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Title: Application of Field Evaluations of Ecological Resources at Hanford and Other DOE Sites for Consistency of Resource Protection and Sustainability - 16404

Abstract

Remediation and management of contaminated facilities, soil, sediment and biota is an essential element of the DOE-EM mission for site completion, contaminant footprint reduction, and protection of human health and the environment. Protecting ecological resources is an integral part of protecting human health because people are part of the ecosystem and rely on ecological resources for food, fiber, clean air and water, recreational, aesthetic, and cultural values. Evaluation and management require understanding the past and current conditions, as well as protecting, preserving, and enhancing ecological resources. Understanding past and current resources includes evaluation of individual and population health within a local and regional context. The objective of this research is to describe a field method of evaluating ecological resources, based on work at the Hanford Site, which can be applied to sustainability of ecological resources as another mandate of DOE. This requires objective methods to characterize and evaluate resources spatially, within a context of local and regional importance. The DOE complex is large, diverse, and multi-state. The habitats and ecological resources are diverse, and the relative importance of ecological resources to the local ecosystem, region, and human communities varies. Large and diverse sites such as Hanford, Idaho National Laboratory, Losmore » Alamos, hold resources of substantial importance to local and regional ecosystems, as well as to the ecology and cultural values of Tribes and other residents. However, other smaller sites (e.g. Oak Ridge, Brookhaven) also hold key ecological resources to local and regional ecosystems, cultures, and economics. Understanding the relative importance of ecological resources on each remediation site at different spatial scales, within and among DOE-EM sites is critical to management, stewardship, and ensuring sustainability for generations to come. Without a standardized methodology it is difficult to develop sound remediation and management plans to protect human health and the environment. The Ecological Evaluation of Resources described in this paper is part of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation's (CRESP) Risk Review Project on the Hanford Site. It is an independent assessment based of on-site field evaluations that encompasses evaluations of site resources in comparison to the Columbia Basin Ecosystem prior evaluations made by DOE, the States of Washington and Oregon, Nature Conservancy and Tribes. The on-site field evaluations are the focus of the current paper. The on-site field evaluation methodology was developed to update existing information on habitat values in light of changing landscape features (edge, patch size and shape, connectivity) and the current presence of invasive species. Both aspects change with time, especially given that remediation of remediation units changes the landscape. That is, every time there is a remediation and restoration of an operable unit (remediation site) on a DOE site, it changes the adjacent landscape (and ecological resources). The changes are greater where new roads were built to access a remediation site, staging areas constructed, and as a function of the size and time-frame for the remediation. Since ecological resources form a continuum across the landscape, and activities from remediation on a given site can affect those on adjacent areas, we evaluated resources both on the remediation site itself, and on a buffer equal to the largest diameter of the remediation site. The field evaluation methodology developed at Hanford Site makes use of existing resource level maps (DOE/RL-96-32 2013) and field surveys and measurements of current vegetation and habitat conditions to evaluate potential ecological impacts associated with cleanup activities at the evaluation unit. Additional information used in the ecological resource evaluations include current Endangered and Threatened Species distribution data (both state and federal), aerial imagery, locations of waste sites and infrastructure, and species and habitats of special concern. We suggest that the field methodology developed for the Hanford Site could be used across the DOE complex to evaluate ecological resources. This would provide DOE-EM with a common data base to make long-term decisions about the protection and sustainability of resources on the DOE complex, and would provide Tribes and the public with information on ecological resources on DOE sites. Such information could be provided in a web-based format which DOE, regulators, Tribes, and the public could easily access. (authors)« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ;  [3]; ; ;  [2]
  1. Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ (United States)
  2. CRESP, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
22838213
Report Number(s):
INIS-US-19-WM-16404
TRN: US19V1406083568
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: WM2016: 42. Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 6-10 Mar 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 20 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2016/index.html
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; CONTAMINATION; ECOSYSTEMS; HAZARDS; NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT; RADIATION PROTECTION; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; REMEDIAL ACTION; SEDIMENTS; SOILS; SUSTAINABILITY; US DOE

Citation Formats

Burger, Joanna, CRESP, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, Gochfeld, Michael, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, Bunn, Amoret, Downs, Janelle, Jeitner, Christian, Pittfield, Taryn, and Salisbury, Jennifer. Application of Field Evaluations of Ecological Resources at Hanford and Other DOE Sites for Consistency of Resource Protection and Sustainability - 16404. United States: N. p., 2016. Web.
Burger, Joanna, CRESP, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, Gochfeld, Michael, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, Bunn, Amoret, Downs, Janelle, Jeitner, Christian, Pittfield, Taryn, & Salisbury, Jennifer. Application of Field Evaluations of Ecological Resources at Hanford and Other DOE Sites for Consistency of Resource Protection and Sustainability - 16404. United States.
Burger, Joanna, CRESP, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, Gochfeld, Michael, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, Bunn, Amoret, Downs, Janelle, Jeitner, Christian, Pittfield, Taryn, and Salisbury, Jennifer. 2016. "Application of Field Evaluations of Ecological Resources at Hanford and Other DOE Sites for Consistency of Resource Protection and Sustainability - 16404". United States.
@article{osti_22838213,
title = {Application of Field Evaluations of Ecological Resources at Hanford and Other DOE Sites for Consistency of Resource Protection and Sustainability - 16404},
author = {Burger, Joanna and CRESP, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN and Gochfeld, Michael and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ and Bunn, Amoret and Downs, Janelle and Jeitner, Christian and Pittfield, Taryn and Salisbury, Jennifer},
abstractNote = {Remediation and management of contaminated facilities, soil, sediment and biota is an essential element of the DOE-EM mission for site completion, contaminant footprint reduction, and protection of human health and the environment. Protecting ecological resources is an integral part of protecting human health because people are part of the ecosystem and rely on ecological resources for food, fiber, clean air and water, recreational, aesthetic, and cultural values. Evaluation and management require understanding the past and current conditions, as well as protecting, preserving, and enhancing ecological resources. Understanding past and current resources includes evaluation of individual and population health within a local and regional context. The objective of this research is to describe a field method of evaluating ecological resources, based on work at the Hanford Site, which can be applied to sustainability of ecological resources as another mandate of DOE. This requires objective methods to characterize and evaluate resources spatially, within a context of local and regional importance. The DOE complex is large, diverse, and multi-state. The habitats and ecological resources are diverse, and the relative importance of ecological resources to the local ecosystem, region, and human communities varies. Large and diverse sites such as Hanford, Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos, hold resources of substantial importance to local and regional ecosystems, as well as to the ecology and cultural values of Tribes and other residents. However, other smaller sites (e.g. Oak Ridge, Brookhaven) also hold key ecological resources to local and regional ecosystems, cultures, and economics. Understanding the relative importance of ecological resources on each remediation site at different spatial scales, within and among DOE-EM sites is critical to management, stewardship, and ensuring sustainability for generations to come. Without a standardized methodology it is difficult to develop sound remediation and management plans to protect human health and the environment. The Ecological Evaluation of Resources described in this paper is part of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation's (CRESP) Risk Review Project on the Hanford Site. It is an independent assessment based of on-site field evaluations that encompasses evaluations of site resources in comparison to the Columbia Basin Ecosystem prior evaluations made by DOE, the States of Washington and Oregon, Nature Conservancy and Tribes. The on-site field evaluations are the focus of the current paper. The on-site field evaluation methodology was developed to update existing information on habitat values in light of changing landscape features (edge, patch size and shape, connectivity) and the current presence of invasive species. Both aspects change with time, especially given that remediation of remediation units changes the landscape. That is, every time there is a remediation and restoration of an operable unit (remediation site) on a DOE site, it changes the adjacent landscape (and ecological resources). The changes are greater where new roads were built to access a remediation site, staging areas constructed, and as a function of the size and time-frame for the remediation. Since ecological resources form a continuum across the landscape, and activities from remediation on a given site can affect those on adjacent areas, we evaluated resources both on the remediation site itself, and on a buffer equal to the largest diameter of the remediation site. The field evaluation methodology developed at Hanford Site makes use of existing resource level maps (DOE/RL-96-32 2013) and field surveys and measurements of current vegetation and habitat conditions to evaluate potential ecological impacts associated with cleanup activities at the evaluation unit. Additional information used in the ecological resource evaluations include current Endangered and Threatened Species distribution data (both state and federal), aerial imagery, locations of waste sites and infrastructure, and species and habitats of special concern. We suggest that the field methodology developed for the Hanford Site could be used across the DOE complex to evaluate ecological resources. This would provide DOE-EM with a common data base to make long-term decisions about the protection and sustainability of resources on the DOE complex, and would provide Tribes and the public with information on ecological resources on DOE sites. Such information could be provided in a web-based format which DOE, regulators, Tribes, and the public could easily access. (authors)},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22838213}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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