Niagara Falls Storage Site - Interim Waste Containment Structure - 16199
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District (United States)
The Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS) is a 77.3-hectare (ha) (191-acre) property that is owned by the United States Government and located in the township of Lewiston, Niagara County, New York. The NFSS is part of the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW) that was used by the War Department beginning in 1942 for the production of trinitrotoluene (TNT). During the 1940's and 1950's, the Manhattan Engineer District and the Atomic Energy Commission brought various radioactive wastes and uranium processing byproducts (residues) resulting from our nation's atomic energy program to the LOOW for storage. Site operations caused soil, sediment, and groundwater contamination that lead to several remedial actions, which culminated in the construction of the Interim Waste Containment Structure (IWCS) on the NFSS. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)-Buffalo District is the lead Federal agency for Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) remediation of the NFSS. As the lead agency, USACE is conducting a remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) pursuant to the protocols set forth in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA activities at the NFSS have transitioned from the site RI activities to the FS evaluation of potential remediation alternatives. USACE recognizes the need to implement a focused CERCLA FS process and, therefore, has established three separate operable units (OUs) for NFSS: the IWCS OU, the Balance of Plant (BOP) OU [i.e., all on-site areas outside the boundary of the IWCS], and the Groundwater OU. This paper will discuss the following: - Provide background information on the NFSS including the nature of the materials within the IWCS. - Explain the steps of the CERCLA and associated processes the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) employs. - Describe the OUs for the NFSS property and the subunit designations used in the FS evaluations for the IWCS OU. - Provide the current project status within the CERCLA framework and path forward for all OUs and Vicinity Properties (VPs). Identify the Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements (ARARs) preferred by USACE and the regulatory agencies and explain the differences between the two positions. - Provide the comparative evaluation of the remedial alternatives assessed in the FS. - Identify the justifications for the USACE - Buffalo District selecting the preferred remedial alternative within the Proposed Plan. The remedial action objectives for the IWCS OU are designed to provide short- and long-term protection of human health and the environment. CERCLA requires that any action taken be protective of human health and the environment as well as be compliant with identified ARARs. USACE evaluated 'No Action' and four potential remedial alternatives for the IWCS OU that ranged from leaving all of the wastes in-place and installing a final cover to partial and full removal of the contents. The four alternatives met the remedial action objectives defined identified for the IWCS OU. In accordance with the statutory requirements of CERCLA Section 121, remedial alternatives must comply with two threshold criteria, overall protection of human health and the environment and compliance with ARARs, in order to be carried forward for further evaluation. If a remedial alternative meets the threshold criteria, it is evaluated against the following five balancing criteria: - Long-term effectiveness and permanence; - Reduction in toxicity, mobility, or volume through treatment; - Short-term effectiveness; - Implementability; and, - Cost. The Feasibility Study evaluation led to the preferred remedial alternative selection and this will be the focus of this paper. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22838073
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-19-WM-16199; TRN: US19V1266083428
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2016: 42. Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 6-10 Mar 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 10 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2016/index.html
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAMINATION
COST
GROUND WATER
MILITARY EQUIPMENT
NUCLEAR ENERGY
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REMEDIAL ACTION
REMOVAL
SEDIMENTS
SOILS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
TOXICITY
URANIUM
US CORPS OF ENGINEERS
US SUPERFUND