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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Assessing Cumulative Impacts from Source Units within Hanford's Inner Area - 16546

Conference ·
OSTI ID:22838317
 [1];  [2]
  1. Intera Incorporated, Richland, Washington (United States)
  2. United States Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (United States)
The Central Plateau area at the Hanford Site has a complex mix of waste sites in several operable units, with many co-mingled source contamination and groundwater plumes. A key component of the evaluation process involves a planned assessment of the potential cumulative impacts resulting from co-mingled plumes and potential contribution from waste sites sources throughout the Inner Area, about 26 million square meters (10 square miles) area located in the middle of the Central Plateau. This assessment will evaluate the fate and transport of contamination at each waste site and remedial actions at those waste sites, providing an integrated vadose zone and groundwater fate and transport assessment. Although DOE's goal is to remediate the entire Inner Area to meet standard requirements in the National Contingency Plan (NCP), the complexity of the contamination including continuing contaminant sources in the Inner Area may not allow restoration of groundwater in a reasonable timeframe. DOE and regulatory agencies may need to evaluate the technical practicability of remedial actions and the potential for establishment of one or more waste management areas where drinking water standards can be obtained and maintained. The cumulative impacts evaluation is the tool to evaluate remedial action effects across source and groundwater operable units, contribute to technical impracticability evaluations, support remedial design and remedial process optimization efforts, identify additional monitoring requirements, and evaluate standard and conditional points of compliance for use considering all contaminant sources and groundwater plumes. (authors)
Research Organization:
WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
OSTI ID:
22838317
Report Number(s):
INIS-US--19-WM-16546
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English