Hanford Site background: Part 1, Soil background for nonradioactive analytes. Revision 1, Volume 1

Technical Report · Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10175047· OSTI ID:10175047

The determination of soil background is one of the most important activities supporting environmental restoration and waste management on the Hanford Site. Background compositions serve as the basis for identifying soil contamination, and also as a baseline in risk assessment processes used to determine soil cleanup and treatment levels. These uses of soil background require an understanding of the extent to which analytes of concern occur naturally in the soils. This report documents the results of sampling and analysis activities designed to characterize the composition of soil background at the Hanford Site, and to evaluate the feasibility for use as Sitewide background. The compositions of naturally occurring soils in the vadose Zone have been-determined for-nonradioactive inorganic and organic analytes and related physical properties. These results confirm that a Sitewide approach to the characterization of soil background is technically sound and is a viable alternative to the determination and use of numerous local or area backgrounds that yield inconsistent definitions of contamination. Sitewide soil background consists of several types of data and is appropriate for use in identifying contamination in all soils in the vadose zone on the Hanford Site. The natural concentrations of nearly every inorganic analyte extend to levels that exceed calculated health-based cleanup limits. The levels of most inorganic analytes, however, are well below these health-based limits. The highest measured background concentrations occur in three volumetrically minor soil types, the most important of which are topsoils adjacent to the Columbia River that are rich in organic carbon. No organic analyte levels above detection were found in any of the soil samples.

• Research Organization: USDOE Richland Operations Office, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-87RL10930
• OSTI ID: 10175047
• Report Number(s): DOE/RL-92-24-Vol.1-Rev.1; ON: DE93017682; TRN: 93:018005
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Apr 1993
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
HANFORD RESERVATION
SOILS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SAMPLING
CONTAMINATION
INORGANIC COMPOUNDS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COMPILED DATA
BASALT
ELEMENTS
TRACE AMOUNTS
REMEDIAL ACTION
052000
540220
054000
WASTE MANAGEMENT
CHEMICALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
HEALTH AND SAFETY