Initial Site-wide Groundwater remediation Strategy of the Hanford Site, WA: Its Application, Lessons Learned and Future Path forward
- Nuclear Waste Program, Washington State Department of Ecology, WA (United States)
In 1989, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) formed an agreement to clean up the Hanford Site, located in the state of Washington. By 1995, the three parties developed an initial comprehensive site wide groundwater remediation strategy with a vision to address contaminated plumes of hazardous and radioactive waste. The Hanford Site has more than 170 square miles of contaminated groundwater. Almost half exceeds the state and federal drinking water standards. The plumes are often commingled. The remediation is challenged by limited technologies, poor understanding of conceptual models, and subsurface contaminant behavior. This paper briefly describes the basic principles of the initial strategy, its application, the results of the decade-long operation, and the future path forward. The initial strategy was based on a qualitative assessment to reduce immediate risk to human health and the environment; to support commonly held values of stakeholders, including tribal nations and the public; and to deploy available remediation technologies. Two different approaches were used for two distinct geographic, the river shore reactor areas and the central plateau few miles away. The strategy was to cleanup the major groundwater plumes in the reactor areas next to the Columbia River where chromium, strontium-90, and uranium already entering the river and to contain the plumes of chlorinated solvents and radionuclides in the central plateau. The strategy acknowledges the lack of cost-effective technologies to address the contaminants, and asked DOE to develop, test, and deploy cost-effective alternative technologies wherever applicable. After more than a decade, the results are mixed. While the pump and treat provided a meaningful approach to address certain contaminants, it was too small in scale. Efforts to scale up these operations enhance characterization, and to deployment innovative technologies are progressing; albeit slowly due to budget constraints. A number of innovative technologies were identified to address source control and groundwater remediation across the Hanford Site. In the 10 years since the initial strategy was developed, additional severe groundwater and vadose zone contaminations were discovered under the waste storage tanks on the central plateau and river corridor areas. These problems required changes to the strategy. Changes include complete integration of vadose zone and groundwater characterization and remediation activities and immediate needs for technologies to address the deep vadose zone source areas, as well as thick aquifer contamination - especially for chlorinated solvents and technetium-99. The successes of the initial strategy show that even a strategy based on incomplete information can make progress on difficult issues. The regulatory agencies identified these issues early and provided the needed direction to DOE to move forward with the overall mission of clean up. The cleanup of the Hanford site is a big challenge, not only for DOE, but also for the regulators, to ensure the tri-party agencies achieve the desired goals. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21294706
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-07342; TRN: US10V0233040896
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'07: 2007 Waste Management Symposium - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 25 Feb - 1 Mar 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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