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Title: Ecological assessment plan for Waste Area Grouping 5

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10133270· OSTI ID:10133270

Waste Area Grouping (WAG)5 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory contains 13 solid waste management units (SWMUs) covering a surface area of {approx}20 ha in Melton Valley south of the main plant area. The largest SWMUs are Solid Waste Storage Area (SWSA) 5 and SWSA 5 North. These two SWMUs also contain most of the radioactive contamination. WAG 5 contains two surface impoundments and two intermittent streams; runoff from WAG 5 enters White Oak Creek and Melton Branch. Principal contaminants include fission-product radionuclides and transuranic elements, but trace metals and some organics may also be present. This document describes the ecological assessment that will perform to determine the ecological effects of contamination from WAG 5. This document also supports the baseline risk assessment and subsequent alternatives evaluations for WAG 5. Three specific tasks are incorporated in the WAG 5 ecological assessment: (1) threatened and endangered species surveys, (2) ambient toxicity tests of seeps, stream reaches, and soil that are identified as being contaminant sources, and (3) sampling of wildlife (specifically wild turkeys) that could potentially transfer contaminants from WAG 5 to humans.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
10133270
Report Number(s):
ORNL/M-1871; ON: DE92010726
Resource Relation:
Other Information: DN: Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 3777; PBD: Apr 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English