congestion reflects many factors beyond what NIH does.

SPECIAL PROJECTS—Tony Clifford, Chief Engineer, ORF
South Lawn—NIH/DPWT Coordination & Next Steps
Last month Mr. Clifford met with Arthur Holmes (County Public Works Director) and some of his senior staff.  He reported this at the last CLC meeting. Bruce Johnson, Division Chief for Capital Projects, is now the County’s point person on the South Lawn drainage issue. Since a new drainage pipe could be involved, this seems more fitting than the matter being referred to the Maintenance group.  The NIH team has scheduled a meeting with Mr. Johnson on the site on the South Lawn (at the end of Maple Ridge) for Monday December 3 at 9:00 AM. He invited interested persons to join them.

Mr. Sawicki noted that the lights are out again on the SW path, and since it gets dark earlier now, this concerns neighbors. Mr. Clifford will bring it to the attention of Mr. MacDonald—the path needs to be walked periodically to identify and remedy any maintenance issues.


INFORMATION FORUM—Dennis Coleman, OCL Director, CLC Co-Chair
Miscellaneous Hand-out Items
This month’s packet contains some very informative items, especially those in the BRAC section which summarize information from the October 18 meeting of the governors’ BRAC Subcabinet.

ROUND ROBIN—Ginny Miller, CLC Co-Chair
Comments and Concerns

  • Ms. Rice and Ms. Volz had been impressed by the informative tour of the CVIF in September. Since 9/11, incoming trucks have posed more risk to NIH and the CVIF appears to effectively deal with it. But what will happen to people on MD355 if a truck bomb is stopped at the CVIF and explodes? She suggested that NIH contact bomb experts at Edgewood Arsenal or Aberdeen Proving Ground and at least consider an earthen berm between the CVIF and MD355.  Mr. Wilson will ask the landscape consultant to address the feasibility of building a berm along the road.  It could be looked at in the overall context of the streetscape improvement plan, but he thought that space limitations would present issues. Mr. Coleman has found no federal facility that does not define its perimeter and protect what’s inside it.  NIH is not authorized to extend its perimeter beyond its property, nor spend resources that do not directly or indirectly further its biomedical research mission.
  • Mr. Moss said that NIH inspects commercial vehicles 24 hours per day, but the CVIF is open only during business hours. Off hours, the trucks of concern would enter at South Drive, so the feasibility of berms to protect MD355 traffic 24 hours a day is far from certain.  Now every NIH gate has pop-up steel barricades at both entrance and exit. Even though 9/11 expanded security efforts, much that we see now such as inspecting trucks and any vehicle entering a lot beneath a building, is based on preventing an Oklahoma City type incident. The realistic aim of security is to abate, not necessarily eliminate such an occurrence.  Therefore NIH inspects larger vehicles but not people carrying backpacks, which would not be abated by berms unless they surrounded the entire campus. As it is, the CVIF inspects about 500 vehicles per day and has definitely enhanced campus security during business hours.

Adjournment

Mr. Coleman adjourned the meeting at 6:00. The next meeting is December 20, 2007. 

Attendance

CLC Members Present
Ginny Miller, Wyngate
Marian Bradford, Camelot Mews
Lesley Hildebrand, Huntington Terrace
Darrell Lemke, Bethesda Parkview
Marilyn Mazuzin, Town of Oakmont
Lucy Ozarin, MD, Whitehall Condominium
Eleanor Rice, East Bethesda
Ralph Schofer, Maplewood
Beth Volz, Locust Hill
Steve Sawicki, Edgewood  

Liaison Representatives
Kira Lueders, NIH Alumni Assn.
Joan Kleinman, Rep. Van Hollen’s Office

NIH Staff Present
Anthony Clifford, OCL
Dennis Coleman, OCL
Howard Hochman, ORF
Brad Moss, ORS
Sharon Robinson, OCL
Randy Schools, NIH R&W
Ronald Wilson, ORFDO
Don Wilson, ORFDO


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