"The Most Radioactive Town in America"
The Standard Chemical Company operated a radium refining mill from 1911 to 1922 on a 19-acre (77,000 m2) plot of land. From 1930 to 1942 the company purified uranium ore. Marie Curie was invited to the United States in 1921 and was given an honorary degree by the University of Pittsburgh, and one gram of radium.
From 1942 to 1957, Vitro Manufacturing Company refined uranium and other rare metals from various ores and onsite residues, government-owned uranium ore, process concentrates, and scrap materials. The government bought the uranium ore from Vitro and used it in the Manhattan Project. Waste from incomplete extraction and other metallurgical processes accumulated during the site's long history. About 11,600 tons of mill tailings were moved to railroad property near Blairsville between 1956 and 1957. In 1959 the Canonsburg Library caught fire and burned to the ground. Many attempts to put out the fire caused the deaths of several citizens. A new library was built and dedicated to David Rhome. After the closure of Vitro, the site was used by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The site was then used by the Canonsburg Pottery Company, operated by the George Family (locally referred to as "The Kennedys of Canonsburg"), for land and clay.
The Canonsburg mill site was designated in the 1978 Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act as eligible for federal funds for clean up. It was the only uranium mill east of the Mississippi River to receive funds. In a $48 million cleanup project, the mill site and 163 nearby properties in Canonsburg were remediated. Residual radioactivity was consolidated into a covered, clay-lined cell at the Canonsburg mill site, which is fenced and posted.
Read more about this topic: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, History
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